Social media has been abuzz after food critic and viral sensation Keith Lee visited Atlanta to review some of the Atlanta’s black restaurants.
Keith Lee Reviews Atlanta Restaurants: Here’s How It Went
Lee, who hails from Detroit, stopped in on a few really famous Atlanta-area food places then chose a couple of recently opened spots that could use the attention. Once Lee reviews a restaurant, it usually does record sales — so a Keith Lee review is nothing to play with!
It’s got so serious that Lee says his family received death threats! Really, Atlanta?
Lee posted reviews for the following restaurants:
- The Breakfast Club
- The Real Milk and Honey
- The Seafood Menu
- Juci Jerk
- The Dining Experience
- Old Lady Gang
- Jamaican Jerk Biz
- The Bodega
Keith Lee Visits The Breakfast Club
“Fresh off the plane in ATL, the first place we went to was The Breakfast Club,” Lee says on an online video. The Breakfast Club is one of the best black-owned brunch spots in Atlanta.
Lee spent around $140 for his food, which included grub for five adults and his two children.
“The customer service they had was interested,” he said. “While the people were nice, the rules they had set, were very unique to me.”
One of the rules, he mentioned was that the restaurant would not separate an order of five people, which Lee found unique.
At the end of the day, he gave the food a 7/10 and said that “everything is seasoned well. I’m not mad at that at all” He got caught up on the fact that they were charged $1 for butter.
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of The Breakfast Club:
Keith Lee Visits The Real Milk & Honey
When The Real Milk & Honey opened in 2019, it was immediately one of my favorite spots in College Park, but it got almost too popular. It was hard for me to get in and out because it was always busy. It was another spot that Lee visited, but this one didn’t go nearly as well as the last one. It seems Atlanta’s “restaurant rules” messed up a great opportunity.
“Before we came, we attempted to call our order in,” Lee said in one of his videos. “We were greeted with an automatic message that said they do not take call-in orders. The automatic message said the only way you can pick up is through DoorDash. We went through DoorDash, they were closed, but online it said they closed at 5 O’ Clock. We were on DoorDash at 4 O’Clock.”
It didn’t get any better from there. His family tried to order from the restaurant, but they were turned away.
“I sat outside and my family went in and they told them they were closed for deep cleaning,” he said.
“For the record, afterwards, I did walk in and they recognized me and attempted to service me, but I respectfully declined. I’m a normal person. I pay for my food like nobody else. I walk in spots like everybody else. I’m a normal person. Respectfully, if you’re not going to do it then, don’t do it now.”
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of The Real Milk & Honey:
The Real Milk and Honey is a super-busy restaurant and so they didn’t take the review lying down. They posted a reply on Instagram saying, “Thank you for your acknowledgement and understanding that negative vibrations never win. …. Keith, there’s no love lost and we love you.”
Photo credit: Instagram
But then they posted this., which didn’t go over well at all. Now, The Real Milk & Honey has apologized and says it has updated its house rules.
That being said, it must be stated that The Real Milk & Honey is one of the best restaurants in College Park.
Keith Lee Visits The Seafood Menu
The Seafood Menu (880 MLK Jr Dr SW, Atlanta, GA 30314) has been benefiting from some great PR since it happens to be owned by one of the biggest rappers in the game: Atlanta native Lil Baby.
Lee said because he is allergic to shellfish, his wife and sister did the honors of reviewing the restaurant. Here’s what they found.
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of The Seafood Menu:
Keith Lee Visits Juci Jerk in Atlanta
I have to admit, this was the restaurant that I had never heard of. Juci Jerk (5503 Memorial Dr, Stone Mountain, GA 30083) specializes in various heats of jerk chicken.
Lee got a DM telling him to visit Juci Jerk. The owner of the eatery had recently lost her father and was having a tough time keeping the business afloat. When Lee visited, he was blown away.
“I must say, the customer service is amazing.” Lee said that Juci Jerk was the first place that he had been able to call ahead for an order. “Everybody else, they don’t take no call-ins or walk-ins,” he said.
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of Juci Jerk:
Keith Lee Visits The Dining Experience
Lee was driving around Atlanta trying to find food places to visit when he received an email from the daughter of the owner of The Dining Experience (8420 Senoia Rd, Ste. 201, Fairburn, Ga. 30213) in south Atlanta. We actually wrote about The Dining Experience’s Grand Opening in September. Lee stopped by the place and spent around $60.
He was struck by how empty the parking lot was and wondered whether the issue was the food, the customer service or lack of marketing.
“They got me on the looks,” he said as he readied his mouth to taste his salmon. “The got me on the taste, too.” He gave it an 8.5 out of 10 and loved all of his food, except the grits.
After he’d eaten the food, Lee was very pleased and said that The Dining Experience only needed more marketing, which he actually did for them. After that, the parking lot has been packed.
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of The Dining Experience:
Keith Lee Reviews Old Lady Gang
Lee ventured to Old Lady Gang, the only celebrity-owned restaurant on the list, after being emailed and DM’d by an associate of owner Kandi Burruss.
- He says they called the phone number they had connected on Yelp three times and got no answer.
- They tried to do DoorDash and it said that the restaurant was temporarily closed.
- Then they pulled up, and he sent his family in to order food while he waited in the car.
They were told that during the weekends, they don’t do any takeout orders at all because they’re so busy. So, they were told to dine-in, which would be an hour to hour-and-a-half wait.
So, they chose to wait, but Lee said the restaurant didn’t take down any contact information and said they had no reservations available.
Lee got that message from his family and decided to visit the restaurant himself. Once he did, people started to notice and and he stopped for photographs.
“As soon as me and my wife were done taking pictures, the lady said ‘The table is ready.’ As always, I don’t want any special treatment. I want to be treated like everybody else. I pay for my food like everybody else. I’m a normal person. I’m a normal customer.”
Lee is adamant that he wants the same treatment for his wife, sister and kids as an establishment would give him. So he asked the woman up front how they were able to seat him in 5 minutes if the wait time was up to an hour-and-a-half.
The woman said that she went down the waitlist and no one answered, so “it’s first come, first serve” after that and Lee and his family were up next.
Lee walked out.
“Things like this are exactly whey I do reviews the way I do. Just because I have a certain amount of followers on social media, don’t make me different from nobody.”
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of Old Lady Gang:
As only she can, Kandi Burruss responded to Keith Lee’s review of OLG.
Jamaican Jerk Biz
Finally, Lee and his family visited Six Flags Over Georgia and wanted some late-night eats. They discovered Jamaican Jerk Biz (1400 Veterans Memorial Hwy SE, Mableton, GA 30126), which was supposed to close at 11 p.m.
When Lee’s godsister called the restaurant they said that the would stay open just for them and serve them, which is when Lee made his big reveal. With customer service like that, I’m sure the food was amazing.
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of Jamaican Jerk Biz:
The Bodega
Lee’s family also visited The Bodega (3731 Main St, College Park, GA 30337), where he got the Chopped Cheese Nachos, which he described as some “hood nachos.” He gave them an 8.8 out of 10! “It’s seasoned, crazy,” he said. “My chest will hurt afterward, but I’ll eat that whole thing.”
Here’s Keith Lee’s review of The Bodega:
How Did Keith Lee Get Famous?
Lee started to record social media videos in 2020 after a short stint as an MMA fighter. He began to do videos of take-out restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic and started to grow a following.
One of his videos went viral and the rest — as they say — is online history.
Final Bite
Lee came through Atlanta and did his thing, which was to promote awareness for black-owned restaurants in the city. Not unlike the restaurant business, there were some fumbles, but there were also some scores.
Here is Lee’s final video summarizing his time in Atlanta:
From his ratings methodology, Lee shows that he values great food, but also attentive customer service and niceness as necessities when it comes to restaurants.
I’m thinking that his reviews — the negative and positive — will help those restaurants and more than anything, create buzz online that translates into customers at their tables.
As for eateries below I-20, these Southside Atlanta restaurants have developed quite a following.
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