A popular food critic cut his food tour of California’s Bay Area short, slamming the city as “not a place for tourists right now” as residents were just trying to survive.
Keith Lee, who boasts over 15 million followers on TikTok, posts reviews of restaurants he tries across the country and often critiques how the businesses could do better.
He made his first stop at a small San Francisco restaurant on January 9 and another restaurant in Oakland, where he left a $2,500 tip before he cut the tour early.
“Unfortunately the Bay Area stop on the Keith family food tour is officially over, prematurely,” Lee said in his TikTok video which has been viewed over 2.4 million times.
Instead of the food, Lee directed his criticism at the issues plaguing the city following his first-hand experience.
“I truly don’t believe the Bay is truly for tourists right now, and that’s what I was, a tourist,” Lee said. “They are just focused on surviving, that business owners, the locals.”
“The amount of tents and living structures and burnt-out cars that we saw people living in was shocking to say the least. Just from the outside looking in, it don’t seem like it was much city interference.”
“As an outsider, I wish the city would step in. I don’t know if they have. I don’t know if they’ve been trying, but just from an outsider looking in, it don’t look like there was much city interference.”
Before his trip to the Bay Area, Lee was warned about the rampant crime and car break-ins, with some areas being compared to Gotham City.
Lee was also not too enthused about the food he had, saying he was underwhelmed by the actual food and the six-hour wait times he sometimes had to endure.
Lee also suffered a shellfish allergy during the trip.
The Detroit native said his family went to several restaurants and didn’t feel comfortable sharing his critiques about the eateries because he had no constructive thing to say, and feared his influence would hurt the business.
“I want to stress that it is not normal for us to go to restaurants, not like it and not post it. Any other time we ran into this situation, I’ve always had some kind of constructive thing to say. This is just different,” Lee said
Although he bashed his experience while in the city, he thanked and said he appreciated the people he met in his brief time there.
In a follow-up video, Lee clarified that he never felt unsafe in the areas he was in.
Lee, however, added that people, mostly tourists, shouldn’t be waiting outside for hours waiting to eat in the areas the restaurants are located in.
He also ripped into the operating hours for some of the places he visited that were in an area close to an airport and how they were closed for several days and only operated for six hours the days they were open.
Many people have shared Lee’s views of the homeless and safety in the Bay area, including JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon who recently declared San Francisco to be in “far worse shape than New York.”
“I think every city, like every country, should be thinking about what is it that makes an attractive city, you know, its parks, its art, but it’s definitely safety,” Dimon told Fox. “Any city who doesn’t do a good job, it will lose its population.”
