Food Influencer Keith Lee Announces Move to Texas

Keith Lee, the highly influential social media food critic who made headlines with his culinary tour of the country last year, announced in a recent TikTok video that he has moved to Texas.

“We were going to try to keep it a secret, but it ain’t a secret no more,” the influencer says in the video. “Me and my family live in Texas.”

Many fans in the comments section assume that Lee lives in Houston, which he once said was one of his favorite cities for food, but it’s currently unknown exactly where the influencer is based. (The video also goes into how the downsides of fame have affected Lee and his family, so the vagueness is almost certainly intentional.)

@keith_lee125 💕 Keith Speaks 💕 God Is Amazing 🙏🏽 #foodcritic ♬ original sound – Keith Lee

Lee goes on to tease that “huge things in the works,” which includes more restaurant reviews and the continued prevalence of “the Keith Lee effect,” the name given to the increase in business experienced by restaurants reviewed by Lee.

Lee’s first visit to Dallas last year yielded plenty of dramatic intrigue. Restaurants like Brunchaholics in DeSoto and Pakistani-TexMex ghost kitchen Halal Fusionz in Farmers Branch were favored by the influencer and reaped the benefits of the “Keith Lee effect.”

Brunchaholics owner Jessie Washington was even brought back into the Keith Lee Cinematic Universe this year as a guest on Lee’s Microsoft original series The Reheat.

Thunderbird Pies was slightly less fortunate and received mixed reviews; the pies he tried scored between 3 and 7 out of 10.

Food truck Sweetly Seasoned was Lee’s main casualty, as a viral scandal involving the owners pocketing a $4,000 tip meant to be shared by the staff resulted in its closure. A similarly named but unaffiliated catering service, Seasoned Street Food, caught some shrapnel during the debacle as well.

For comparison, Lee praised Houston brunch spot The Breakfast Klub, going so far as to say about the entire city that “brunch is what they do.” His praise of The Puddery in Pearland, whose desserts he called “immaculate” despite not being that into sweets, inspired the spot to rename their Oreo Croffle (or, croissant waffle) to “The Keith Lee Croffle.”

We can see why fans think Lee is now based in Houston. Based on his food takes alone, it seems like a match made in heaven.

Regardless of which Texas city he’s currently living in, we can’t imagine that the man who’s traveled across the country in search of high-quality food would be against a day trip to Dallas, and we’re definitely down for a potential sequel to Keith Lee Week.

Let’s just hope the participating restaurants have their tip distribution system under control so we don’t develop a super specific bad reputation.