Keith Lee Asks His Followers For A Favor In Honor Of Late Restaurant Owner

Wildly popular TikTok content creator and food reviewer Keith Lee is giving back while honoring a restaurant owner he was able to help earlier this year, and he's asking his Las Vegas community for help.

Lee, who never asks his viewers to visit a restaurant he has reviewed, is doing just that and for a special reason. Lee has taken to TikTok to ask anyone in the Vegas area on Sunday, Dec. 31 to visit Dynamite Korean, Sushi, Grill in honor of the owner who recently passed away. Lee is even giving a huge incentive to get people there to help this family-owned business stay afloat.

Lee reviewed the Korean family-owned restaurant in February of this year after an employee at the restaurant reached out to him for help getting customers in the door a few weeks after opening. He was told that right before the owner's dream of opening the restaurant came true, he was diagnosed with cancer.

"I got an email from an employee at a restaurant called Dynamite Korean BBQ here in Vegas. And the email said, in my own words, I'm an employee here at this family owned business. We just opened two weeks ago. It's been very slow," Lee started his review video from Feb. 2023. "The owner, right after he found out he was getting his dream of having a restaurant, was diagnosed with Stage 4 neck cancer. And he still shows up and cooks every day."

Fast forward to now and Lee is once again talking about the restaurant, but not in a way he ever wanted to.

"I never wanted to make this video, but we here," he began his video. He then explained that he went to the restaurant earlier in the year and how the owner was running the entire business just after finding out he had cancer.

"I went, the food was delicious. After the first video, y'all raised over $40,000 for his chemotherapy," he said. "But unfortunately, yesterday, his son text me this."

After sending his condolences to the family, Lee revealed what he is going to do to honor the late owner and help the business to thrive.

"I don't never ask nobody for nothing. If you haven't noticed, every time I go do a food review, I say if you wanna go try the place, you can. I always say it's y'all choice if you wanna go. I never ask you to go anywhere," he continued. "This is different. I'm asking for the community to show up for this family."

Lee said that the late owner's son and his wife have now taken over the business, and Lee wants to help them out anyway he can so they don't have to worry about keeping the doors open.

"With that being said, I'll be there on the 31st," he said. "I'm asking for the line to be out the door, just to let them know we here, you're not alone."

The popular food reviewer then explained that he wants to go one step further to help get people there on Sunday. Lee said that he will be paying for the first 300 people in line. He said he's also going to be standing in line with everyone else and plans to sit down and eat at the restaurant, which is something that he never does. He always takes his food to-go, but Sunday will be different.

After asking everyone who does plan to show up to be patient since there will likely be a long line, Lee concluded his emotionally charged video with, "Let's smile, let's laugh, let's have a good time."

Lee's video quickly received 5.4 million views and tons of comments have been pouring in.

The restaurant dropped into the comment section to announce, "Update: We hired few servers that wanted to help out! We are READY FOR YOU GUYS❤️🥺🙏."

Everyone left praise in the comments for Lee and all he's doing to help small businesses.

"We definitely made the right person famous!" one person wrote. Another added, "To every other influencer: please take notes from this man." Another person said, "THIS is the reason we love Keith Lee! Using his platform for an amazing cause, ALWAYS! 👏"

The late owner's son, Steve, took to TikTok to thank Lee for organizing the New Year's Eve food event.

"Thank you so much, first of all, Keith Lee for shouting us out. He just asked if we're open. I thought he was gonna just make another to-go order," Steve said. "I did not expect him to shout us out."

Realizing that business will be booming on Sunday thanks to Lee and his request to have people show up for the family, Steve is very thankful but also knew he was going to have to make some changes to accommodate everyone.

"We have a couple more servers that just gonna work temporary on New Year's Eve to accommodate everybody, and to try to give the best five-star experience possible, because the kitchen is gonna be backed up so just please be patient with us," Steve explained. "We only have max 35/40 people to seat at our shop."

The restaurant staff is prepping everything on Saturday night for Sunday and will also be offering to-go orders. After it begins to get busy, Steve plans to turn off all Uber and Doordash orders so everyone who shows up at the restaurant can get their orders filled.

"Thank you for all the kind DMs and condolences and showing up for our family business," Steve said. "We ain't nobody special. We're just another family business, but really Keith and the supporters and my dad's story have been making a positive impression and impact on people so it's my job and my duty as a messenger, as a son to you know, just share the journey along, it was his last wishes and his wishes from the very beginning ever starting this restaurant."