Taste Travels: Keith Lee Ranks Top Cities from His 2023 Food Tour

Keith Lee had a delicious 2023.

The viral TikTok food reviewer toured eight different cities during his "Keith Lee and Family Food Tour" and ranked each city based on his experience.

Lee visited eight cities during the first leg of his food tour that began on August 4. He enjoyed five months of touring cities trying out different area delicacies and helping out small business owners in the process.

"This is my official list of the places that we went to on the Keith Lee and Family Food Tour," Lee said in his recap video on TikTok. "Ranked from least favorite to most favorite, in my personal opinion."

As Lee is explaining that he ranked the cities based on his own opinion, words across the screen explain it further: "My rankings are based on my probability of going back to each city strictly for their food scene."

He said that making the list was tough because a few cities could have been tied for a particular ranking. He then began his list starting with the number eight spot.

"And at number eight, Atlanta. My biggest issue with Atlanta is that it was hard for us to get food," he explained. "I'm a normal person but I understand that some people's perception is different. But if other people perceive me as a normal person, and I went to Atlanta just to get food, I wouldn't have ate nothing. I mean, nothing. And even with people perceiving me the way they perceive me, we still barely ate, but when we did eat, it was delicious."

Number seven on the list: New York City. For Lee, the issue with New York were the spots that were recommended for him to visit.

"I genuinely don't think we got the New York experience," he continued. "But I tried every avenue I possibly could try to get the New York experience."

Detroit came in at the number six spot on the list. Lee said he wanted Detroit to be in the top spot because he is from there, but as a team, they decided that the diversity at other spots "outshined Detroit."

He continued to explain that the food spots and customer service at the places he visited in Detroit were really good, but the lack of diversity is what set it lower on the list.

Los Angeles came in at number five.

"Now granted, we didn't do a full food tour there, but we went to L.A. like 20 times this year," he said. "And at the beginning, it was really hard for us to find really good authentic food spots. But towards the end, we really found some amazing spots that made L.A. go up on the list."

Lee even explained that while he went on record saying he wasn't a fan of the L.A. food scene, he now retracts that statement.

"After exploring and really going to L.A. spots, and we haven't even really went to all the L.A. spots, we just went to a few," he continued. "Delicious."

The number four spot goes to Lee's hometown of Las Vegas. Diversity is something he said that stands out for Vegas.

"Vegas opened the door for me when it comes to different foods and different cultures, and hearing people's stories, and get out of my shell," he said. "When I got off the Strip and went to the neighborhoods and I went to the communities and I went to these mom-and-pop spots, it really opened my eyes, it opened my horizons, it opened doors."

After revealing who made the number four through eight spots on the list, it's time for the top three cities.

Before moving on to the number three spot, Lee said Miami gets an honorable mention. Lee didn't do a full food tour stop there but was in Miami visiting family and felt it was worth mentioning.

"Number three: Chicago. Almost every time we got food, absolutely delicious," he said. "It's not much I even got to say about Chicago. It just was an amazing place for me to be in. I loved it there."

Houston came in at the number two spot on the list. Lee said that nearly every spot they visited was delicious, but one spot stands out the most.

"The Puddery. I've always been very picky on desserts cause I'm not really a huge sweets person," he said. "I like sweets, but they got to be very good in my opinion for me to really like them. And The Puddery, boy."

He also said he can't think of one spot in Houston that they didn't love.

Drum roll time! The number one spot belongs to New Orleans. Lee said that the customer service set New Orleans apart from the other cities, and not by much, but just enough to take the top spot.

"Everywhere we went, we felt like family. I'm talking about, it felt like I was going to my cousin's house. It didn't feel like I was going to a restaurant," he said. "It didn't feel like I was going to an establishment. It felt like I was going to auntie, mama, papa, whoever's house you wanna go to. That's what it felt like."

Lee said he left 15 pounds heavier and he would absolutely do it all over again.

"When I said New Orleans was a 'fo show your right on,' absolutely in every sense of the word," he said.

Lee concluded his video by saying he's just getting started and "2024 about to be crazy." He thanked everyone for being on this journey with him and revealed that the second leg of the tour will begin at the "top of the year."