Bay Area Bites Back: Keith Lee Abruptly Ends First Stop On 2024 Food Tour

After viral TikTok food reviewer Keith Lee announced that his first stop on his 2024 Keith Lee and Family Food Tour would be the Bay Area, many people gave him some warnings and advice about visiting the area. Lee decided to continue with his plan to go, but ended up cutting his visit short abruptly, and not necessarily over the advanced warnings he received.

Lee recently shared a video telling his story about the multiple issues that led him and his family to leave the Bay Area earlier than originally planned.

"Unfortunately, the Bay Area stop on the Keith Lee and Family Food Tour is officially over prematurely," Lee said in a TikTok video shared on Thursday evening. "There are a few reasons why, as a family, we decided to end the food tour short. But before I get to that, I truly wanna say from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate every single bit of love. The people of the Bay were absolutely amazing, and I'll never forget the hospitality and the love that y'all showed me."

He then began to explain the reasoning behind cutting the tour short.  His first reason was that he doesn't believe the Bay Area is a place for tourists right now, and that's what Lee was, a tourist.

"The people of the Bay are just focused on surviving. That's business owners, the locals," he said. "The amount of tents and living structures and burnt up cars that we saw people living in was shocking to say the least."

Before Lee and his family went to the Bay Area, he said people were comparing the area to Gotham City. He said he may not agree, but he understands where that thought is coming from now.

His next reason was about the restaurants he visited.

"We went to a lot of restaurants. Popular restaurants, not popular restaurants, mom-and-pop shops, and this is the first city where I have over six videos that I don't feel comfortable posting," he continued.

"Because nothing about my experience was constructive, and nothing that I said was constructive. I've always been big on honesty. I've always been big on transparency. But I've never been big on completely tearing down anybody, and I feel like those are the videos only doing that."

Lee's third reason, what he calls "the most important" one, was that he had to be rushed to the hospital because of an allergic reaction to one of the meals he had. The restaurant cooked a lot of shellfish, something Lee is allergic to.

"My family specifically asked if they cooked it on the same grill. They said yes, but they will clean it," he said. "The second I ate it, I blew up like a balloon."

Lee went to the hospital and got some steroids and allergy medicine and it quickly cleared up, but it was still a health concern.

The viral TikToker also said he didn't believe that the Bay Area was his target audience for what he does. But the wildly popular viral food critic said that the visit wasn't all bad.

"Some amazing things did happen while we were there," he continued. He went on to explain a few of the good things that happened, including a few restaurants he visited getting media attention after he left.

Lee's video has received more than 1.2 million views in just a few hours and thousands of comments. Many from the area apologized and said they understand why he cut the stop short.

"I am a lifelong native of the Bay. And I highly respect your transparency," one person wrote. Another added, "I'm here in the bay, I 100% understand where you're coming from. It's just timing. thank you for blessing the ones you mentioned."

After Lee shared his announcement about going to the Bay Area, many people dropped into the comments to suggest where he should go, and others warned him of something called "bipping."

Comments like, "Do not leave anything in your car. I mean anything when you are in the Bay Area," and "Wherever you go in Oakland, take Uber and don’t have your car parked nowhere," warned Lee of potential issues while visiting the area.

"The other day I announced that the first stop on the Keith Lee and Family Food Tour was the Bay. And I saw not only a bunch of tweets, but a bunch of news articles saying stuff like this,” he said before showing some examples. “Of course, I did some research, and now I’m fully aware of what bipping is. And I don’t want no smoke."

For anyone who isn't aware of what the term "bipping" means, the Urban Dictionary's definition of bip is "to break into a car/a tool used to break into a car."

While "bipping" didn't happen to Lee while in the Bay Area, the other issues he was faced with cut his visit short. But the food tour is far from over as Lee said he will be "heading to the next stop soon."