How Food Critic Keith Lee Can Change a Restaurant’s Fortunes

From social media stardom to quadrupled order volume, here’s how Lee changed five restaurant owners’ trajectories.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

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Janel Prator, Owner of The Puddery in Houston

The Puddery is a self-described “pudding bakery” that serves dishes like Biscoff cheesecake, an Oreo croffle (a croissant-waffle), and its popular banana pudding.

What was business like before Keith Lee’s review?

I opened up The Puddery about a year ago, initially just shipping the desserts I make out, and business was slow—maybe five to 10 customers per day on a busy weekend day. I left my job to open The Puddery, and it was so slow I wondered if I had made the right decision. There were days when I sat in the kitchen by myself, and just wondered how long I could keep this up. I had followed Keith Lee for five or six months, but I didn’t start really reaching out until he announced he was coming to Houston. I was like, “Oh my God, this is my opportunity.” I tagged him in posts every day, and asked my followers to tag him.

What was business like after his review?

Keith came with his family, and the day after he posted his review, we had 130 customers. Two months later, we still have 100 customers every day. I put a pause on my shipping business because it was so busy, and I’m looking for a larger storefront to expand.

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Hector Garcia, co-owner of Joy Burgers in Las Vegas

Joy Burgers serves loaded burgers with toppings like onion rings, chipotle dressing, bacon, and jalapeno pesto.

What was business like before Keith Lee’s review?

My wife and I opened Joy Burgers in December 2022, and we had a difficult start. We didn’t have any sales for two months, and we were paying rent out of our own pockets. When people tried our food, we got great reviews, but business stayed very slow for most of the first year. We had regulars that came every week, but not enough to sustain the business. The problem was that nobody knew about Joy Burgers.

What was business like after his review?

After Keith posted his video, people started reaching out from around the world. The day before, we had 24 followers on TikTok. The day after the video we had 6,000, and the day after that 120,000. The day after his video, there was a line outside before we even opened. The number of people visiting our restaurant basically tripled, and while it used to be just my wife, the chef, and I working here, I had to hire 10 employees to deal with crowds. That was a few months ago, but in the new year business has settled a little bit—I’ll have to reduce staff a little bit since the numbers have leveled off.

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Chris Cascio, owner of The Meat Wagon in Las Vegas

The Meat Wagon is a food truck and restaurant serving burgers, sandwiches, and tacos.

What was business like before Keith Lee’s review?

We started as a food truck in Vegas in September 2022, and in the beginning, there were days we only took in $100—sometimes $50, or even no money at all. I was behind on my mortgage. In the beginning, nobody knows who you are and Vegas doesn’t have a really strong food truck presence. I’ve been in this business for 30 years, so I knew it would be slow, but I guess I figured since we built such a badass food truck it wouldn’t take long for word to get around.

What was business like after his review?

Surprisingly, his video didn’t bring in a lot of new business. I think it’s because of the way he ordered his food—you have to actually watch the entire video to actually understand what happened. He asked for everything on the side. When he ate [the burger, chicken sandwich, wings, and taco], he didn’t put any of the sauces on it until after he looked in the bag and was like, “Oh, here’s all the stuff.” Then he put it on and ate it all, and then did another review. So if you just watch the first part of the video you’re like, “Oh, this place sucks.” I was disappointed and bummed out. I was like, “Man, what are we doing wrong?” We’ve built up our audience of locals by word of mouth, but the Keith Lee Effect never really happened for us.