Business is booming for some Houston-area restaurants after reviews from social media food critic Keith Lee went viral this week.
The rave reviews and nearly 28 million video plays triggered new-found exposure for many of the Houston restaurants, accompanied by packs of new customers.
“Houston’s got a plethora of places to choose from,” he said at the end of one of his food review videos. “That’s one thing about Houston, Houston has the most diverse and biggest array of food that I’ve had since we’ve been on food tours.”
Here’s a rundown of his stops in Houston so far.
The Puddery
5517 Broadway St., Pearland, TX
Touting itself as “Houston’s best banana pudding restaurant,” Janel Prator’s Pearland bakery is a hot spot for local desserts. The restaurant boasts rave reviews on Yelp and Google, with customers endorsing their containers of banana pudding and croissant waffles with homemade whipped cream and crushed Oreos.
Lee said the restaurant had the best dessert he’s ever had in his life. Rating it a nine out of 10, Lee said the crunchy croissant was “immaculate,” and the banana pudding left him speechless, he said.
“…This food was absolutely insane,” Lee said.
Lines wrapped the Pearland restaurant building hours after his rave review came out.
Cool Runnings Jamaican Bar & Grill
8270 W Bellfort Ave., Houston, TX
Cool Runnings Jamaican Bar & Grill, 8270 W. Bellfort Ave., was “Keith Lee’d” days after a robber swiped the restaurant’s donation jar to support funds for a Jamaican college, amounting to about $50.
After touting some of the restaurant’s most popular “outstanding” menu items from his car, Lee walked inside to compliment the food and donate a $1,000 tip.
Lee tried jerk chicken, rice and peas, a Jamaican beef patty, ackee and saltfish, a plantain and brown stew chicken. It was some of the best food he’s had in Houston, he said. The restaurant’s Instagram page gained thousands of followers after Lee’s review.
The Breakfast Klub
3711 Travis St, Houston, TX
On Monday, Lee visited The Breakfast Klub, one of Houston’s hot spot brunch restaurants. Lee typically visits restaurants that might already be struggling with business, but he said the brunch restaurant has the food to back up their booming success. The Black-owned restaurant has been labeled a favorite by Beyoncé and other Houstonians.
Lee ordered fried chicken, pancakes and cheesy grits. Lee said the “Heavenly” fried chicken was juicy, crunchy and seasoned well. He said the pancakes were dense on his fork, but melted in his mouth.
He said the dishes left him wanting to try the entire menu.
“I 110 percent understand why The Breakfast Klub is a staple in Houston,” Lee said. “This food- immaculate. I would mess around and come back to Houston just for that.”
Butter Funk Kitchen
8511 Scott St Suite G, Houston, TX
One of the first stops on Lee’s Houston food tour was a Cajun soul food restaurant nestled at the corner of a strip mall in Sunnyside, south Houston.
Butter Funk Kitchen cooks up classic Southern dishes like catfish, gumbo, grits and fried okra.
Lee gave mostly positive reviews about the fried catfish, fried okra, red beans and rice, lemon pepper wings, and oxtails. He said the macaroni and cheese, rated a three out of 10, didn’t have much flavor and needed more salt.
Stick Talk
5819 Richmond Ave., Houston, TX
Lee kicked off his Houston food tour by ordering hibachi after his flight into town. He said Stick Talk, a Cajun hibachi restaurant wasn’t bad for some late-night hibachi.
Lee tried a chicken bowl, filet mignon bowl, ribeye and chicken, salmon and a blue raspberry lemonade, totaling about $135 before delivery fees, he said.
Stick Talk didn’t exactly garner rave reviews like those of other Houston restaurants he visited, but he said the bowls were good with the addition of spicy Yum Yum sauce. He said the sour blue lemonade, which received his highest rating of 7.3 out of 10, tasted like “blue.”
Stick Talk has two locations in Houston, one in west Houston off of Richmond Avenue, and a recently opened location in Midtown.