TikTok food critic leaves big tip for dessert shop

Houston’s restaurants are playing a guessing game: Which business will famed TikTok food critic Keith Lee review next?

A visit by Lee can fuel a surge in business and attention for restaurants, but sometimes individual employees also benefit from a visit from one of the social media’s biggest food influencers.

This week, Lee left a $2,000 tip for Janel Prator, the owner of dessert shop the Puddery in Pearland.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime for a business like mine,” Prator said in an Instagram Reel she recorded several days ago ahead of Lee’s visit.

Lee’s visit to Prator’s dessert shop, located at 5517 Broadway in a strip center across the street from Sam Jamison Middle School, is his fourth TikTok review from Houston. The video was posted Tuesday night and is already his most popular clip in Space City with 4.7 million views as of Wednesday morning.

One reason Lee visited the Puddery was Prator’s persistent efforts in convincing him to visit her business. He noted that she tagged him at least 13 times in recent weeks, long before he announced he was coming to Houston and put out a call for restaurant recommendations.

Lee raved about an Oreo “Croffle” (a mashup dessert of a croissant and waffle), but it was Prator’s signature banana pudding that won him over. He declared the stop one of his best dessert experiences despite calling himself  “not even a sweets person.”

Toward the end of his nearly four-minute review, he stops in to give Prator a $2,000 tip. 

Just days before, Prator recorded an Instagram Reel where she said there are days her shop only has two customers. She already had to shut down her business once before in Los Angeles, even after her banana pudding business landed her on an episode of the Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race.”

During Lee’s recent visit to Atlanta, he received widespread attention in the media and on social for the controversy surrounding his comments about poor customer service he encountered at several restaurants. 

However, he enjoyed his meal at the Dining Experience — a spot specializing in Southern brunch staples like chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, and deviled eggs — located in the suburbs of Atlanta. He enjoyed it so much that he ended up leaving yet another  $2,000 tip.

A manager split the original $1,000 tip among employees, and then Lee went back to leave another $1,000, according to Lee’s TikTok video, which shows him thanking a server and giving him a hug. 

It’s not clear how long Lee, who often travels with his wife and two children, will be in Houston, but he promised his more than 15 million TikTok followers this much: “We going everywhere. Mom-and-pop shops, local spots, spots that people know about, spots people don’t know about, everywhere God wants us to be.”

His first three visits were to Cajun-hibachi spot Stick Talk, Southern restaurant Butter Funk Kitchen and Houston’s iconic the Breakfast Klub.