Keith Lee makes food tour stop in Charlotte. Which local spot did he go to?
Local foodies have been waiting for this all week. Social media “food critic” Keith Lee finally got a taste of Charlotte’s culinary scene.
If you didn’t know, the former MMA fighter has been taste-testing local restaurants across North Carolina.
In his TikTok video announcing the “Familee Food Tour Show,” he admitted that he got the most votes in a poll to visit Raleigh over Charleston, Greenville and Durham.
But then, he was hit with more than 10,000 DMs telling him to go to Charlotte — and it finally happened with a surprise visit to Crav’n Caribbean.
In the video, Lee shared that he got a personal DM from the owner, chef (and huge Keith Lee fan) Carlos Abrahams, about a restaurant review after Crav’n Caribbean’s original Instagram page was hacked last summer, limiting his reach for business.
That, coupled with the recommendations from more than 100 other people — including local foodie Cory Wilkins — got Lee there sooner rather than later.
‘Too much food’
The local restaurant, tucked in City Kitch ghost kitchen, is known for serving up the flavors of authentic Jamaican fare. Lee ended up spending $27.42 on one of its secret menu items: jerk bourbon chicken over oxtail fried rice.
As someone who’s “never been one to complain about too much food,” he did say he thought the serving should be smaller or in a bigger container, on top of having a mixed review overall.
“I’m not a huge fan of the combination of things together. The bourbon jerk chicken is very sweet. It’s not really spicy — a little bit on the back end — but initially, extremely sweet. The oxtail rice is very savory and really salty,” he explained.
“Normally it would go together like a sweet and salt, but here, for me, it doesn’t really mix. Individually, though, they do taste really good, and the oxtail is very tender and very flavorful. But I taste a lot of Scotch bonnet in the oxtail itself. Individually, though, I can see these being amazing.”
So what’s his overall rating?
For the oxtail fried rice, he rated it 8/10. He gave the jerk chicken a 7.5/10 rating. But together, he rated the dish a 6.5/10.
“Overall, I appreciate the invite. And as always, after this, I pray and hope that they continue to reach their target audience,” he said.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 8:47 AM with the headline "Keith Lee makes food tour stop in Charlotte. Which local spot did he go to?."
.jpg)