TikTok sensation Keith Lee leaves a big tip for a struggling Warner Robins restaurant
TikTok food critic Keith Lee offered big help to a struggling family-owned Mexican restaurant in Warner Robins over the weekend, giving the owners $6,000 to pay back rent and $900 to offer free food to customers.
The owners of Tacos y Mariscos Ofelia had posted on Facebook a video about the restaurant’s struggles, including about having had to close for two weeks.
“You made my life and my day,” restaurant owner Mario Tiznado tells Lee in Lee’s TikTok video about the visit.
Tiznado’s wife, Veronica, posted on Facebook about the joy Lee’s visit brought to her family and their customers.
“It took everything in me not to tell everyone about the free food before giving it to them because I was so excited about it,” she said in the post. “Seeing our customers so happy when we told them it was free brought us so much joy. Thank you!”
When Lee saw the post about the restaurant’s struggles, he immediately booked a two-hour flight for himself and his wife to Atlanta, and drove the two hours from the airport to try the food and see why the business is slow, according to his TikTok video.
Upon arriving, they noted that the owners’ children were bussing tables, taking orders and seating people. The kids were helping out because the restaurant was short on staff.
Lee spent $46.80 on food, giving the restaurant an 8 out of 10 for customer service and a positive review overall of the food.
The restaurant also received scores on each of the food items ordered, which included a birria taco, an al pastor taco, a birria pizza, chunky guacamole and salsa, loaded fries, and street corn in a cup. The corn received Lee’s lowest score of 3, while the birria taco and birria pizza scored 7.9 and 8.2 respectively. Lee gave the best score of 8.9 to the loaded fries.
The reason for the slowness may be in part due to the restaurant’s location, Lee said in the video.
“This is a if you know, you know, kind of spot,” said Lee, who has 16.7 million followers on TikTok and 2.3 million on Instagram. “If you don’t know about it, I can see how you just stick to things that you do know because this is a very local town.”
The small restaurant at 700 Feagin Mill Road, Suite 100, is nestled on the corner of a small shopping strip anchored by a convenience store and gas station.
The restaurant shared the TikTok video on its Facebook page.
Amber Hall commented on the post, “I cried watching this! Keith Lee I never heard of you until today, and I’m so thankful you gave this family a chance! What an amazing blessing for a well deserved family! Vero and Mario never give up! Keep doing a great job!”
The restaurant posted on Facebook:
“We are beyond happy with everything that is happening but a little overwhelmed … We can’t wait for tomorrow and everyday after! If you haven’t tried our food we hope you can give us a try!”
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 1:36 PM.