Keith Lee is on the Toronto lineup on a food tour

Renowned food critic Keith Lee says he was impressed with Toronto as the first international stop on his latest food tour, giving a rich rating to its culinary creators.

“Toronto is probably one of the top three places we've been on this food tour,” Lee said in a video posted Sunday as he left the city.

Lee, a Las Vegas-based food columnist with more than 16 million followers on TikTok, visited Toronto on her FamiLee food tour after visiting Arizona, Indianapolis and Hawaii. They've been in Toronto for over a week, touring the city and surrounding areas, producing the “Keith Lee Effect” for local businesses.

After each of Lee's visits, lines formed outside the establishments he lavished his praise on. Waiting times for a shawarma place in Scarborough doubled, a small bakery in Ajax had to close to prepare for the weekend rush, and a pizza place in the city center needed a day to replenish their depleted stock.

“For this to be the first international food stop, I didn't expect this kind of reception, it just blew my mind,” Lee said as he summed up his time in Toronto and the business boom he left behind.

Over the course of a week, Lee reviewed seven restaurants in the city. Here's how he rated them:

Food critic Kate Lee visited Toronto and made it into the top three on her latest food tour.

To kick off the Toronto leg of Lee's food tour, he started at a shawarma place in Scarborough, Ont.

For overall taste, Lee rated the chicken shawarma an 8.2 out of 10 and the veal an 8.4 out of 10, preferring single proteins over the veal and shawarma combination.

“I think this will be one of our most exciting food tours,” Lee said.

Lee then headed to a “super Canadian” bakery in a barnyard in Ajax, Ont.

Although Lee said her wheelhouse doesn't have sweets, she gave the Korean Sponge Latte an eight out of 10. “It's special. It's great,” Lee said.

She gave the carrot cake with cream cheese a seven and the banana bread a 7.2 out of 10.

“We're all shocked, but we're excited to see what happens,” Victoria Fliegel, manager of the Cookie Baskets store, previously told CP24.

For his only stop in downtown Toronto, Lee went to a “very, very small” pizza shop, where he started with mac and cheese and scored a glowing 8.5 out of 10.

Lee gave the pepperoni pizza with hot honey and pickled jalapeño, and the samosa pizza got a 7.5 out of 10.

Lee left Afro's Pizza with a $3,000 tip and another $1,000 to hand out free slices for the rest of the night.

“After he left, we gave people free pizza for three hours,” Rodney Best told CP24 last week.

Lee, a self-professed Eggs Benedict connoisseur, rated this restaurant's take on the breakfast classic a 7.7 out of 10.

For waffles dipped in blueberry compote with a delicious, buttery texture, Lee raised his rating for breakfast spots in Toronto and Markham, Ont., from 10 to nine.

Lee, who tasted the Earl Gray Pancakes, said he couldn't detect the tea note, but thought the flavor was “really good” and gave it an 8.5 out of 10.

This Bahamian treasure received the highest rating on Toronto's Lee List.

“I think that (line) should go out the door. It's the best food we've had since we've been here,” Lee said.

For her first dish from the Bahamas, Lee scored a 9.6 out of 10 on a thick, buttery pancake topped with guava butter and fried snapper. “I would wait two hours for that,” Lee said.

The fried chicken didn't reach the same level of horror, scoring a more generic 7 out of 10.

At the opposite end of the scale, Lee's first and last Jamaican stop received the lowest rating of the Toronto trip.

The trip got off to a rocky start when one employee confessed to being hungry and disobeying Lee's order. After citing poor customer service, Lee gave the Jerk Chicken Sandwich a 6.5 out of 10, the Curried Goat a 7.5 out of 10, and the Oxtail with Rice and Beans a 6.5 out of 10.

Bad Spot responded to Lee's comment by apologizing to the owner on Instagram, explaining that he was out of town, and promised to personally serve the critic the next time he was in town.

Lee tasted the traditional Somali dish, goat and rice, and gave it an 8.2 out of 10, admitting it's not everyone's cup of tea.

The beef stew, which Lee claimed tasted “like pot pie,” scored an 8 out of 10, while the milk cake scored an 8.5 out of 10 for taste and 3.5 for texture.