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TikToker Keith Lee has just given this Haitian food truck in Miami his highest praise just days after it saw no sales.
By Nicole Lopez-Alvar
May 30, 2024
Keith Lee has just given this Miami food truck his highest praise.Keith Lee (@keith_lee125) on TikTok
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Viral TikTok food critic Keith Lee has tried plenty of different cuisines from around the world, but there's one cuisine he isn't truly knowledgeable of (nor is he too fond of): Haitian food.
That's why he had to stop by Mr. Vert's Kitchen, a Haitian food truck with two locations in Pompano Beach and North Miami Beach, to see if it could change his mind about the cuisine.
Little did Mr. Vert's Kitchen's owner, Serge Lafontant, and his team know that this one visit could potentially change their business forever.
@keith_lee125 Mr Vert’s Kitchen taste test 💕 would you try it ? 💕 #foodcritic @mrvertskitchen @GG’s THRIVE GUIDE ♬ original sound - Keith Lee
On Thursday, May 30, Lee took to his popular TikTok account, where he's amassed more than 16 million followers, to share his experience eating a few dishes from the Haitian food truck. Although Lee had already stopped by three other Miami restaurants on his Miami food tour, he gave the highest praise to the dishes he tried from Mr. Vert's Kitchen.
"We were super shocked! We didn't expect his visit at all!" social media manager of Mr. Vert's Kitchen, Netcha Estime, tells New Times. "Someone sent the video to me five hours after he posted it."
In the video, Keith ordered a chicken pate kòde (a Haitian patty with pikliz, which is a Haitian vegetable relish, chicken, onion, and bell pepper), a platter of griot (fried pork meats) with fried plantains, and a turkey fritay (a fried dish composed of turkey, fried bananas, marinades, pikliz, and more). He also ordered a side of pikliz. He started with the pate kòde, which, to his pleasant surprise, contained a whole boiled egg inside. Once he bit the chicken portion of the patty, he was surprised at how juicy and well-seasoned it was, but he felt as though there was a lot of dough. Besides this, he said the dish was an excellent introduction to Haitian food and rated it 7.9 out of ten (a high score for Lee).
Next, he went for the fried griot, which even he exclaimed looked better than most fried turkey he had ever had (turns out it was pork and not turkey). When paired with the pikliz, he was ecstatic over the flavor combination. "That's really good," says Lee. Then, he took another bite of the fried pork, but paired it with a fried plantain and pikliz. One bite was all it took for his eyes to widen and say, "8.5 of ten. That's the best food I've had today."
The food truck took to Instagram to express its disbelief over Lee's impact.
click to enlarge
Mr. Vert's Kitchen team was shocked when they woke up to Keith Lee's review of their food truck.
@MrVertsKitchen on Instagram photo
"@keith_lee125 visited our Miami location😱😱😱 I AM SHAKING!!! I truly cannot believe this! When we opened this business, we did not expect it to scale so fast, but God had other plans! In less than a year of opening our first location, we were able to open a second one, and in our 3rd week of opening, THEEE @keith_lee125 paid us a VISIT😱😱"
Estime tells New Times, "We opened our Miami location three weeks ago, and it's been very slow. Last Sunday, we made zero sales. But today, our phones are blowing up, and we're receiving a lot of calls and orders. It seems like everyone wants to try the pate kòde!"
The Instagram post concluded, "@keith_lee125 Thank you so much for visiting us🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 your honest review means so much to us!!! We will take everything you say in the video into account."
From zero sales to being top-rated by one of the most revered food critics of the TikTok generation, we hope the best for Mr. Vert's Kitchen.
Mr. Vert's Kitchen. 230 S. Andrews Ave., Pompano Beach and1066 N. Miami Beach Blvd. North Miami Beach; instagram.com/mrvertskitchen. Delivery available via Grubhub, DoorDash, and UberEats.
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