Influencers

Keith Lee

TikTok / YouTube

Keith Lee is a former MMA fighter turned viral food critic on TikTok and YouTube, with over 16 million followers across his platforms. Based in Las Vegas, he is known for his honest, unsponsored reviews of everyday restaurants — from hidden local gems to fast food chains — across cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and Toronto. His visits have a documented real-world impact: restaurants featured in his videos routinely see lines stretching around the block within hours of posting. Lee was included in Forbes' 2024 "30 Under 30" list and is widely credited with giving small, family-owned restaurants the kind of exposure that previously required a PR budget.

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Mark Wiens

YouTube

Mark Wiens is one of the world's most-watched food vloggers, with over 8 million YouTube subscribers and a presence across more than 50 countries. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, he has been based in Bangkok since 2012, where he lives with his wife Ying and son Micah. His videos focus on authentic street food, local markets, and regional specialties — with particular depth across Thailand, India, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Known for his enthusiastic on-camera reactions, Wiens brings genuine curiosity to every dish he encounters, from a 50-baht bowl of noodles to a multi-course omakase.

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Best Ever Food Review Show

YouTube

Best Ever Food Review Show is one of YouTube's most-watched food channels, with over 11 million subscribers and more than 3 billion views. The show is hosted by Sonny Side — the on-screen persona of American filmmaker William John Sonbuchner — and is built around extremes: the rarest ingredients, the most remote food cultures, and the dishes most Western audiences have never encountered. From live seafood markets in Vietnam to camel meat in the Sahara, the channel covers the full spectrum of global food culture with equal parts curiosity and humour. Best Ever Food Review Show is one of the most geographically diverse food channels on YouTube, spanning Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond.

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Anthony Bourdain

YouTube / TV Legacy

Anthony Bourdain was one of the most influential food and travel personalities of his generation — a chef, author, and storyteller whose work permanently changed how food television is made. His breakthrough book Kitchen Confidential (2000) exposed the inner workings of professional kitchens; his TV career spanned No Reservations on Travel Channel and Parts Unknown on CNN, where he framed food as a lens for understanding politics, culture, and human connection. Bourdain was among the first mainstream food personalities to treat street food and working-class cuisine with the same seriousness as fine dining. His archive of episodes — covering destinations from Vietnam and Iran to West Virginia — remains one of the most valuable bodies of food-travel content ever produced.

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Guy Fieri

TV / YouTube

Guy Fieri is a restaurateur, Emmy Award-winning television host, and one of the most recognisable names in American food media. He is best known for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives — the Food Network show that has run for 35+ seasons and visited hundreds of independently owned American restaurants. Triple D has a well-documented track record of turning regional favourites into nationally known destinations: a feature on the show is widely regarded as one of the most effective forms of exposure a small restaurant can receive. Beyond television, Fieri operates multiple restaurant concepts and is a vocal advocate for the independent restaurant industry.

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Bon Appétit

YouTube

Bon Appétit is a monthly American food magazine with a YouTube channel that has grown to over 7 million subscribers. On Eatlect, we focus primarily on their Street Eats video series — a globe-trotting format in which hosts travel to a city and spend a day eating through its street food scene, from tacos in Mexico City to dumplings in Chengdu. The series is notable for its depth: rather than quick-cut montages, each episode gives meaningful screen time to the people behind the food. Street Eats has covered cities across Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the United States, making it one of the richest sources of international street food documentation on YouTube.

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New York Times

Web / YouTube

The New York Times is one of the most trusted authorities in food criticism, with restaurant recommendations that carry significant weight for both diners and the industry. On Eatlect, we track restaurants featured in the NYT Food section — particularly their annual lists of the most vibrant and significant restaurants in America, compiled by the paper's team of critics and editors. An NYT recommendation or list placement is widely considered a major credibility signal, particularly for restaurants in New York City, where the paper's influence on reservation demand is well-documented.

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Alexander The Guest

YouTube

Alexander The Guest is a YouTube creator specialising in visits to the world's most exclusive fine dining restaurants — with a particular focus on those holding three Michelin stars. His channel offers rare access to tasting menu experiences that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per person, presented with calm, considered commentary that focuses on the food rather than the spectacle. Alexander has dined at some of the most celebrated restaurants in Europe and beyond, including venues trained under chefs like René Redzepi and Heston Blumenthal. For viewers researching the pinnacle of global fine dining, his channel is one of the most detailed and honest records available.

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Anders & Kaitlin

Blog / Social

Anders Husa and Kaitlin Orr are a Norwegian-American food and travel couple regarded as among Scandinavia's most influential restaurant bloggers. Based in Oslo, they focus on the Nordic fine dining scene — documenting restaurants at the cutting edge of New Nordic cuisine, including multi-day trips to remote destinations for a single meal. Their coverage extends beyond Scandinavia to the broader European fine dining circuit, and they have documented experiences at many of the world's highest-ranked restaurants. Their writing and photography are known for a level of detail and critical rigour unusual in the world of food blogging.

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Righteous Eats

YouTube / TikTok

Righteous Eats is a New York-based food media brand co-founded in 2020 by Jaeki Cho and Brian Lee with a specific mission: to spotlight restaurants run by immigrants and minority communities that are often overlooked by mainstream food media. Operating across YouTube and TikTok, the channel has built a loyal following among New Yorkers looking for authentic, community-rooted dining — from Yemeni fried chicken in Brooklyn to Bangladeshi sweets in Jackson Heights. Righteous Eats is one of the few food channels with a defined editorial perspective, treating the restaurant as a cultural institution rather than just a meal.

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S3

YouTube

S3 is a fine dining review channel hosted by Laila and Adrian — a food and travel couple committed to providing unbiased, unaffiliated, and unfiltered assessments of the world's best restaurants. What sets S3 apart is their proprietary universal ranking system: a structured scoring framework applied consistently across every restaurant they visit, enabling meaningful comparisons across cuisines, price points, and countries. Their content targets viewers who are serious about fine dining research — people who want a considered, systematic review rather than a vibe-based recommendation.

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