This Is the Best Burger Joint in Los Angeles, at Least According to Cardi B

'This one is perfect.'

Cardi B started a recent TikTok video by noting that she doesn’t love the food in Los Angeles, admitting that the city’s offerings are “not [her] favorite.” Despite all of that, she said she was willing to give the burgers from Easy Street a chance, because she’d gotten a “good recommendation” from someone about the restaurant. But Cardi wasn’t scrolling through Google Reviews or reading what strangers had written on TripAdvisor: she was referring to Keith Lee, the wildly popular TikTok restaurant reviewer who had given Easy Street his highest rating during a previous visit. 

Lee, who has over 16 million followers on TikTok, usually films his reviews from the front seat of his car, but he climbed out of his vehicle to share a couple of cheeseburgers with Cardi B — and the two of them dug into a takeout order from Easy Street. 

Shortly after Lee strolled into view, they sampled the Jalapeño Monster Burger and Bacon Monster Burger together. “I’m a real big burger expert,” Cardi B said. “So if I don’t like it, I’m going to tell it [to] your face.” They started with the Jalapeño version, and Cardi B said that the presentation reminded her of a “fancier Shake Shack.”

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She was impressed all-around, rating the burger a 9 out of 10 and noting that it seemed like Easy Street “made it with love.” She wasn’t quite as enamored with the bacon-stacked version, just because she felt overwhelmed by the amount of bacon. She gave it a score of 7 out of 10, before turning her attention back to the Jalapeño Monster. “This one is perfect,” she said. “I got no complaints about this one.” 

Seeing Lee and Cardi B digging into a takeout order together might’ve seemed random, but they connected last fall over their shared criticism of some aspects of Atlanta’s restaurant scene. Lee made a visit to the Georgia capital in October and he went to at least eight different restaurants. On TikToks he said that the “customer service was interesting” at one spot that charged him $1 for butter, and was disappointed that another place said they would be “closed early for deep cleaning” and wouldn’t seat his family. When he went into the restaurant, though, the staff recognized him and offered to give him a table. He declined.

“I pay for my food like everybody else. I walk up in spots like everybody else. We are all normal people,” he said. “Respectfully, if you’re not going to do it then, don’t do it now [when I walk in.]”

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After hearing about Lee’s experiences, Cardi B said she agreed with him. “I feel like Atlanta restaurants, they don’t like to make money,” she said during an Instagram Live video. “I feel like they don’t like people, they don’t like their customers, they just don’t f–king like it. You could barely order in Atlanta restaurants.”

She added that she has even asked whoever picks up her orders from restaurants in the city to “name-drop [her] name” because otherwise, some establishments may not offer takeout or delivery orders. “With some Atlanta restaurants, I’ve been noticing that it’s either they open too late or they close too early,” she said. “Motherf–kers be closing at 6:00 [...] I feel bad for Atlanta residents.”

Last October,  Lee made his first visit to Easy Street, and he gave two of the restaurant’s burgers a perfect score of 10, even calling one of them “the best burger he’s ever had.” Earlier this week, Lee went back to Easy Street — without Cardi B — to see if the burgers were still as good as he remembered.

In a TikTok that has already been viewed more than three million times, he re-ordered the Double Jalapeno Monster Burger, a Double Burger with Bacon and Grilled Onions, and a Classic Double Burger. For the second time, he rated the Double Burger with Bacon and the Classic Double both as 10s. (He gave the Jalapeno Monster a 9. Although he praised the soft potato bun and the crispy burger patties, he said the heat of the jalapenos overwhelmed the other flavors.)

“I’m impressed,” he said. “I think impressed is an understatement.

Easy Street shared Lee’s most recent review on their own Instagram page, writing that they were “grateful” for Lee’s positive comments. They also added that Lee left $2,500 with the restaurant to cover the cost of burgers for the next guests who arrived, and he also tipped all of Easy Street’s workers $200. “An incredible human act,” they wrote. “We’re blown away.” 

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