Keith Lee Orders This Dish for Date Night at Home

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who knows more about ordering takeout than Keith Lee. The former MMA fighter and content creator began building a following on TikTok in 2020, as his down-to-earth and honest reviews of restaurants started to draw millions of followers. 

Lee’s style is approachable. He most often takes food to go and tries it in his car (to help preserve anonymity), which has cultivated an audience that deeply trusts his recommendations. The Texas-based creator is not afraid to be honest, even when that means giving a negative review, and his recommendations are so trusted that they often provide a tangible boost to businesses, an impact that’s been dubbed the “Keith Lee effect.”

Today, Lee has nearly 17 million followers on TikTok, so it’s no surprise that he’s working with major brands to share his expertise — and his latest partnership is primed for Valentine’s Day. The restaurant reviewer teamed up with DoorDash and Lyft to spill the tea on how he’ll be celebrating Valentine’s Day.

In addition to releasing a curated list of his favorite romantic restaurants in Dallas, Chicago, and Las Vegas, Lee sat down to talk with Food & Wine about everything from his Valentine’s plans to what he does for a date night in — and he has one suggestion that anyone can try, no reservations needed.

If you want to order food for an easy date night at home, Lee recommends picking up some pho. He tells Food & Wine that for a recent evening with his wife, “We actually had a date night last night watching the Super Bowl, because my wife is under the weather. So instead of going to the Super Bowl, we just sat and watched it on TV. We actually DoorDashed pho from a restaurant… I think the reason why that was so romantic in my eyes is because you have to make it even when it gets to you. So we were literally just sitting in the room making pho together and watching TV.”

For anyone unfamiliar with this Vietnamese noodle soup, pho always starts with a rich broth that’s been cooked for hours until it develops a deep, complex flavor. To make the broth, meat (most commonly beef or chicken) is simmered with spices such as star anise, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, cloves, fennel seeds, and coriander seeds. The broth and the thinly sliced beef that’s served with it come with rice noodles and an array of toppings on the side, so you can customize your bowl. These toppings always include bean sprouts, herbs such as Thai basil or cilantro, lime wedges, and sliced chiles such as jalapeños, at a minimum. 

Many people also enjoy adding condiments like sriracha or hoisin sauce to their pho, or keeping the two condiments on the side for dipping — when it comes to this comforting dish, you can really make it your own, which is precisely why Keith Lee loves opting for pho on a date night. Ordering food is easy, but picking your toppings and assembling a bowl still ensures that it feels special. Plus, there’s something so cozy about hunkering down with a bowl of broth and noodles at home. 

There’s just one issue: Like many foods, taking pho to-go or having it delivered might diminish the dish’s quality. But you can certainly revamp your pho to ensure you’re enjoying restaurant-quality food from your couch.

Reheat your broth on the stove

Pho broth should be piping hot when you ladle it into your bowl, but by the time it gets to your kitchen at home it will have undoubtedly started to cool down. When you order pho either for delivery or pick-up, it’ll typically be stored in two separate containers: the broth in one, noodles in the other. (This is to prevent the noodles from overcooking while en route.) 

Before combining the two components, pour your broth into a small sauce pot and heat it on the stove until it’s just starting to simmer. It doesn’t need to be boiling, but you do want it to be very hot. If you have any of the typical pho spices on hand, you can also toss some of those in and simmer everything together for a few extra minutes, to give it even more of an aromatic refresh just before serving. Make sure you reheat any meat that comes with the pho in the broth as well.

De-clump the rice noodles

Because the noodles and broth are stored separately while in transit, the cooked rice noodles will inevitably clump together. Trying to get a single bite out of a mass of noodles that are stuck to each other is annoying, but luckily there’s an easy fix for this.

In addition to reheating your pho broth, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, dunk your noodles in for just a few seconds, and stir while they’re in the water. This will help them separate and de-clump; just make sure you’re not leaving them in for more than 30 seconds, because the noodles can easily overcook.

Make an extra topping

Once you place the order for your pho, you’ll need to wait until it arrives or is ready for pickup. That means you have the perfect amount of time to make a quick and easy homemade topping — to enjoy along with your bean sprouts, herbs, and chiles of course.

If your pho doesn’t already come with it, hanh dam (Vietnamese pickled onions or Vietnamese vinegared onions) is the kind of bright topping you can quickly whip up to accompany your pho. It’s tangy and peppery, an excellent accompaniment to rich broth, and adds to the feeling that you’re doing something special for date night. You only need three ingredients to make these acidic quick pickles: onions, rice vinegar, and sugar. It’s likely that you already have all three options on hand, and you can always save leftover hanh dam to add to sandwiches later in the week.