Meet the Famous YouTuber Who Makes Texas Restaurants Go Viral

It was already nearly impossible to score a plate of lechon at ORC Filipino Asian/American BBQ in Collin County, where the spit-roasted pork is only available on weekends in limited quantities. Then Mikey Chen, a food YouTuber with four million subscribers, filmed a video at the location that has earned some 630,000 hits since it was posted in April 2021. “The [owners] were inundated for weeks,” Texas Monthly’s barbecue editor, Daniel Vaughn, wrote in a review of ORC a couple months after. 

Since moving from Seattle to Allen, north of Dallas, in April 2021, Chen has wasted no time tackling Texas’s booming restaurant scene, showcasing the state’s unmatched culinary diversity through his YouTube channel, Strictly Dumpling. In addition to ORC, he’s spotlighted Austin’s Salt Lick BBQ, Houston’s Golden Dumpling House, San Antonio’s Curry Boys BBQ, and Grapevine Tex-Mex favorite Tommy Tamale. 

Read the full article on Texas Monthly.