"When your own city doesn't rock with you" — Internet reacts as New Ho King restaurant in Toronto introduces new 'Kendrick Lamar special' on menu

Kendrick Lamar has made Toronto’s New Ho King restaurant a must-visit venue. This comes after the rapper mentioned the Chinese eatery in his Drake diss track Euphoria, which was released on April 30, 2024. After going viral through K. Dot, the eatery introduced a special meal in honor of the rapper, leaving netizens in a frenzy. One netizen said:

"when your own city doesn’t rock with you"

As the rap battle continues with Drake, Kendrick Lamar recently mentioned in the diss track, Euphoria:

“I be at New Ho King eating’ fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie”

Since then, New Ho King has been quick to garner international attention, with Drake also visiting the restaurant to film the Family Matters music video.

Many were left amazed by the restaurant introducing a Kendrick Lamar Special, despite Toronto being the native of Aubrey Drake Graham. Other netizens simply expressed shock over a K. Dot Special making it onto the menu. Some reactions read:

“Bro doing more for the city than drake,” said one netizen.

“Kendrick owns Drake,” one internet user hilariously noted.

“Kendrick is the certified boogeyman,” commented a netizen.

Other netizens expressed how Drake wouldn't like to visit the restaurant again after this newly introduced Lamar special meal.

“Kendrick helping the economy of Canada is not being talked about enough,” said an X user.

“Drake is never gonna eat at that place again,” noted another netizen.

“Wow, Kendrick brought them into the Map cooking, now they are cooking with his Menu,” said one netizen.

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What is in New Ho King’s Kendrick Lamar Special? Details revealed as restaurant garners praise

The Johnny Lu-owned restaurant, New Ho King, has introduced four dishes in the Kendrick Lamar Special Meal. According to one of the TikTok videos, the meal is priced at $66 before tax. In the viral videos, one can see that the restaurant is serving its Special Fried Rice with a dip sauce, likely in reference to the Euphoria track.

It comes as no surprise that the dish is part of the meal, as a server revealed in an interview with The Guardian on May 10, 2024:

“We’ve been selling a lot of fried rice. A lot. Most people come here to order it.”

The dish consists of shrimp, barbecue pork, shredded lettuce, eggs, and green peas tossed in a pinch of soy sauce. The rice boasts a smoky wok flavor as well. According to Instagrammer and food critic insta.noodls, the meal also includes a “deep-fried shrimp dish” that is “fried with crispy chilies and garlic,” “spicy chicken wings,” and “beef broccoli."

Owner Johnny Lu revealed that business has flourished ever since Kendrick Lamar mentioned New Ho King in the rap song. In an interview with Toronto Star published on May 9, 2024, The restaurateur stated, “We usually receive 20 to 30 orders of fried rice a day. Today we made three times as much.”

New Ho King has garnered immense traction after Kendrick Lamar and Drake got into a feud regarding the “big three” in the rap music scene. The latter and J Cole claimed in their track First Person Shooter (2023) that they and K. Dot were legends in the genre of music. However, K. Dot refuted the same with the release of song, Like That (2024), by Future and Metro Boomin.

Since then, K. Dot has dropped Drake diss tracks titled Euphoria, meet the grahams, 6:16 in LA, and Not Like Us.

Drake also aimed at Kendrick with the multiple songs, namely Family Matters, The Heart Part 6, Push Ups, and Taylor Made Freestyle.