Kitchen Nightmares (US) - General Discussion

[KeithJ]

13 hours ago, jcbrown said:

This was the first episode of the season where there was no one I despised. This was just incompetence and it seemed they were teachable, maybe. I agree they need to hire a GM--ideally one with actual restaurant experience! I have never understood the people on this show who think they can just open a restaurant without knowing a single thing about how.

I agree.  I actually liked the head chef.  He wasn't full of himself and seemed to really want to learn and get better compared to some of the other chefs we have seen.

[Shrek]

Haven't watched the latest episode but so far you have to wonder why some of them even manage to get out of bed & get dressed. Someone with zero restaurant experience but an actual back bone would do a better job than some of these spineless idiots.

[seacliffsal]

I used to enjoy the renovation and reteaching how to cook segments.  It seems like the production has changed to be more centered on problems and personalities.  This British pub episode was enjoyable in that the personalities weren't at war with each other, but there really wasn't a focus on reteaching the menu.

It seems to me that the mom wanted to open a restaurant to give her son something to do.  Does nobody read the statistics on how many restaurants fail?  However, it did look like they were in a good location so that's a huge advantage.  Hopefully they will continue to do well.  But, a million in debt?  How does that happen?

[KeithJ]

1 hour ago, seacliffsal said:

Hopefully they will continue to do well.  But, a million in debt?  How does that happen?

I don't think they were a million in debt yet.  Gordon said that if they continued on the course they were on, they would be a million in debt in six months (or something like that).

[Yeah No]

On 2/26/2025 at 2:21 PM, NJRadioGuy said:

All in all an easy short-term fix but their cash situation I think will ultimately catch up to them and will force them out of business. I certainly would love to go there if I were in Austin, and not already stuffed full of brisket from Aaron Franklin's place and LA Barbecue.

Yeah, re: the British Gastropub. This one was especially frustrating because you want them to succeed and they should after all that, but the show got there too late re: the debt to really save it. Why are they doing that this season? It's even worse than I remember it in previous seasons. Why set them and us up for failure with these restaurants? It's gut wrenching and awful to watch knowing they're being brought to a point of being able to succeed only to have it ripped out from under them in the near future anyway.

[jcbrown]

I am guessing the lack of posts on last night's episode meant others found it as boring as I did. I had to watch it on Hulu today after it started late and my DVR cut it off--guessing in Eastern time it might have been preempted. You did not miss much.

[NJRadioGuy]

Yeah, the Italian place in suburban Austin. I have my doubts that it's going to survive more than a year unless the therapy really takes hold and he's able to push past the tragedy. I feel for the guy, I really do. Maybe if the jump in business due to the show can generate sufficient revenue they could hire a head chef to run the kitchen and let him step back and focus on himself for a while. Because with that kind of personality he's liable to backslide and get into trouble again.