Top 10 Gross Restaurants from Kitchen Nightmares
Nothing's more unappetizing than a dirty establishment. From the Burger Kitchen, to Yanni's, to DownCity, these restaurants are downright disgusting. WatchMojo counts down ten restaurants from Kitchen Nightmares.
Special thanks to our user Norris Vaughn III for suggesting this idea! Check out the voting page at WatchMojo.comsuggest/Top+Ten+Worst+Restaurants+from+Kitchen+Nightmares.
#10: Burger Kitchen
Owned and operated by a self-proclaimed beef expert, Burger Kitchen was actually partially paid for using the owner’s son’s inheritance... without the son’s knowledge. Nothing like a business built on a foundation of familial deception! Considering it’s a joint that specializes in burgers, the most surprising thing about this restaurant is that their meat was frozen… and, despite being labelled “wagyu”, apparently not very good. But, hey, we’re probably just part of the grand yelp conspiracy to take this place down. Even with all the disappointing dishes, the grossest thing about this kitchen was the tension, fighting, and family drama.
#9: Yanni’s
The disgusting things that Gordon manages to find during his kitchen inspections never cease to astound. You’d think that professional chefs and restaurant owners would have some concept of food safety, but alas, that doesn’t always seem to be the case. Yanni’s Greek restaurant feels like a veritable checklist of mistakes. They put fresh food next to raw food, and they have old unlabeled containers in their cooler. Some of their food is so old that it has gotten moldy. But at least they’re not using it, right?
#8: DownCity
In what proved to be one of the most epic showdowns in the show’s seven seasons, Gordon confronts the owner of this establishment over the state of her kitchen and cooler. And as usual, the owner doesn’t take it very well. Do these people even watch the show? It’s called Kitchen Nightmares. You’d think they’d mentally prepare themselves for some criticism. Not only is the kitchen at DownCity cramped, but it’s an absolute mess. The floor looks like it hasn’t been mopped and there’s trash all over the place. Not exactly the sort of setting you want to be getting your food from.
#7: Fiesta Sunrise
Okay, silly name aside, this restaurant had one of the grossest kitchens to ever appear on the show. Watching Gordon gag as he opens the fridge door nearly made us gag. We could almost smell the stink through our televisions. This Mexican place looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in ages, if ever. They make the classic mistake of not properly labeling their food, and sure enough, as a result no one knows when anything was cooked. No one wants to be served week old enchiladas - especially not out of an appallingly unsanitary kitchen like this one. It was so bad, Ramsay actually stopped the clients from eating and had them all leave.
#6: Dillon’s
With its bad food and nasty kitchen, Dillon’s didn’t really stand a chance to being with. This Indian-ish place had some bizarre décor, with hanging sheets that made it look more like a construction site than a place to grab a meal. Worse, though, was the state of the kitchen. The place was overloaded with apparent authority figures, and yet they couldn’t seem to manage to keep meat out of a vegetarian plate. For a vegetarian, that’s about the biggest offense a restaurant can make. Well, maybe flies on your food is worse.
#5: Sushi Ko
Sometimes one dish can convey all there is to say about a restaurant. For Sushi Ko, that one dish is their sushi pizza. Look, we understand people like to be creative, but it takes skill to deliver a quality dish this bold. Some sushi restaurants can pull off this fun concept. Unfortunately… Sushi Ko is simply not one of them. Food comes out of the kitchen with hair in it, and some of their wooden utensils are reused, leaving remnants of food on them. To make matters worse, their fryer doesn’t work properly, which could lead to some dangerously undercooked food. Forget Sushi Ko, this is Sushi NO.
#4: The Secret Garden
Not only was it a health hazard to eat at this restaurant, it felt like a health hazard just setting foot in its kitchen. It’s rarely a good sign of quality when you can’t even identify what a specific piece of food is. Some of the ingredients in this kitchen looked more like modern art than anything edible. There was so much mold on the food that, in some cases, it had spread to the shelves and containers. And to top it all off, Gordon managed to find some maggots. Yep, that’s nasty enough to turn you off eating not only for the day, but for the entire year.
#3: Spanish Pavilion
Oftentimes, one of the biggest problems with these restaurants is that they order too much food. Overestimating how much food you’ll need leads to most of it sitting around and doing nothing but getting old and rotten. Not only did did Gordon finds bags and bags of freezer burnt seafood with no labels, but a fridge full of perishable food on its way out. Disgustingly, he also finds dead lobsters, one of which is actually IN a container of sauce. Honestly, we’re not sure if the pigeon in the kitchen was the most or least gross thing about this place. At least IT was still alive.
#2: Seascape
The owner describes his restaurant as the Titanic, a luxury boat that’s sinking. We’re not sure about the luxury part, but it’s definitely a disaster. In this kitchen, Gordon discovers some of the grossest stuff in the history of the show, including the usual bugs, mold, and rotten food. There’s also so much sludge and grime on the walls that it looks like the place really hasn’t been cleaned since the Titanic sank. Furthermore, the kitchen staff spills things and act like nothing happened. And to top it off, they serve moldy pesto. But, hey, pesto is green already, right?
#1: Casa Roma
Gordon had to wait a long time for his food to complete the taste test at the start of this episode. But after going behind the scenes he likely wished it had never arrived. The fridge in this place was so bad that it made Gordon throw up. In classic bad restaurant style, food was unlabeled, moldy, and rancid. Some of it was so bad that it stuck to Gordon’s hand. We’ve heard of rib-sticking good, but we’ve never heard of hand-sticking good. The chef in this place just didn’t care, putting stomachs everywhere at risk, so it was almost a relief when he got fired.