Runaway Girl / Silversmiths - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Great British Nightmare / Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits The Runaway Girl in Sheffield, England.

The Runaway Girl is a Spanish tapas restaurant, bar and nightclub.

It is owned up by former recruitment officer, Justin Rowntree.

His childhood friend chef Richie Russell started working in the restaurant as a favor for Justin.

He was later asked to stay and work for him full time.

The Runaway Girl is losing £2000 a week and Justin has no more money.

He has spent all he has and has even sold his houses to keep the restaurant afloat.

Gordon arrives and is met by a girl out the front handing out flyers for The Runaway Girl.

They have a special lunch offer, offering two dishes for £6.50.

Looking at the bar from outside, he describes the sight as dreadful.

He thinks it looks like a lap dancing bar.

Gordon enters the restaurant and is greeted by Justin and his girlfriend, Donna.

Inside the restaurant is dark and gloomy with loud music.

Gordon asks them whose idea the flyer was and Donna told him it was Justin’s idea.

She thinks it has impacted the restaurant positively since the opening of the business.

Looking around at the empty restaurant, Gordon doesn’t think it has made much of an impact.

Gordon sits down to order and notices the restaurant is dark and gloomy.

Gordon orders a selection of tapas dishes.

He isn’t impressed with the taste, he finds it bland, stale and greasy.

The paella rice is mush, the rabbit is dry and the fish stew tastes frozen.

The calamari is rubbery and the duck tastes reheated and looks like cat food.

Gordon meets with Justin, the head chef and the sous chef in the kitchen.

He comments about the fish and stew and told them he is sure it wasn’t cooked that morning.

Richie confirms this but Justin defends the food saying there had never been any complaints about their dishes.

Gordon tells Richie that apart from the problems with the food, the customers can’t eat inside a night club.

Chef Ritchie is the most honest man there and knows there is an issue and says has been doing the best he can.

Gordon observes the kitchen and says the kitchen doesn’t look like it has been used as the place looks sparkling.

Gordon notices that the reason nobody is prepping for the evening service is because everything has already been precooked.

Gordon asks Richie why he didn’t cook the salmon fresh and he explains that he reheats a lot of his dishes to keep costs down.

Gordon invited 30 local diners that evening to see what they think about the restaurant.

The customers aren't impressed with the microwaved food as they find it tasteless.

Justin’s idea was for the music to complement the dinner service but the live music is really loud and the customers don’t like it.

Gordon finds the whole concept of the restaurant confusing.

Justin remains in denial and keeps trying to argue saying he must have done something right.

Gordon says it doesn’t matter as majority of what he has done has been wrong.

Gordon arrives the next morning.

He is met by Justin who brought comment cards, where customers have not complained about the food and service.

Gordon describes it as Justin massaging his ego and tells him to get real but Justin keeps arguing with him.

Head Chef Richie cuts in and tells Justin to listen to Gordon or he will walk away.

He says he has been trying to make changes for a long time but hasn’t been allowed to.

Gordon meets with Ritchie as he needs him to stay. He agrees to stay as long as there will be change.

Gordon has a sit-down with Justin and tells him he needs to get Richie’s support.

He should not be scared to admit that he’s wrong because he would be in a lot of mess if Richie leaves.

Justin realizes that he has put a wedge between Ritchie and himself and wants to fix it.

He shows Gordon the finances and on one Saturday night they made just over £150.

Gordon tells Justin that the music hasn’t worked since day one.

Customers can’t have a nice conversation with the loud music and that he needs to cut it off.

Ritchie agrees with Gordon and even though Justin didn’t like it, he agrees to cancel it.

Gordon walks around the area and finds there are a lot of similar restaurants along the same street.

For The Runaway Girl to succeed, they have to be unique from their competition.

The next day Gordon takes Justin and Ritchie visit a local venison farm.

They will be making their own sausages as they will be serving a twist on Sausages and Mash.

They now have a new signature dish for their new menu.

Before the evening service, Gordon teaches Justin how to run a service.

Gordon revamps the restaurant, renaming it to Silversmiths as the building is a former Silversmiths.

On seeing the new design, Justin hugged Gordon joyfully and they all love it.

For the relaunch, they will be serving only fresh, local produce.

There are eighty locals and a mystery diner booked in with just three main dishes and three new starters.

Gordon is in the kitchen with Ritchie with Justin taking the orders at front of house.

Justin takes orders for all customers at once.

Gordon tells him to slow down as there are only two chefs in the kitchen.

The customers from the first sitting love the new food and promise to return as they really love the food being served.

The second sitting begins to arrive and the service begins to slow down.

The customers are left waiting as Justin hasn’t cleared the tables.

Justin is even losing the dishes they manage to get out.

The mystery diner is ignored by Justin, is left waiting for food and is served food without cutlery.

The relaunch was let down by the bad service.

Richie shone in the kitchen and impressed Gordon, sending all dishes with no errors.

It was time for Gordon to leave.

He reflects that he is unsure if Justin has what it takes to keep the restaurant afloat.

What Happened Next at Runaway Girl / Silversmiths?

Two weeks after relaunch, Justin tells him that profit is up.

They are fully booked some nights and they are amaking £1000 on a Saturday night, compared to £150 before.

Gordon revisited three months later after the economy took a dive.

Justin tells him that bookings are down, with one day where they saw no bookings at all.

He returned to find glowing local reviews but an expensive £26 set menu.

Gordon reveals that he sent in another mystery diner and Justin's service was much better.

Gordon walks along the high street and sees chain restaurants with extremely low prices.

He comes up with the idea of a Pie Night, featuring a Venison Pie to take on the chain restaurants.

Gordon gets the word out and there are 50 people booked in for the Pie Night and they take over £1000.

After the dinner service, Gordon meets with Justin and Donna and he tells Justin that he gives up too easy.

He advises him to have faith in the restaurant and stand strong as everything takes time.

Since Gordon left, the restaurant was a success, picking up a number of Local Awards.

Trip Advisor reviews were mostly positive.

Richie was no longer working at Silversmiths and moved on to another restaurant in Sheffield.

He became a stay at home dad to his three daughters.

Justin sold the restaurant to new owners in April 2017.

The restaurant has changed hands a further two times since he sold it.

There were unexpected closures and one owner failing to pay staff.

The latest change of ownership took place in October 2019.

Runaway Girl aired on January 30 2009, the episode was filmed in August 2008 and is Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares UK Great British Nightmare episode 2.

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