Oceana Grill - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Oceana Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Oceana Grill is a sea food restaurant located on the famous Bourbon Street

Oceana is owned by Moe and Rami, brothers, took over the restaurant from their father in 2008.

The brothers have an explosive relationship with each other and the staff, especially Moe.

They equally behave poorly at the restaurant and the kitchen is dirty and in a state of disrepair.

There is also a problem with vermin as there are signs that they are rats.

Gordon arrives and loves that the location of the restaurant is in the heart of the city centre, on a busy street.

He meets Rami and Moe and they sit down at the restaurant to talk about the issues.

Gordon is confused at a doorway in the middle of the restaurant that opens into another bigger space.

They explain that they expanded some time ago into the space.

Gordon thinks that it is confusing as they look like two different restaurants.

Both areas of the restaurant have the same menu, serve the same food and share the kitchen.

The server gives Gordon the low down about staffing issues.

She says there are pictures of staff in the menu and it turns out they have long since been fired.

She tells him her bosses are both aggressive, hard to work with and she had been fired four times in 17 months.

Gordon orders Cajun classic dishes including the Seafood Gumbo, Crab Cake Platter and Blackened Bayou Duck.

The gumbo is disgusting and tastes old, the crab cake platter is soggy and the duck is tough.

Rami agrees it is tough but Moe disagrees and is in denial, he thinks the duck is amazing and eats it himself.

Gordon can hear them laughing in the kitchen and making fun of him.

He asks Rami to call the chef and kitchen staff to give his feedback on the food.

They initially deny that the crab cakes are frozen before Rami tells him that they are frozen and they admit they are.

Moe is not happy that Rami has told him about the crab cakes.

Damon and the other staff do not know when the duck was cooked because it was cooked off site and was frozen.

Damon explodes at Gordon and Rami has to pull him back from him.

Gordon leaves the restaurant unsure if he wants to continue with trying to help them.

Gordon arrives to witness a dinner service and he finds a kitchen full of smoke due to the amount of oil on the grill.

He also checks the oyster bar and isn’t happy with it.

Dishes are sent back to the kitchen and a customer says that the oysters taste foul.

The warmer unit is at room temperature and is not even hot.

The food inside is spoiled.

The crabs are milky and there are very old prawns that make Gordon retch/vomit.

The brothers are called to see it and they are upset Damon let all that happen.

There is so much spoilt seafood that Gordon throws up from the smell from it.

In the walk in there is crawfish and pasta that has been cooked days in advance and stored.

Nothing in the fridge is dated and there are warm sauces that could be harbouring harmful bacteria.

Gordon finds a mouse trap in a corner and there are three dead mice in it.

Gordon asks them to shut the dinner service down as the kitchen is in no state to serve food to customers.

They immediately start deep cleaning the kitchen and throwing away the spoiled food.

Gordon also calls exterminators in to work on the vermin problem as a live mouse runs out of the kitchen.

Gordon still finds more problems with grease in equipment.

Moe is frustrated and blows up at the staff and Rami for bringing Gordon to the restaurant.

He starts throwing chairs and breaking things before sitting down with a drink.

Moe sits with Rami and they decide to let Damon go as he has made too many mistakes in the kitchen.

Damon blames the rest of the staff but it does not stop them firing him.

The next day, the kitchen is clean and Gordon is happy with it.

He is unsurprised that Damon was fired due to his performance on the previous day.

Gordon asks for their recipes but Moe says he keeps his secret recipes in his head.

Gordon tells him that he needs to share them so that the food can be consistent.

He does not like being called out on it by Gordon and blows up at Gordon.

Without the recipes from the restaurant Gordon teaches the staff how to make their dishes using his own recipes.

The kitchen staff are impressed and excited by the new food they will be serving.

Gordon speaks to the two brothers again on some changes he wants to make.

He wants to have their consent going forward so there will be no more confrontations.

Moe promises to go with it, along with Rami but afterwards Rami is nervous about what he agreed to.

Gordon’s team work all night to transform the restaurant.

The next day the staff are led into the restaurant with blindfolds for the reveal.

The restaurant has been given more class with new artwork and marble accents.

There are new chandeliers and the space has been decluttered.

It is more open with both restaurant areas now having the same colours and theme.

The two areas no longer look like two different restaurants.

Moe, who had been so nervous is happy with the changes that Gordons team have made.

Gordon introduces the new menu and all of the dishes look great.

The staff love the taste of them and feel proud to serve the new dishes.

As they finish setting up, Moe is out of the restaurant and has to be called down to join them.

For the relaunch Rami is to be supervising the kitchen while Moe will be front of house.

The customers are let in, tickets flood into the kitchen and good food starts to leave the kitchen.

Moe is found in the kitchen and reminded to go greet guests in the dining room.

Customers are enjoying the food and Moe comes to the kitchen to shout at them on the slow speed of the meals.

Moe then decides to go on a break in the middle of the dinner service.

Gordon is shocked that he has stopped working while Rami is frustrated at his brother.

Gordon meets Moe outside and he asks to be left alone.

Gordon talks to the kitchen team to keep up the momentum and they push through and do a great service, ending the night on a high.

Moe comes back as the service is ending and he complains about Gordon.

Gordon is annoyed and Rami is worried the new changes may not last.

Gordon says his goodbyes but is worried Oceana will not be open in a year’s time with Moe in charge.

What Happened Next at Oceana?

Oceana Grill is still open but with new owners.

The new owners have vastly improved the restaurant.

After filming, online posts seem to suggest that nothing had changed.

They thought the decor didn't look different, unhappy customers were still shouted at and the menu was mostly the same too.

A lot of the staff featured in the episode had left the restaurant shortly after filming.

Yelp reviews and Trip Advisor reviews are mostly good.

Shortly after filming under the previous owners, there was rumoured to be a promotion whereby you got a free drink for a review on Trip Advisor.

The new owners of Oceana Grill sued Gordon and the production company in 2011 to try and prevent the airing of the show.

An agreement was reached that they would only use clips if they paid the restaurant and explained that this was not the current state of the restaurant.

In 2018, the owners sued again after a clip was shown on the Kitchen Nightmares social media page that they claimed damaged the current reputation of the restaurant.

Thinking of visiting the restaurant? Check out their website for opening hours and more info.

They can also be found on Facebook.

Oceana Grill was aired on May 20 2011, the episode was filmed in January 2011 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 4 episode 12.

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This post was last updated in March 2023.