The Absolute Worst ‘Kitchen Nightmare’ Finds Gordon Ramsay Ever Came Across

For seven years, we glued our eyes to our TV screens as Gordon Ramsay traveled the country. He visited some of the most disgusting restaurant kitchens and subjected himself to the worst food in America. So when Ramsay announced that Kitchen Nightmares would end, we knew it was the end of an era. But we’re looking back now. These are the worst Kitchen Nightmares finds Ramsay has ever come across in his travels.

Chef Ramsay's Mission

If you're not familiar with "Kitchen Nightmares," that's the Gordon Ramsay show where the famous chef would visit failing restaurants and fix them. But not before screaming at the owners, chefs and anyone else in charge, letting them know how dumb and bad they were. It was a delight.

'Kitchen Nightmares' Nightmares

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] The restaurants were failing largely due to any combination of bad menus, bad chefs, cheap ingredients and, too often, unsanitary kitchens with seriously dirty conditions and stale or rotting ingredients. But what were the worst examples in the history of the series? Let's take a look...

Moldy Croutons (Seascape Restaurant and Taproom)

There really is no better topping for a delicious lunch salad than some moldy old croutons. They do kind of look like they were made in-house, so points for at least not trying to serve Ramsay some out of the box garbage.

 

Meat Juice (Casa Roma)

Meat juice is kind of a natural byproduct of the defrosting process. But the meat juice found in a random mixing bowl inside of Casa Roma’s walk-in is something else entirely, probably because there’s no way of knowing just how long it’s actually been “defrosting” in there.

 

Cockroaches On Everything (Fiesta Sunrise)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] Not to say that finding a cockroach in a restaurant kitchen is okay, but it does happen every once in a while. Except at Fiesta Sunrise, where the cockroaches outnumber the utensils they’ve decided to make their home on.

 

Greasy Walls (Seascape Restaurant and Taproom)

It take a lot of time spent not cleaning something to achieve the level of grease found on pretty much every surface of the Seascape kitchen. This isn’t just a week’s worth of buildup here… this requires real effort.

 

Rats (Dillons)

Dillon’s doesn’t only have rats (not mice; rats). The rats are just the icing on the disgusting cake that is the restaurant kitchen. There are also cockroaches breeding in freezer gaskets and flies living inside plastic salad mix bags.

 

Four-Year-Old Mayo (Sushi Ko)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] Not only is the spicy mayo served with your fish at Sushi Ko old AF, it’s also never been refrigerated. Because the restaurant’s co-owner doesn’t think it requires refrigeration, apparently because he knows more about condiments than the company that makes them.

 

Rancid Garnish (Peter’s)

Like a lot of other restaurants on this list, Peter’s is in the habit of preparing food and then throwing it into their walk-in to keep handy for future use. The problem here is that it just gets forgotten at the back of the fridge, until Ramsay discovers it and makes everyone around him smell it.

 

Scallop Slime (The Grasshopper)

Everything at the Grasshopper is previously frozen, including the “fresh” scallops made for Ramsay’s lunch. Scallops that are currently sitting in a container of some sort of liquid that looks more like ectoplasm than anything you’d want on a plate.

 

Oil Slick (The Handlebar)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] Hidden on a bottom shelf in the back of the Handlebar’s refrigerator is a tub of… congealed something. While we can’t be entirely sure what it was, it’s probably safe to say it should be nowhere near a fridge.

 

Dead Lobster (Spanish Pavilion)

The thing with lobster is that they actually need to remain alive until they’re cooked, or they’ll turn rancid and basically poisonous. Here’s one that’s dead and raw and just chilling in a bucket of sauce, waiting to claim its next victim.

 

Cemented Beans (Fiesta Sunrise)

Fiesta Sunrise is known for their burritos. And their secret ingredient? Refried beans stored in Home Depot paint bins that are so old they can double as actual cement. In case the restaurant has some sort of construction emergency, probably.

 

Floor Gunk (Trobiano’s)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] The floors at Trobiano’s haven’t been cleaned, well, ever. Which is a good explanation for the entire layer of food and grease gunk that now acts as a sort of gross linoleum underneath the kitchen appliances.

 

Slimy Snails (Spanish Pavilion)

Snails are slimy little creatures when they’re alive, but when they’re being prepped for food service, that’s the last thing they should be. The cooks at Spanish Pavilion, though, don’t subscribe to the rules of slime.

 

Moldy Pesto (Seascape Restaurant and Taproom)

Sometimes, Ramsay goes into kitchens and finds containers of old and moldy food that cooks have forgotten about for a lengthy period of time. Other times, he finds containers of old and moldy food that’s been served to him fifteen minutes earlier. Guess which one of those times this is.

 

Moldy Vegetables (Peter’s)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] The refrigerator at Peter’s has a lot of issues, including the fact that it’s very clearly broken and allowing something to leak onto the produce inside of it. So maybe that’s why 90% of the veg inside is covered in fuzz or growing new vegetables out of the old ones.

 

Green Meat (Dillons)

It’s pretty easy to tell when meat has taken a turn for the worse — it loses its color and smells a little “off.” But when meat has actually changed from red to green, the problem is bigger than a few days of holding onto something. The meat at Dillon's is the kind of thing that will actually kill you.

 

Fried Chicken Brick (The Grasshopper)

The cooks at the Grasshopper decided to pre-fry these chicken wings and then throw them back in the fridge, perhaps in an attempt to save future frying time. But they plan to re-fry them at some point, turning this into a “twice-fried” chicken brick. 

 

Hairy Crab (Sushi Ko)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] “Did you know there was a hair in the crab?” is not a thing a restaurant owner ever wants to hear Ramsay ask. And while the owner of Sushi Ko claimed to know nothing of hair in his food, he sure doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with his cooks not wearing hats, either.

 

Mystery Liquid (Trobiano’s)

Apparently, when food gets plated at Trobiano’s, it comes with a special layer of mystery liquid as well. What exactly makes up the content of this liquid, and how it’s even managed to find its way onto the plate shelf in the first place, we’ll never know.

 

Sticky Meat (Casa Roma)

This ham has definitely seen better days. Days when it was just good old, edible meat. And not something rancid and gooey that will form a weird, gelatinous seal to your hand when you touch it.

 

Sour Pork (Seascape Restaurant and Taproom)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] According to the “chef” at the Seascape Restaurant and Taproom, the sour pork found stashed away in the walk-in was his personal meal, and it was “only sour on the outside.” Maybe that’s true, but maybe having a chef who eats sour meat is also not the best business plan.

 

A Pigeon (Spanish Pavilion)

Squab is a fancy name for cooked pigeon, so maybe that’s what Spanish Pavilion was going for when they let this live one into their kitchen. Or maybe they just needed a restaurant mascot, and this little guy was available.

 

Disintegrated Clam (The Handlebar)

This. Used. To. Be. A. Clam. How does this even happen? How does a clam go from being a delicious mollusk to a handful of dog poo? And how does a restaurant keep an entire container of them in their refrigerator?

 

Slimy Chicken Tenders (The Grasshopper)

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] The Grasshopper had a big issue with cross-contamination in their kitchen. But cross-contamination was only the tip of the iceberg. Chicken tenders that were so old they had created slime definitely turned out to be the bigger issue.

 

Three-Month-Old Ribs (Casa Roma)

It takes a lot to bring Gordon Ramsay to the point of vomiting. The man has seen some things. But these ribs at Casa Roma did the trick, sending Ramsay straight out of the walk-in in search of fresh air and the nearest toilet.