Wondering which are the best Kitchen Nightmares episodes?
Whether you’re just getting started with the show or wanting to rewatch some of the best moments from Gordon Ramsay, it’s natural to want to skip straight to the cream of the crop.
To help you find the best Kitchen Nightmares episodes, I’m going to do two things:
- I’ll share the top-rated Kitchen Nightmares episodes, as rated by IMDB users.
- I’ll share the most common answers when it comes to the best Kitchen Nightmares episodes from Reddit users.
By putting both data sets together, you should be able to zero-in on the top episodes to watch.
Five Best Kitchen Nightmares Episodes (Rated By IMDB)
Here are the best Kitchen Nightmares episodes as rated by thousands of users on IMDB.
1. AMy’s Baking Company – 9.2 Rating
- Season 6: May 10, 2013
- Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
The Amy’s Baking Company episode is by far the highest-rated Kitchen Nightmares episode and it drew a ton of attention, garnering lots of articles in big-name publications.
It had incredible drama, including some of the most out-of-touch and wild owners that you’ll see on any Kitchen Nightmares episode.
It’s also the only restaurant that Gordon Ramsay walked away from without helping. Yes – it was that bad.
The Amy’s Baking Company Kitchen Nightmares is definitely the most well-known Kitchen Nightmares episode, so it’s a great place to start your watching experience.
👉 Read full Amy’s Baking Company recap/update
📺 Watch full Amy’s Baking Company Kitchen Nightmares episode (YouTube)
2. Oceana – 7.8 Rating
- Season 4: May 20, 2011
- Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
The Oceana Kitchen Nightmares episode is the second-highest rated Kitchen Nightmares episode at IMDB.
It takes place right on Bourbon Street in downtown New Orleans.
Like Amy’s Baking Company, this one had a lot of drama culminating in not one, but two lawsuits against Gordon Ramsay and Kitchen Nightmares.
The Oceana owners were not happy about how they were portrayed and sued Kitchen Nightmares about it. As a result of the lawsuit, it can be difficult to find this episode online, which leads some people to call it the “lost Kitchen Nightmares episode”.
👉 Read full Oceana recap/update
📺 The Oceana Kitchen Nightmares episode isn’t on YouTube. Again, it’s hard to find because of the lawsuits.
3. Mill Street Bistro – 7.7 Rating
- Season 6: March 1, 2013
- Location: Norwalk, Ohio
Mill Street Bistro is another drama-packed episode that, like Oceana, culminated in a lawsuit against Gordon Ramsay and Kitchen Nightmares.
Notice a trend here? It seems like more drama = higher ratings.
This is actually a two-part episode, so there’s plenty of drama to go around.
Mill Street Bistro is owned by Joe Nagy and located in Norwalk, Ohio.
At the end, Joe sued Kitchen Nightmares for “missing items” and damages to the restaurant. Kitchen Nightmares settled the lawsuit for around $1,000 – lol!
👉 Read full Mill Street Bistro recap/update
📺 Watch full Mill Street Bistro Kitchen Nightmares episode (YouTube)
4. Burger Kitchen – 7.7 Rating
- Season 5: November 4, 2011
- Location: Los Angeles, California
Want even more drama? Burger Kitchen is a Los Angeles, CA restaurant that’s tied with Mill Street Bistro for the third best Kitchen Nightmares episode, at least according to the folks at IMDB.
This one has it all – an Australian accent, drama over an inheritance, a grandfather who was known as “Mr. Sin” in Australia, and more.
It’s also one of the few episodes where Gordon Ramsay liked the food. He didn’t like the original food, but he did like the burger that the chef made when the chef was able to use his own concepts.
👉 Read full Burger Kitchen recap/update
📺 Watch full Burger Kitchen Kitchen Nightmares episode (YouTube)
5. Sebastian’s – 7.4 Rating
- Season 1: November 7, 2007
- Location: Los Angeles, California
Sebastian’s is a little bit of a drop in rating, putting it more towards “average” than the best Kitchen Nightmares episodes.
However, it is still the fifth-highest rated episode at IMDB, even if the difference between its rating and other episodes isn’t quite as high.
This one’s differentiator? An arrogant owner who thought he knew better than Gordon. I guess that’s kind of par for the course for the show, but Sebastian took it to a whole other level and immediately ditched Gordon Ramsay’s menu as soon as Gordon stepped out the door.
On another fun note, the chef from the Sebastian’s episode would later make another appearance in the Casa Roma episode from Season 3.
👉 Read full Sebastian’s recap/update
📺 Watch full Sebastian’s Kitchen Nightmares episode (YouTube)
best Kitchen Nightmares Episodes From Reddit
Ok, so maybe you’d prefer a more individual analysis rather than just listing the best Kitchen Nightmares episodes from IMDB ratings.
To see what other users like, I went around the Reddit Kitchen Nightmares subreddit and read some posts about people’s favorite episodes.
Here were the most common answers when it comes to the Reddit best Kitchen Nightmares episodes:
- Amy’s Baking Company
- Mill Street Bistro
- Burger Kitchen
- Sebastian’s
- The Secret Garden
- Peter’s Italian Restaurant
- Flamangos / The Junction
As you can see, a lot of these mimic the IMDB ratings, though there are some unique ones.
Start Watching Kitchen Nightmares (And Get Addicted)
That wraps up my collection of the best Kitchen Nightmares episodes.
If you’re just getting started with the show, I hope you enjoy watching all of these episodes. And if you’re a season Kitchen Nightmares watcher, these are some of the best episodes to rewatch.
Either way, make sure to come back to Reality TV Updates when you finish an episode because I have detailed updates for what happened to all of the Kitchen Nightmares restaurants after the cameras stopped filming.
To see them all, head to the Kitchen Nightmares updates page.