(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 6 | View All Season 6 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: October 26, 2012
La Galleria 33 Address: 125 Salem St Boston, MA 02113
Episode Recap
La Galleria 33 was a Boston, Massachusetts restaurant featured on season 6 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the La Galleria 33 Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in October and November 2012, the actual visit from Gordon Ramsay happened earlier in the year in May 2012.
It was a two-part episode that spanned Kitchen Nightmares Season 6 Episode 1 and Episode 2.
In this episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Gordon Ramsay takes us to family-owned, Italian restaurant, La Galleria 33.
It’s located in the North end of Boston, Massachusetts, where sisters Rita and Lisa have been running the show since they opened their doors in 2006.
That means the restaurant has been up and running for around six years at the time of the Kitchen Nightmares La Galleria 33 episode.
Gordon Ramsay quickly learns that the staff thinks Lisa and Rita are unprofessional, with Rita smoking too much and Lisa drinking in front of the customers.
However, Gordon learns from the sisters that they think the staff is the main issue as they have lost their passion for the restaurant.
Lisa and Rita claim to have tried everything to save the business, from lowering menu prices, changing the menu, and redecorating.
But so far, nothing has worked and the restaurant is still struggling.
Gordon sits down to order food: seafood ravioli, gnocchi, meatballs, veal, and chicken marsala.
To Gordon’s disgust, the meatballs are bland and rubbery.
The veal is gnarly, bland, overcooked and salty inside.
The seafood ravioli is frozen and disgusting.
The chicken marsala is too sweet and bland.
Basically, all of the food at La Galleria 33 struck out when it came to the quality.
Chef Ramsay then asks for a dessert menu, only to learn that the restaurant offers one option: tiramisu, which they are currently out of.
Gordon then meets the head chef, Doug, who not only hates Italian food, but he hates preparing it as well.
Chef Ramsay has Doug walk him through the kitchen during an evening rush on Saturday.
During this, Gordon is shocked to find that Doug has no stations set up in the kitchen.
How can you hope to deliver quality food on time if you aren’t organized inside the kitchen?
Doug then drops chicken on the floor and proceeds to place the dirty chicken in the pan to cook.
This causes an argument to break out between Gordon and Doug and resulting in Doug throwing the chicken away.
Complaints keep rolling in through the night with both Lisa and Rita shifting responsibility and arguing with irate customers.
Gordon inspects the walk-in and discovers rotten onions and dead mussels.
He then inspects the pantry and discovers frozen pasta and rotten food.
Notice a bit of a trend?
The next day Gordon calls a staff meeting.
During the meeting, the La Galleria 33 owners list off their complaints with the staff.
This results in Sara, their server of 2 years, walking out of the restaurant.
Gordon then tells the sisters that they too must change and Lisa agrees to not drink on the job and Rita promises to give up cigarettes.
With over 80 other Italian restaurants in Boston’s North end, Gordon knows that he needs something to make La Galleria 33 stand out from the rest.
Chef Ramsay then introduces a new Italian menu with homemade meatballs to help the La Galleria 33 Boston restaurant stand out.
Doug is hesitant at first, but Gordon hires Chef Michael to teach Doug how to cook the new menu items.
Gordon and his team then give the restaurant a modern makeover, making it brighter and much more pleasant for diners.
The night of relaunch, the restaurant experiences a computer malfunction, causing the staff to handwrite their tickets.
But once Doug and Mike receive tickets they get to work and food starts heading out the door for customers to enjoy.
Overall the night was a total success once they handled the technical issues.
So was the La Galleria 33 Kitchen Nightmares episode a success?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if this Boston restaurant is still open in 2023 and beyond.
La Galleria 33 Update - What Happened Next?
After the La Galleria 33 Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, the restaurant was initially a success.
The reviews were still mixed, but the restaurant stayed open for years and, at least as a business, it was a success.
It had a 3.5 star rating on its Yelp page.
A lot of the post-Gordon Ramsay reviews were pretty positive, though there were also a solid number of negative reviews mixed in.
I’ll share some real examples of La Galleria 33 reviews below.
Unfortunately, it would not last.
But before I talk about La Galleria 33 today, let’s first talk about Gordon Ramsay’s second visit to La Galleria 33.
Gordon Ramsay La Galleria 33 revisit
In addition to the two-part episode from Season 6, Gordon Ramsay also revisited La Galleria 33 as part of Season 7’s Revisited #9, which was the last episode of Kitchen Nightmares to air on TV.
The revisit starts with some funny shots of the sisters outside the restaurant waiting for Gordon Ramsay.
Rita then runs up and hugs Gordon and they both seem excited to see him.
They then show Gordon Ramsay a packed restaurant and talk about how the restaurant is doing.
My favorite quote is from Lisa:
Since being on the show, most of the response has been positive.
Though there’s been a little backlash because I called Chef Ramsay a douchebag.
There’s also another funny moment where Rita put a picture of her laying on the floor dressed as the chicken.
It’s supposed to remind Doug of the confrontation with Gordon Ramsay.
If you want to see Gordon’s full second visit to the La Galleria 33 Boston location, you can watch the video below.
I’ve configured the embed to start right at Gordon’s second visit…
Is La Galleria 33 still open?
Though La Galleria 33 was initially successful after Kitchen Nightmares, it eventually closed in November 2018.
This means it survived for around six years after the episode aired on TV.
As of 2023, the old La Galleria 33 Boston location is occupied by a new restaurant called Libertine.
Reviews for Libertine seem pretty good as it has a 4 star rating on its Yelp page.
If you’re in the Boston area and you want to check out the successor to La Galleria 33, you can learn more at the Libertine website.
And then here’s what the old La Galleria 33 Boston location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view:
La Galleria 33 reviews after Kitchen Nightmares
At the time that La Galleria 33 closed, it had a 3.5 star rating on Yelp and a 4.2 star rating on Google.
Those ratings are ok but not amazing.
However, the reviews from after the La Galleria 33 Gordon Ramsay visit generally seemed to be more positive than those from before.
Additionally, most of the reviews that mentioned Kitchen Nightmares seemed to be positive.
Here’s a sampling of a few La Galleria 33 reviews that were written after the visit from Gordon Ramsay…
4 star Yelp review from September 2013:
Friendly staff, great mussels and white wine sauce.
Didn’t realize this restaurant was on Kitchen Nightmares but overall we had a good experience.
Location is nice as well since it’s off of the insanely busy Hanover st.
5 star Yelp review from March 2016:
Short trip to Boston.
Came to La Galleria 33, because we saw it on Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay.
Unbelievably delicious !!!
We tried this on our first night in town, coming back tomorrow night !!!
Added perk, both owners who were on the show were present, one was our waitress.
But all of that aside, AMAZING food and service !!!
5 star Yelp review from April 2017:
My husband and I went there while on vacation from Tennessee.
It was perfect!
The people were amazing and the food was excellent.
We have seen the show on Kitchen Nightmares and so glad it is still open.
It was an absolutely perfect evening for us both!!!
1 star Yelp review from April 2017:
Food was nothing but bland.
And it is not at all worth the price, the only good part was that after the terrible meal was after when we when home and we found out that the restaurant is one of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Nothing has changed since then…
Why did La Galleria 33 close?
I’m not sure why as the owners didn’t post any public messages, but there were a couple of one star Yelp reviews that suggest there were some issues.
In the negative reviews, people seemed to criticize the food and service.
Though again, there were plenty of positive reviews, as well.
Who owned La Galleria 33?
La Galleria 33 was owned by two sisters, Lisa Cerundolo and Rita Moran (originally DiPietrantonio).
I’m not sure what happened to either sister after La Galleria 33 closed.
I hope they’re both happy and doing well.
What happened to Lisa from La Galleria 33?
Unfortunately, Lisa from La Galleria 33 keeps her social media profiles private so I’m not sure what she’s up to.
It does seem like Lisa is still living in Boston, but that’s all that I know.
Hopefully she’s doing well!
Final thoughts on La Galleria 33
Overall, La Galleria 33 had a solid run after the visit from Gordon Ramsay.
It stayed open for around 6 years and the La Galleria 33 reviews were generally positive, though a bit mixed.
Unfortunately, it would not last and La Galleria 33 closed in 2018.
As of 2023, the old La Galleria 33 Boston MA location is occupied by a new restaurant named Libertine North End.
If you want to see some other Massachusetts Kitchen Nightmares episodes, you can check out my updates for Olde Hitching Post in Hanson MA and Barefoot Bob’s in Hull MA.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-galleria-33-bostonhttps://twitter.com/lagalleria33
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Last updated: 2023-04-09 10:33
I wonder what happened to Sara?
Yeah.. Wonder how Sara’s doing.
La Galleria 33 is actually replaced by a restaurant called Libertine
Thanks! I just added that to the update.
where is sara now, i miss her also
For everyone who wants to know what happened to Sara, here’s her LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-el-arif-53043860
I notice there was no mention of La Galleria 33 in her LinkedIn profile.
Lmao Sara reminds me of myself when I was waiting tables and I always being accused of hoggin tables, the “good section” etc… Not her fault if other servers are slow lol get that money girl!
Lisa and Rita were fabulous…
…they were both funny and beautiful…I have to admit: I had a small crush on Lisa 😉
Perhaps they entered the restaurant of their parents (they were allready older in 2012) , replaced them as owners and managers and closed the “La Galleria 33”.
Sara betrayed her colleagues…this is a 100% no go…she had to go…she was not a teamplayer
You’re the one who sent the shoes aren’t you?
This restaurant’s problems would have been solved if Doug, Rita and Lisa had had a threesome. That would have cheered everyone up and got them working together as a team. Sadly Gordon refused to film them doing it. Too bad!
Also, with over 80 other Italian restaurants in Boston’s North end, Gordon needed to do something to make La Galleria 33 stand out from the rest, and what he chose was too expensive: buy ten dinners and get a free trip to Rome.
It was a casting coup, though, for Gordon to get Jennifer Connolly to play the part of one of the sisters.
Even better when he got her to his hotel room to play for part 2 and some free remodeling of the restaurant. As Gordon said, “I hope the clam is better this time.”
Ngl that was my favorite episode, the whole place was crazy & hilarious to me. Especially with pat who was a shoes salesman in the past but was a general manager/host/waiter/busboy in la galleria 33🤣🤣. I mean he was such a character & I loved the two sisters. They remind me of me & my sister when we’re together. Yeah the place was a hot mess but I loved the episode & the sisters were too funny. I hope they’re doing well too, sucks it closed & that we don’t have an update of the two of them. By all means I still have a ball watching this episode, I can never get tired of the shenanigans in there & I wish Sara & Rita nothing but the best.