(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: UK | View All Season UK Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: October 7, 2014
La Granada Divino Address: 27 Calle Piedras, Gaucin, Málaga, 29480, Spain
Episode Recap
La Granada Divino was a Gaucín, Spain restaurant featured on Gordon Ramsay’s special Costa del Nightmares series, which originally aired in the UK.
Though the La Granada Divino Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in October 2014, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place much earlier in 2014. It was Episode 3 of Costa del Nightmares.
Located in Gaucín, Spain, La Granada Divino is a newly opened restaurant, which is unique for the show as Gordon normally deals with established restaurants.
Gaucín is located in Málaga, near the Southern tip of Spain. There’s a map below.
Though La Granada Divino has only been open eight weeks, it’s already in the red to the tune of £4,000 per week.
Gordon arrives and finds the owners sitting on their rooftop bar drinking.
He orders the fish cake, kebabs, terrine, risotto, lentil salad, and steak.
The food is very bland, and the risotto takes almost three quarters of an hour to get out of the kitchen.
When it does come out of the kitchen, it is undercooked. The salad is terrible, and the steak is tough.
Overall, it’s not a good start to Gordon’s visit at La Granada Divino.
Gordon meets with Chef Neil, and he takes the criticism Gordon gives him well.
Neil has two cooks to assist him in the kitchen, but they seem just to be prepping salads.
Neil begins to cut corners in the kitchen to ensure food is getting out on time.
Two hours later, only half of the customers have been served their food.
Neil has lost control of the kitchen, and many customers say they will not return.
Gordon meets with the owners, who say they never did a background check on Neil.
Gordon does one and finds out Neil was never an executive chef.
Neil struggles in the kitchen with communication. Gordon must apologize to the customers who waited for their food.
Gordon and the owners discuss replacing Neil. Gordon also introduces a new roast chicken special.
The celebrity chef asks the servers to push the new special and has Neil delegate tasks in the kitchen to help with the pressure.
The customers have a great night and enjoy the food.
The owners and Gordon promote the restaurant on the street with samples of their food.
The food is Spanish-inspired, which makes sense given the location.
Gordon has invited a top food critic to dine with them during the relaunch.
Communication in the kitchen is going well until Neil starts to fall behind.
They have run out of sharing plates, and now Neil must serve individual meals.
The communication suddenly stops, and Neil tries to send out undercooked food.
Gordon gives him one of his famous pep talks, and communication begins again.
The night recovers, and great food is served—the food critic names La Granda Divino the best restaurant in Gaucín, which is certainly a good reputation boost.
The critic loved the lamb chops. The owners take a step back and allow the kitchen and front of the house to run the restaurant.
So – was the La Granada Divino Kitchen Nightmares episode a success? Let’s talk about what happened after the visit from Gordon Ramsay.
La Granada Divino Update - What Happened Next?
After the Costa del Nightmares episode, La Granada Divino began making £5,000 per week instead of losing it, which is obviously a huge boost to a new restaurant.
Reviews were generally positive, inline with the review from the food critic that you saw during the show.
Is La Granada Divino from Kitchen Nightmares still open?
While the restaurant was doing well financially, La Granada Divino closed in September 2015 because the owners wanted to retire from the restaurant business and move on to other things.
They posted a lengthy message about the closure on their site – here’s the relevant portion:
We hope everyone enjoyed the La Granada Divino dining experience that was also complimented by mouthwatering food and delicious wines that was all reflected by an excellent Trip Advisor rating. We regret to announce that the owners, Milan and Gina, are now retiring from the restaurant trade and the restaurant in now closed. All of us at La Granada Divino want to thank you all for supporting us and hopefully the restaurant will open under new owners soon.
There was also a listing to sell a restaurant at the La Granada Divino address. I can’t confirm if it was La Granada Divino, but the address matches so it could well be that the owners sold it. You can check out the listing here.
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-granada-divino-gauc%C3%ADnhttps://twitter.com/lagranadadivino
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Last updated: 2022-01-18 06:58
Undercooked salad is a big turn-off.
Where is Neil? What happened next?
I found his profile on this agency that specialises in chefs for private yachts, etc.
https://crewaboard.com/42506-chef-neil-brown
The lesson with this restaurant, and every other restaurant is: 1) Regardless of your prior restaurant experience, when you open a new restaurant property you will spend 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week at the restaurant. You will be managing hands on and you will not be sitting back drinking wine and getting drunk – unless real your hobby is filing for bankruptcy.
2) You should only open a restaurant, as an owner, if you have several years of experience in the restaurant business, working for successful properties and your experience includes having worked every station in the restaurant from dish washer to head chef and general manager – unless your real hobby is filing for bankruptcy.
The place has only been open for 8 weeks and it is struggling because it is quiet. Gordon arrives and he says it is the start of the summer season. So the place was opened during the quiet season… so it will be struggling then. that’s why it’s called the quiet season.