(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: March 19, 2010
Mama Rita's Address: 360 Via Las Brisas Ste 110 Newbury Park, CA 91320
Episode Recap
Mama Rita’s was a Mexican restaurant in Newbury Park, California featured on Season 3 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the Mama Rita’s Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in March 2010, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place almost a year earlier in May 2009.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 3 Episode 8.
In this episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Gordon Ramsay takes us to Mama Rita’s, in Newbury Park, California.
When we land in Newbury Park, we quickly meet the owner, Laura Papenfus.
Laura’s business started off as a successful catering business.
Due to customers encouraging her to open a restaurant, Laura decided to do so and give it a shot.
However, now that she has the restaurant she is serving less and less customers day by day.
The first week after the restaurant opened it was very busy, but after about three weeks the customers started to dwindle and the restaurant is now struggling to stay open.
Currently, Laura has accumulated an incredible $2.2 million in debt and is at risk of losing her house if the restaurant doesn’t improve.
These issues and debt are a big part of why the Kitchen Nightmares Mama Rita’s restaurant episode exists.
Side note – Mama Rita’s has the most debt burden of any Kitchen Nightmares restaurant that we’ve written about, so the odds are definitely stacked against Laura and her restaurant.
When Gordon Ramsay arrives, he orders off the menu to see how the food is at Mama Ritas.
He orders a spread of food, including the tamales, chimichanga, and a burrito.
When the tamales arrive Gordon compares them to soaking wet newspaper, with a very dry filling.
The chimichanga arrives next and Gordon can tell the chimichanga had been microwaved and then fried leaving the chicken very dry to the taste. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better…
Last to arrive is the steak burrito and he compares it to wet cardboard.
Wet newspaper and wet cardboard in one meal? That’s not a great start!
Gordon Ramsay then gives his feedback to the kitchen staff, communicating that the good was disgusting.
To see what a real service is like, Gordon decides to observe the kitchen during a dinner rush.
He notices the food goes out quickly to the customers but the customers are never happy with the food they receive.
The customers complain about the dryness of the restaurant’s food and immediately send it back to the kitchen.
Gordon then decides to look in the freezer and pulls out a lot of frozen food.
He then empties the fridges and all the freezers which were filled with tray after tray of pre-cooked frozen food.
Gordon estimates that they have $12,000 worth of frozen food in the freezer, with a lot of the food dating back almost a year ago.
After interviewing some customers who had dined at the restaurant in the past, Gordon discovers that some of them experienced horrendous food poisoning.
Gordon invites chef Naris Mardirosian as a consultant to help in the kitchen.
The menu is then revamped to include dishes made from fresh ingredients.
The staff then taste the food from Gordon’s new menu and they love it.
The night of relaunch, Chef Naris is overseeing the kitchen, but the cooks are standing around doing nothing, while the customers are facing a long wait for their food.
Dishes are also being sent back for burnt chips, missing beans and cheese, and the steaks are served undercooked.
Thankfully, Chef Naris is able to take over and handle things and the relaunch generally ends as a success.
When Gordon Ramsay leaves Mama Rita restaurant, things seem to be looking up.
So was the Kitchen Nightmares Mama Rita’s restaurant episode a long-term success? Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if this California restaurant is still open in 2023 and beyond.
Mama Rita's Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Mama Rita’s Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Newbury Park, CA.
At the end of the episode, we learned that Naris was supposed to stay on as the head chef for a few weeks to ensure a smooth transition and handle things instead of Perla, the original chef.
However, Laura actually kept Perla on as the head chef after she was trained by Chef Naris.
What’s more, Laura also went back to using the restaurant’s old menu instead of the changes that Gordon made.
I mean – why not stick with the menu that got you $2.2 million in debt, right? That’s sarcasm.
With that being said, the Mama Rita’s Yelp reviews were generally pretty solid after Gordon’s visit.
It ended with a 3.5 star rating, but a lot of the newer reviews were good.
However, the reviews weren’t good enough to overcome the debt burden and Mama Rita’s closed soon after the episode aired in December 2010.
Laura did keep the catering business going, but the restaurant was no more.
Is Mama Rita’s from Kitchen Nightmares still open?
Mama Rita’s restaurant closed in December 2010, around nine months after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired.
However, Laura continued to operate a catering business for a few years after closing the restaurant.
As of 2022, the old Mama Rita’s California location in Newbury Park is occupied by a new restaurant called The Local Table, which seems to have good reviews on Yelp.
Why did Mama Rita’s close?
We don’t have a specific reason why Mama Rita’s closed but we have a pretty good idea that the $2.2 million debt burden played a big role.
Even with Gordon working his magic, I just don’t think it’s possible for a restaurant to overcome that debt.
Gordon Ramsay could have literally turned Mama Ritas restaurant into one of the best restaurants in California and I still think it would have been tough for Mama Rita’s to stay open.
What happened to Laura Papenfus from Mama Rita’s?
After Mama Rita’s closed, Laura started another restaurant called Mission Oaks Cafe in Camarillo, CA.
It had a so-so three star rating and eventually ended up closing in 2019.
As of 2022, Laura seems to be the director of catering at Thousand Oaks Inn.
You can keep in touch with her on her Twitter account and Instagram account, where she’s very active.
Laura’s Instagram username is mamarita4ever, so she definitely hasn’t forgotten about the restaurant.
I hope everything is going great with her!
What happened to Chef Perla from Kitchen Nightmares?
After Mama Rita’s closed, Perla seems to have gotten a new job as a chef at another restaurant named Armand’s Cellar.
However, her LinkedIn page hasn’t been updated, so I’m not sure if she’s still working there.
Final thoughts on Mama Rita’s Mexican restaurant
In the end, Mama Rita’s was not able to survive for very long after the visit from Gordon Ramsay, which isn’t surprising given the restaurant’s absolutely massive debt load.
Mama Rita’s closed as the end of 2010, which means it survived for about 1.5 years after the actual visit from Gordon Ramsay, but less than a year after the Kitchen Nightmares Mama Rita’s episode aired on TV.
As of 2022, the old Mama Rita’s Newbury Park California location is occupied by a new restaurant named The Local Table.
Laura Papenfus, the Mama Rita’s owner, opened another restaurant named Mission Oaks Cafe, but that also closed in 2019.
She’s now working as the director of catering at a hotel, which makes sense given her successful catering experience.
If you want to see some other nearby California Kitchen Nightmares episodes, you might want to check out our updates for Sushi Ko in Thousand Oaks, The Greek at the Harbor in Ventura, and The Secret Garden in Moorpark.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
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Last updated: 2022-09-04 06:11
I didn’t know she owned Mission Oaks Cafe. I went there once and the food and vibe were meh.
Not surprised at all ….
Remember the episode well. First, don’t think the restaurant owner was a good business person. Case in point is the so called restaurant “manager” when asked by Ramsay what she thought was wrong with the restaurant, her reply was “not enough customers.” DUH! Then commented “I don’t know what he expected me to say.” Sounds like the owner hired a friend instead of an experienced restaurant manager.
Perla shouldn’t have been an executive chef in a restaurant. Her training was as a catering chef. Another example of the owners lack of business acumen.
The owner should stick to catering. She had success with that.
Laura was pretty hot, I’m glad she’s continued to succeed at catering which proves she has skills.
The owner ,manager and head chef have no idea how bad the food was or how to operate a restaurant. No wonder Mama Ritas failed. Laura is a likeable owner who you could root for.