(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 6 | View All Season 6 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: February 22, 2013
Nino's Italian Restaurant Address: 3853 Atlantic Ave Long Beach, CA 90807
Episode Recap
Nino’s Italian Restaurant was a Long Beach, California restaurant featured on Season 6 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the Nino’s Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in February 2013, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place much earlier in mid-2012.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 6 Episode 9.
Nino’s Italian Restaurant was a restaurant in Long Beach, California featured in season six of Kitchen Nightmares.
The restaurant was originally opened all the way back in 1958 by two immigrants, Inge and Vincenzo Cristiano.
After that, the couple’s children helped to run the restaurant as employees – Carina, Michael, and Nino.
Eventually, Nino took over the restaurant as his father had some health difficulties.
This transition started the slide for Nino’s and led to them calling in Gordon Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares team for help.
Things were really going downhill, and Inge even had to take money from her retirement account to help keep the restaurant afloat.
That’s never a good sign…
So while all of the family is involved, Nino is currently in charge (which causes a lot of friction).
When Gordon Ramsay arrived, he noted the restaurant’s dated decor, along with hygiene issues such as gum stuck underneath the table and cobwebs on the walls.
Nino refused to admit any responsibility, even saying he regularly cleaned the place.
Sure – it just magically got dirty, I guess!
The food wasn’t much better than the hygiene, as the meat was gross and slimy.
Gordon ordered a variety of classic Italian restaurant dishes, including chicken piccata and eggplant parmigiana.
Gordon felt like it was definitely old food, but Nino refused to admit any fault and even shouted profanity at Gordon.
Things were so bad that Gordon Ramsay even refused to take a bite of the eggplant parmigiana.
When Gordon came back to watch a dinner service, his worst fears were confirmed as he observed five-day-old lasagna and sauces.
That’s not exactly the “fresh” cooking that you’d expect from a place like Nino’s Italian Restaurant.
There were also issues with the ingredients, with rotten mushrooms, pasta sitting in water, improperly stored fish, and more.
Though there were certainly issues between Nino and Gordon, Gordon put it aside and helped the restaurant.
To give Nino a shock, Gordon Ramsay boarded up the restaurant so that Nino could see a preview of what might happen.
Inge was also on board with Gordon’s ruse, telling Nino that she is done with the restaurant and wants to shut it down.
Gordon Ramsay also met with Carina and Michael.
While they were happy that Gordon Ramsay got through to Nino, they still don’t really believe that the changes will last.
Beyond trying to improve Nino’s attitude, Gordon Ramsay also made physical improvements at Nino’s Italian Restaurant.
He completely redid the interior with more bright, modern design and new long family-style tables.
He also improved the operations so that meals came out quickly and the food quality was good.
There were some issues with Michael and Nino, but they eventually got things figured out and the relaunch was a success.
So was the Kitchen Nightmares Nino’s Italian Restaurant episode a success?
Keep reading the update to learn what happened to Nino’s and if this Long Beach CA restaurant is still open in 2023.
Nino's Italian Restaurant Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Nino’s Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Long Beach, CA.
After being featured on Kitchen Nightmares, Nino’s had some difficulties.
Their regular customers didn’t like the new decor, which cause Nino’s to go back to the original dated design.
Beyond that, reviews of the restaurants were generally mixed.
To make matters worse, Vincenzo passed away in 2014 at the age of 90, so the original founder of the restaurant was gone.
Nino’s did manage to keep things going for another couple of years, but things would not last.
Is Nino’s still open after Kitchen Nightmares?
Nino’s Italian Restaurant closed in August, 2016, a little over three years after the Nino’s Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV.
To announce the closure, the Nino’s team posted a lenghty announcement on Facebook that the restaurant was closing its doors for good on August 14, 2016.
You can still see the full announcement here – but here’s an excerpt and I will include screenshots below in case it gets deleted.
It’s Time to Say Good Bye – Nino’s celebrated its 58th Anniversary on July 31, and will be closing its doors on August 14, 2016.
This is my family business and I was born into the restaurant family.
…
For us it isn’t the same without Dad.
My mom is 82 years old and as a family, we have decided to close the doors and retire this family business.
I personally feel it is the right time for us to enjoy more meals and outings together than to work serving meals.
We had a wonderful life and met so many wonderful customers now considered friends, but I think it is a good time for us to move forward in life.
Closure announcement Part 1:
Closure announcement Part 2:
Closure announcement Part 3:
The Cristianos listed the restaurant for sale, but had trouble selling.
Either way, Nino’s Italian Restaurant from Kitchen Nightmares is, unfortunately, no more.
However, the Nino’s Italian Restaurant Facebook page is still active if you want to keep up with the family, despite the restaurant being closed.
For a time, the old Nino’s Long Beach, CA location was occupied by a new restaurant named MIXX Kitchen, which served Asian fusion and Chinese food.
However, that restaurant also closed.
As of 2023, the old Nino’s Restaurant Long Beach CA building is now a coffee shop and wine bar named SALA Coffee & and Wine Bar.
Based on the pictures, it seems like the lot has been completely renovated.
It looks like a whole new complex was put in, which spans multiple plots.
Based on Loopnet, it seems like the new complex was finished being built around 2018.
This makes sense because Nino posted in March 2017 about having sold the property that housed Nino’s.
Here’s what the old Nino’s Italian Restaurant Long Beach location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view:
Why did Nino’s Italian Restaurant close?
In the Facebook announcement when Nino’s Italian Restaurant closed, they said they closed the restaurant because it “wasn’t the same without dad”, who passed away in 2014.
They also wanted to spend more time together as a family.
In the announcement, they said that they were doing good business, so it doesn’t seem like they closed for business reasons.
Overall, I think Nino’s closed entirely for personal reasons, at least if the family’s closure announcement is active.
Ninos Long Beach reviews after Kitchen Nightmares
At the time that Nino’s Italian Restaurant closed, it had a 3 star rating on 250+ Yelp reviews.
That’s not great to be honest, but it’s also not totally horrible.
In general, reviews from after the Ninos Gordon Ramsay visit seemed to be mixed, which is also true for reviews before he visited.
To be honest, it’s hard to pull out any clear trends.
Some people like Gordon’s changes, some people didn’t like Gordon’s changes, some people liked the food, some people didn’t like the food…you get the idea.
It’s just very mixed.
To give you an idea of what customers were experiencing, here’s a sample of a few positive and negative Nino’s Italian Restaurant reviews from after Gordon Ramsay visited them in Long Beach CA.
3 star Yelp review from May 2016:
This place was on Kitchen Nightmares which should be reason enough to not come here.
But alas, I make terrible life choices sometimes and decided to check it out.
Did Gordon Ramsey’s advice stick?
I don’t think it did.
Let’s talk about the food.
I had the Lasagna.
Have you ever had Stouffer’s Frozen Lasagna?
It tasted pretty much like that. It had the same texture too.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Stouffer’s Frozen Lasagna but It’s not what I expect from an actual Italian Restaurant.
I don’t think I’ll be back.
3 star Yelp review from August 2016:
I used to like this place much better before it was on Kitchen Nightmares.
After Kitchen Nightmares, the whole menu was changed, giving the customer little options.
In addition to changing the whole menu, the decor was changed.
The decor looks like they were going for a modern vibe, but this restaurant is not at all modern.
Not to mention, the decor looks incredibly cheap, like stuff you see at the back to school sales to decorate dorm rooms with.
Overall, Kitchen Nightmares did not do good for Nino’s; I’ve only been here once since the “restaurant makeover.”
5 star Yelp review from August 2015:
I went to Nino’s back on June 25.
It was a very nice quaint Italian restaurant.
When we walked in it looked very Italian.
The whiskey and coke I ordered from the bar wasn’t good at all.
But the pasta more than made up for it.
I saw the lady who who owns the place and she said hello in passing.
Had the drink I ordered been bearable, I would give 5 stars.
Ramsay did this place up right and they are sticking to the kitchen nightmares corrections.
Long live Nino’s!
Here’s a screenshot of a very long three star review from September 2014:
And finally, here’s a very very long one star review from August 2012 (which was before Ninos Kitchen Nightmare episode aired on TV but a couple of months after the actual visit from Gordon Ramsay).
Final thoughts on Nino’s Italian Restaurant
Overall, Nino’s Italian restaurant seemed to be doing good after the Ninos Kitchen Nightmares episode, though they didn’t keep all of the changes from Gordon Ramsay.
Sadly, Vincenzo, the original founder of the restaurant, passed away in 2014.
This led the family to eventually close Nino’s Restaurant in 2016, around three years after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV.
Even more sadly, Inge also passed away in 2021.
I was sad to hear of Vincenzo and Inge’s passing and I wish the family the best in their future endeavors.
As of 2023, the old Nino’s Long Beach CA location is occupied by a coffee shop and wine bar.
However, the property was demolished and rebuilt completely new, so the old Nino’s building is gone.
If you want to see some other Long Beach, CA Kitchen Nightmares episodes, you can check out these posts:
- Zayna Flaming Grill update (Redondo Beach)
- Luigi’s D’Italia update (Anaheim)
- Lido di Manhattan update (Manhattan Beach)
And if you want to share your thoughts on the Kitchen Nightmares Nino’s restaurant episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ninos-italian-restaurant-long-beachhttps://www.facebook.com/ninoslongbeach/
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Last updated: 2023-06-11 05:59
It’s a shame what happened to Vincenzo. Nino needs to keep his attitude in check, though.
Unfortunately Inge passed away in June 2021.
The problem with this restaurant was brand confusion to the customers. With an obviously Irish name like “Nino,” you’d expect the restaurant would serve Irish food. It didn’t and that upset the patrons.
Or the family should have changed the name to Dino, after the pet dinosaur of the Flintstones. Everyone likes Dino and that would have improved sales. That plus not serving crappy food.
I found Carina’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CarinaCristiano
There are a few pictures of her with Nino & Michael, but I did not see any comments or links to thier FB pages.
Stendhal is a POS and his comments are pathetic. This episode was pathetic too. The scene with the fake closing of the restaurant was a joke. Nino looked like he was reading from cards.
Stop whining
let’s see you do better then
Are you the Sam(m)y from Amy’s Baking Company?
The guy destroys restaurants
But I mean, they’re already failing. Gordon shows them how to be better. It’s up to them to keep up his instructions. Sometimes doing so is too expensive or emotionally taxing. They’re not all going to be winners, but he can point them in the right direction.
Apparently, according to this website, most of them revert to their old ways. Whether that’s good or bad depends on who’s asking.
Fact check: False
Every review of the place initially shows they’re up in profits and customers. Usually they’re too far in debt to get out, OR go back to serving rubbish.
The daughter is now 57, and both of her parents have passed. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10221822900949629&set=ecnf.1470553930
Her FB page does not say anything about her two brothers, but there are a couple of group pictures where they are in the pictures.
Thankfully they chose Italian and not German cuisine for the restaurant. We really don’t have traditional food that’s great for a restaurant (that is why we also have more Italian restaurants in Germany than German restaurants).^^ I mean, Saumagen is absolutely disgusting and Sauerkraut isn’t a culinary revelation either. 😉
Anyway, Inge kind of reminded me of my own Oma. And I found it fascinating that after around 60 years in the US, she still sounded typically German.
Been binge watching kitchen nightmares and yet to have came Across a restaurant still open. Gordon does a good job. Although older customers for like dinners or Italian don’t like to much change. I think good marketing and help with reviews after the fact would have brought more people in. At least for some of the episodes I’ve seen.
You can find a list of all the restaurants that are still open here:
https://realitytvupdates.com/kitchen-nightmares-status/open/