(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: March 18, 2025
Simmer Down Cafe Address: 4701-1 Williams Dr, Georgetown, TX 78633
Episode Recap
Simmer Down Cafe was a Georgetown, Texas restaurant featured on Season 9 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the Simmer Down Cafe Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV in March 2025, the actual visit from Gordon Ramsay happened in October 2024.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 9 Episode 11.
In the final episode of Season 9 of Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay is back in Georgetown, Texas (the same place where he helped The Grumpy George Pub & Grub).
This time, he’s in town to help Simmer Down Cafe.
It’s a family-owned comfort food restaurant that is obviously dealing with some struggles.
I’m writing this the day before the episode airs on TV, so I don’t have a detailed recap yet.
However, there is a funny preview scene where Gordon interviews Chris, the Simmer Down Cafe owner, about his issues with the servers at the restaurant.
According to him, they never seem to promote the restaurant’s appetizers and desserts, which has led to the owner taking drastic action.
He actually added a message to the menu saying that people get 15% off their order if their server doesn’t promote desserts and apps, which presumably lets the owner get data on when servers are failing to do their jobs.
He even says that if he told the servers they would “get shot” if they didn’t sell a piece of pie, he would have a room full of dead servers…lol.
Gordon rightfully points out that it’s pretty degrading to the staff.
Gordon also covers how that type of failure is probably due to poor training rather than issues with the servers themselves.
The owner gave a “rough teaching” but it doesn’t seem to have helped.
All in all, the owner doesn’t seem to show a lot of respect for his staff.
After Gordon Ramsay digs in, hopefully that can change and the restaurant can have more systems in place to ensure smoother operation.
Again, I’ll try to come back and update this in the future.
So – was the Kitchen Nightmares Simmer Down Cafe rescue a long-term success?
Keep reading my update to learn what happened next and if this Georgetown, TX restaurant is still open in 2025.
Simmer Down Cafe Update - What Happened Next?
Now that I’ve recapped the episode, let’s talk about how the restaurant is doing after Gordon Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares crew left town.
I’ll talk about whether or not the restaurant is still open, along with what the reviews are like after the changes from Gordon.
Let’s get into it…
Is Simmer Down Cafe still open after Kitchen Nightmares?
As of my most recent check, Simmer Down Cafe is still open and serving customers in Georgetown, TX.
The restaurant created a new Facebook page to use after Gordon’s visit.
They seem to have been very active posting on this page until February 1st 2025, after which there have been no new posts.
They are still actively replying to comments, though, as I saw a response from just a week before the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired.
They don’t seem to have any type of official website, though they did used to have a free Weebly site (it’s now expired).
Here’s what part of the Simmer Down Cafe menu looks like to give you an idea of prices (this is from the Facebook page):
Here’s what the Simmer Down Cafe location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view…
The most recent picture is currently from March 2024, so it doesn’t include any Kitchen Nightmares changes.
I’m mainly including it so that you can explore the area around the restaurant.
Simmer Down cafe reviews after Gordon Ramsay
Now, let’s get into some real customer reviews to see how the restaurant is doing after the visit from Gordon Ramsay.
Overall, the restaurant has a 3.6 star rating on 311+ Yelp reviews, a 4.3 star rating on 725+ Google reviews, and a 3.5 star rating on 44+ TripAdvisor reviews.
However, all of those numbers include reviews from both before and after the Kitchen Nightmares visit.
As always, I try to exclusively focus on reviews that were written after Gordon Ramsay put his changes in place (October 2024).
Recent reviews seem to still be pretty mixed, so I’m not sure how well the restaurant is handling Gordon’s changes.
They might be a little bit more positive, but it’s hard to tell as there are still lots of negative reviews mixed in with many positive reviews.
Here’s a sampling of a few notable reviews I found – all of which are from after Gordon’s visit.
4 star Yelp review from November 2024 (with owner response):
5 star Yelp review from November 2024 (with owner response):
1 star Yelp review from November 2024 (with owner response):
1 star Yelp review from November 2024 (not happy about changes):
5 star Google review:
5 star Google review that mentions changes:
1 star Google review that says “Chef Dave Ramsey” would be angry (lol):
Final thoughts on the episode
Overall, things seem to still be a bit mixed at Simmer Down Cafe after Gordon’s visit.
The restaurant does get plenty of positive reviews from customers…but there are also lots of negative reviews mixed in, so the service and food seems to still be a little bit inconsistent.
There are also some regulars who seem upset about the Kitchen Nightmares changes, though there are also plenty of people with positive things to say about the changes.
It will be interesting to see if this one is able to stay open long term.
That wraps up my Simmer Down Cafe Kitchen Nightmares update.
If you want to see some other Texas restaurants from the show, you also might be interested in my update for El Greco in Austin TX.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always – thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/simmer-down-georgetown-2https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567805876979
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Last updated: 2025-03-17 12:13