(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 8 | View All Season 8 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: November 6, 2023
The Juicy Box Address: 2281 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11210
Episode Recap
The Juicy Box was a Brooklyn, New York restaurant featured on Season 8 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the The Juicy Box Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV in November 2023 (after being delayed because of the MLB playoffs), the actual visit from Gordon Ramsay happened in June 2023.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 8 Episode 5.
In this episode, Gordon Ramsay heads to The Juicy Box in Brooklyn, New York City.
That’s the correct spelling – it is “juicy” and not “The Juice Box”.
The full name is The Juicy Box Bar and Lounge.
The Juicy Box owner is Jacques Sylvestre.
Jacques’ parents emigrated from Haiti and you can see that influence in some of the dishes at the restaurant.
Midwood, the neighborhood of the Juicy Box Brooklyn location, also has a large Caribbean population.
Jacques opened The Juicy Box in January 2018, so it’s been around for a little over five years at the time of the Juicy Box Kitchen Nightmares visit.
However, he’s since turned the restaurant over to his son Naqam, who goes by Q.
This happened back in 2019 when Naqam was just 21 years old, so it’s obviously a bit of a gamble given Q’s lack of experience.
In addition to Q, Jacques also involved his daughter Napalya.
However, Napalya suggests that Q involves the bar side and party scene more than he likes running an actual restaurant.
Thankfully, the staff at The Juicy Box seem to generally be friendly.
While I’ll talk about reviews in more depth in the update portion of the article, lots of reviewers go out of their way to compliment the staff and service.
However, they don’t seem to really respect Q as an owner, perhaps because he’s too into the bar lifestyle.
We learn that Jacques has invested over $1 million into the restaurant, so he definitely has a lot riding on its success.
When Gordon Ramsay visits The Juicy Box, he tries to order a juice, which makes sense given the restaurant’s name.
However, we learn that the juicer has been broken for eight months.
Now, they only serve smoothies.
This confuses Gordon because he accurately detects that it’s a smoothie and not a juice.
Gordon, as well as myself, is confused that a place named The Juicy Box doesn’t serve juice.
Beyond the juice, Gordon’s server also lists off a bunch of other dishes that they don’t have, which also disappoints Gordon.
Once he actually gets some of the food, it’s not much better.
While he does like some of the dishes (e.g. the Snapper), he has issues with most of the dishes.
However, as you’d expect, Gordon Ramsay went in and re-vamped the menu, along with the systems and decor at The Juicy Box.
Based on the preview videos, the new decor at The Juicy Box looks great.
Beyond improving the Juicy Box Brooklyn location, Gordon Ramsay also really tries to improve how Q approaches running the restaurant.
He wants Q to be more organized and motivated.
As part of this, Gordon Ramsay even took Q to the gym for an early workout to get him energized.
When Gordon leaves, Q seems to be doing a much better job of managing the restaurant, and Jacques seems optimistic that his son won’t slip back to how he was before.
Gordon Ramsay also leaves them some help – he had Reuel Vincent from Next Level Chef stay around to provide help and training to The Juicy Box.
So was the Kitchen Nightmares The Juicy Box visit a long-term success?
Keep reading to learn what happened next and if this Brooklyn restaurant is still open in 2024.
The Juicy Box Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Juicy Box Kitchen Nightmares visit, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Brooklyn New York.
First off, I always check to see whether a restaurant is hosting a Kitchen Nightmares watch party, as that’s usually a positive sign with respect to how they feel about the Kitchen Nightmares experience.
The Juicy Box did indeed host a Kitchen Nightmares watch party for the original episode premier.
The episode was originally supposed to air around Halloween so they said that “costumes not required but highly recommended”.
Here’s a link to the post on Instagram:
However, the episode air date was delayed until November because of the MLB playoffs, which means it ended up happening after Halloween.
The Juicy Box did still host a watch party, but without the costumes.
On the November air date, The Juicy Box posted a fun Mortal Kombat themed video that pitted Gordon Ramsay vs The Juicy Box, which also mentioned the watch party.
View this post on Instagram
With that out of the way, let’s talk about the biggest question that’s probably on your mind…
Is The Juicy Box still open after Kitchen Nightmares?
As of 2023, The Juicy Box is still open and serving customers in Brooklyn, New York City.
The Juicy Box is not very active on Facebook, having not posted on its page since 2021.
However, it is much more active on the Juicy Box Instagram page, where they post multiple times per week.
They also have a separate The Juicy Box Events Instagram page that only posts events at the bar.
The restaurant/bar seems to have a very busy event schedule.
First off, there’s lots of live music at The Juicy Box, primarily with DJs it seems.
In general, they seem to still be leaning into the bar side of things, though Q does still seem to be stepping up as a leader.
They also have a regular Caribbean Brunch on Sundays.
Based on reviews, the Caribbean Brunch at The Juicy Box seems to be very popular.
The Juicy Box also runs pretty standard specials for a bar/restaurant, including Taco Tuesdays and Wing Wednesdays.
There’s also an official The Juicy Box website that lists the menu and events.
Here’s a link to the Juicy Box menu for food.
The prices actually don’t seem too high considering that it’s located in Brooklyn NYC.
Here’s a screenshot of the menu to give you an idea of what’s on offer:
Here’s what the Juicy Box Brooklyn New York location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view…
I’m mainly embedding the street view image so that you can explore the area around the restaurant.
Next, let’s look at some reviews for the restaurant after the Juicy Box Gordon Ramsay visit.
The Juicy Box reviews after Kitchen Nightmares
Overall, The Juicy Box has a 3.5 star rating on Yelp and a 4.4 star rating on Google Reviews.
Those ratings include reviews from both before and after the Gordon Ramsay The Juicy Box visit.
If you look at reviews that came after Gordon’s visit, however, things seem to be more positive.
On Yelp, there have been six reviews written after Gordon’s visit.
Of those six reviews, four of them are five star reviews, while one is two stars and the other is one star.
That gives it an overall rating of 3.83 stars for reviews after the Juicy Box Kitchen Nightmares visit, which is slightly better than before.
On Google, most of the recent reviews also seem to be positive.
There are a few one star reviews mixed in, but the vast majority of the Google The Juicy Box reviews are positive.
Beyond talking about the food and decor, a lot of people seem to specifically compliment the music at The Juicy Box.
People also seem to compliment the staff/service, even shouting out staff members by name.
To give you an idea of what people are saying, here’s a sampling of a few reviews that were written after the Juicy Box Gordon Ramsay visit…
5 star Yelp review from September 2023:
Great vibes, live music, and top tier menu.
The owner is very personable and inviting.
10/10 recommend
5 star Yelp review from September 2023:
I walked in to get my mom and i some food for her dinner on Saturday and it end up being an R&B Brunch.
I don’t recall the young mans name but he was the host, Tall and with a beautiful voice.
I did not know they also hosted music events.
The food was delicious and the event we sat in on was very fun.
We will be back again.
5 star Yelp review from July 2023:
TJB is a cute corner spot that feels good as soon as you walk in.
The waitress greets you and makes sure to follow back up with you.
My table was very pleased with the drinks and our service.
Looking forward to returning!
5 star Google review from August 2023:
The food was extremely good!!!!!!!
It was my first time there and I will be returning.
The meat was seasoned very well.
It wasn’t over fried.
It contained a crispy exterior and tender interior.
The fried green plantains had a hint of ripen sweetness (Caribbeans know what I mean lol).
The black rice 🤤.
Would post a photo but its all gone hahah.
5 star Google review from September 2023:
A vibe.
Especially Saturday brunch with DJ and artist showcase.
Get the chicken and waffles. 🙂
And then here are a few negative reviews to provide some balance. But again, most of the recent reviews seem to be more positive…
2 star Yelp review from August 2023:
They kept screaming out “Taco Tuesday” but didn’t have any taco deals (go figure) lol.
The food was just terrible.
I’ve had leftovers better than this.
I ordered the Stew Chicken….
Had the nerve to Throw a Haitian flag on the food like it’s capture the flag!
Food had absolutely no taste.
They charged me $10 just to come inside.
The music was good tho the dj was definitely spinning !
That’s probably the only thing I liked because even the drinks tasted like salt
1 star Google review from October 2023:
To keep it brief, food was extremely salty and the mac and cheese SAT in oil.
The drinks is sour (margarita).
Not a nice kick to it, no, it just tasted disgusting regardless of the flavor.
The service was mid damn near terrible.
Her attention was really to the guy at the bar & her coworker.
On top of that, she didn’t even know how their own card machines work to know they indeed do accept Apple Pay.
Jacques owns another business (a smoke shop)
Beyond The Juicy Box, Jacques also seems to own another Brooklyn business, which I think was covered in the Kitchen Nightmares The Juicy Box episode.
It’s not a restaurant (well, not entirely) – it’s a smoke shop named The Smoke Box.
It also seems to offer gumbo sometimes?
So I guess it does have some food aspects to it.
It’s hard to say haha.
You can check out The Smoke Box Instagram page here and Jacques also posts about it on his own Instagram page.
Final thoughts on The Juicy Box
Overall, The Juicy Box seems to be doing pretty well so far.
However, most of its success seems to be because of its bar and live music, which is a little bit of a departure from some of the other restaurants that appear on Kitchen Nightmares.
The Juicy Box seems to have a pretty strong group of regulars so I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one stay open for a long time.
I wish Jacques and the rest of the Juicy Box team all the best.
That wraps up my The Juicy Box Kitchen Nightmares update.
If you want to see some other nearby Brooklyn Kitchen Nightmares episodes, you can also check out my updates for Mama Maria’s / Sal’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn, Mojitos in Brooklyn, and PJ’s Steakhouse in Forest Hills.
If you want to see updates for other restaurants from Season 8 of Kitchen Nightmares (the new/revamped season), you can also check out my updates for Bel Aire Diner in Astoria Queens, BASK46 in Woodland Park NJ, In the Drink in Wayne NJ, and Da Mimmo in Dumont NJ.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the The Juicy Box episode or how you feel about this new season, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always, thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-juicy-box-brooklynhttps://www.facebook.com/TheJuicyBox2281/
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Last updated: 2023-11-19 06:02
I’ll just keep my comment to the website. The homepage is sad. It’s just a video loop with one person walking by, the building has graffiti on it and a sad, sad ‘Bud Light’ sign is dangling in the window. Come on…
This had nothing going for it. Fat slob Sonny and his trashy sister were not going to get fired. The rest of the staff looked they had no fear or concern with anything Ramsay was doing. All of these new episodes have the same lack of concern by anyone. They all look mildly bored. They clearly know Ramsay is just there to film his show for a couple of days, and they could all care less.
The fat slob son is a total loser. If Ramsay had any integrity left, he would have just walked out. The father is going to prop up Juicy Box forever, as it keeps his two loser kids off the streets to some degree, and they think they are working, even if they are just the worst garbage.
‘The fat slob son is a total loser…’…I think that is an understatement.
I know that your name probably isn’t real. But if it is, you have one of my favorite names ever.
merci mon brave homme !
If they have DJs/music regularly at night, the partying, 12 pm opening, and regulars just hanging out taking shots now makes sense. But I don’t know where they even do that from what the show featured. Why even serve such poorly done, poorly refrigerated food? Just be a bar/club.
Does anyone other than me think the restaurant’s name is vaguely pornographic?