Sandgate Hotel Kitchen Nightmares Update – Still Open in 2024?

Is The Sandgate Hotel still open?

Current Status: >> OPEN <<
(keep reading to learn what happened)

Season: UK | View All Season UK Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: February 28, 2006
The Sandgate Hotel Address: 8-9 Wellington Pl, Sandgate, Folkestone CT20 3DY, United Kingdom
Sandgate Hotel Kitchen Nightmares Update


Episode Recap

The Sandgate Hotel was a Sandgate, England restaurant featured on Season 3 of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in the UK.

Though the Sandgate Hotel Nightmares episode aired in February 2006, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place in mid 2005.

It was Season 3 Episode 2 on the UK version.

The Sandgate Hotel is located in Sandgate / Folkestone, England.

It’s right on the coast overlooking the English channel and about a one hour and 45 minute drive from downtown London.

It’s one of the first hotels that Gordon Ramsay rescued, which gives a preview of what would later be Hotel Hell in the USA.

The hotel has fifteen rooms, sits beachside, and sits just across the channel from France.

The owners are Peter and Lois. Neither of the pair has experience in running a hotel and it shows in the business. 

Gordon Ramsay arrives and stands at the check-in desk as the receptionist is on the phone.

The hotel has three restaurants; a terrace, a bar, and a basement Japanese restaurant.

However, none of them do any business.

There is only one chef for all three restaurants named Stuart White. 

Gordon tries to order off the Japanese menu at the main restaurant but is told he must go to the Japanese restaurant for that.

One manager means he will need to have his meals in different restaurants, but then another okays Gordon to eat in the main dining room. The customer is always right, I guess?

The Japanese food comes out undercooked and looks disgusting.

The potatoes are missing from the chicken dish.

When Gordon cuts into the chicken, it is challenging and inedible.

Stuart owns up to his mistakes and tells Gordon he is unfamiliar with cooking Japanese food. Maybe they should’ve hired a Japanese chef, then? Or chosen a different concept?

Lois and Peter have lost a lot of money in the first few months, which is a big part of why the Sandgate Hotel Kitchen Nightmares episode exists.

The owners tell Gordon they treat the hotel like their home and eat nightly meals.

Gordon takes Stuart, and one of the managers joins him for lunch, and they experience the chaos firsthand as they wait over an hour for their meal. 

Stuart and Gordon take the kitchen team fishing for some team building.

The assistants in the kitchen tell Stuart the meals are too elaborate, and they can get meals out quicker if they were more straightforward.

Gordon Ramsay brings back a sea bass they caught to cook.

Currently, they use fifteen ingredients for their sea bass dish, but Gordon teaches them a more straightforward way to do it. 

The Japanese restaurant doesn’t make any money, and Gordon suggests closing it and using it as extra space.

The main dining room uses a dumbwaiter to deliver food.

A lot of the staff drink at the bar in their free time, and Gordon stops that.

The managers and owners are also told to stop dining at the restaurant. 

Stuart and Gordon go to a business and give out free oyster tastings hoping to gain new customers for the coming months.

Lois is too soft on her staff, and Gordon has her practice speaking up.

She gains the confidence to tell an employee, Luca, his shortcomings. 

The relaunch is busy, and they have an oyster-eating competition.

Gordon reminds Lois to take control of the restaurants and hotel and stop treating it like her home.

Stuart is reminded to keep being confident. 

So was the Sandgate Hotel Kitchen Nightmares episode a success? Keep reading our update to learn what happened and how the hotel/restaurant is doing in 2024 and beyond.


The Sandgate Hotel Update - What Happened Next?

Now that we’ve recapped the Sandgate Hotel Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Sandgate, England.

Things seemed to start off well under Gordon’s new concept.

When he revisited six weeks later, the restaurant’s business had doubled and it was bringing in a little under £15,000 per week, which ain’t half bad.

Gordon ate at the restaurant and enjoyed a nice sea bass.

Is Sandgate Hotel from Kitchen Nightmares still open?

As of 2022, The Sandgate Hotel is still open and serving customers in Sandgate, England, 16 years after the Sandgate Hotel Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV.

However, it’s doing so under new ownership as the restaurant/hotel has been sold multiple times.

Lois and Peter, the original Sandgate Hotel owners from the episode, sold the restaurant shortly after the visit from Gordon Ramsay.

The new owners, Richard and Helen Morgan, ran the restaurant for two years. However, they also sold it in 2008 so they could move back to Scotland.

The new owner is Kiki Cole, who earned her money by selling an elder care home. While the exact purchase price wasn’t public, it was somewhere around £900,000.

Overall, I’m still leaving this marked as open because there is still a restaurant/hotel at that location.

However, given that’s changed hands multiple times since Gordon visited, there’s not that much connection left to the episode.


More Information

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1096575-d497714-Reviews-The_Sandgate_Hotel-Sandgate_Folkestone_Kent_England.html
https://www.facebook.com/Sandgate/



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Last updated: 2023-01-27 04:18

18 thoughts on “Sandgate Hotel Kitchen Nightmares Update – Still Open in 2024?”

All comments are the sole opinion of the commenter and are not endorsed by RealityTVUpdates.

    • It should be listed in the UK section already. Where are you seeing it listed as the US version? I will fix it.

      Reply
  1. The old bag was a total loser and her daughter in law was equally useless. The chef looked like he was burned out and ready for disability pension.

    Reply
  2. I’d recommend creating a new category for situations like this because the Open and Closed categories clearly don’t suffice, and marking it as “Open” once the original ‘TV’ owners sold and such a long time elapsed really isn’t a fair and truthful representation of the facts.

    Reply
    • I think “Open” and “Closed” is factual and objective, but I see your point. I’ve added data showing how long the business stayed open on my Hotel Hell updates page, and I’m planning to do something similar for Kitchen Nightmares soon.

      I’m planning to also add this data to the individual restaurant page too so that people can see. E.g. “the restaurant is closed, but it stayed open for more than 5 years after Gordon’s visit”.

      I think that will provide more context about whether Gordon’s visit was a success or not.

      Reply

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