Yanni’s Kitchen Nightmares Update (Greek Restaurant) – Open Or Closed?

Episode Recap

Yanni’s Greek Cuisine was a Seattle, Washington restaurant featured on season 6 of Kitchen Nightmares. The Yanni’s Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in March, 2013, but the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay happened earlier in late 2012. It was episode 13 of season 6, right after the infamous Mill Street Bistro episode.

In this episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Gordon Ramsay takes us to Yanni’s Greek Restaurant, in Seattle, Washington, where we meet the owner, Peter Avgoustiou.

Some people have spelled the name Peter Augustio, but the correct spelling is “Avgoustiou”, which you can verify on Peter’s Facebook account and the corporate filings for Yanni’s Greek Cuisine.

Initially, the business was a huge success when it was originally founded by Peter’s father back in 1984, but business is dwindling and Peter is now in debt and is unable to pay his bills.

Peter requested to meet with Gordon at a coffee shop before Gordon arrived at the restaurant. At the coffee shop, Peter discloses the history of the restaurant and its ties to his family, as well as the fact that he is losing a whopping $8,000-$10,000 a month.

Gordon then heads to the restaurant and is greeted by Karen, Peter’s wife, and their daughters Alyse and Tariya, who say the food and decor of the restaurant are outdated but their complaints have been ignored by Peter.

Gordon sits down to eat and is overwhelmed by the more than six pages and nine specials he finds on the menu. Gordon then orders the pumpkin hummus (which he’s never seen before, nor have I), the moussaka, and the house gyro.

The pumpkin hummus comes out first and Gordon finds it has too much garlic, and tastes horrible. The moussaka arrives next and Gordon finds the meat is too sweet, and the egg plant is greasy, bitter, and undercooked. The house gyro is too messy and contains way too much sauce.

Overall, Gordon‘s impression of the restaurant’s decor and it’s food is outdated.

Gordon then gives his feedback to the staff but Peter and Alyse are very defensive and non-receptive to what Gordon has to say.

Later that night Gordon arrives to observe the restaurant during a dinner rush. He finds the kitchen to be in absolute chaos.

It’s common for Peter to be shouting orders and then have Alyse shouting right back at him, which obviously leads to high stress levels in the restaurant.

Food is leaving the kitchen but it is also coming back just as fast. This also leads to more anger and shouting in the kitchen, which certainly won’t help the food get any better.

Gordon then inspects the storage and finds nothing to be dated or labeled, the produce is old and sticky, and raw meat is being stored next to cooked meat.

He then finds the fridge filled with cooked chicken and moldy boiled beef.

There are a plethora of other issues among that, like rancid chicken and a general lack of following food safety protocols.

Because of Gordon’s concerns for the safety of the restaurant he shuts down the kitchen resulting in the restaurant to close.

Gordon then gives Peter the assignment of shrinking the menu down by removing the items that aren’t selling well. Peter is reluctant at first but eventually agrees to cut the menu all the way down to just 21 dishes (whereas it originally had over 60 different dishes on offer).

That night Gordon and his crew worked tirelessly to revamp the dining room by giving it new décor, colors, tables, chairs, and more. Gordon also has a new POS System installed for orders that will be sent directly to the kitchen.

Beyond changing and improving the physical space, Gordon also spends some time teaching the staff how to cook the new menu items.

The night of relaunch was a total success, besides a little argument that broke out between Peter and Alyse, but ultimately the customers loved the new food and they said they will come back to the restaurant.