Dillons / Purnima - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

Kitchen Nightmares Dillons / Purnima

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Dillons restaurant in New York City.

Dillons is a restaurant with an identity crisis that serves a number of different foods.

Mohammed started the restaurant to make a new life for the family.

Owner Mohammed has employed three different managers - General Manager Martin, Operations Manager Andrew and Floor Manager Khan.

The restaurant is struggling and he is now losing more than $20,000 a month.

Gordon arrives and sits down to sample the food.

Martin describes the restaurant as "An American-Irish restaurant with an Indian ness to it".

Gordon swats away flies as he looks over the giant menu and served by Server Jenna.

She tells Gordon that the restaurant is not busy, sometimes no customers come in as they see it is empty and there are always flies.

As the Indian chefs aren't able to cook the American Dishes, the Operations Manager Andrew has to step in and cook one of the dishes.

Gordon is forced to send back the assorted vegetarian appetisers as they have meat in them.

He tells them that if they served that to a vegetarian they would expect a lawsuit.

The curry has been served to Gordon with a rotten tomato garnish.

He cuts into the meat in his beef bhuna dish but he quickly sees that it isn't beef and it turns out to be lamb.

The salmon dish that was cooked by Andrew is over cooked and they used frozen fish as they had run out of fresh.

Gordon goes into the kitchen to give feedback on the food and there are also flies in the kitchen. '

He says that he doesn't feel too good and the chef admits that he might have given him old lamb as he was nervous.

Andrew tells him that the chefs don't know how to cook and western style food.

Before the service Martin is laying on the booth whilst a waitress is rubbing his hair.

Gordon arrives for a dinner service and witnesses the customers confusion as there is so much choice.

Customers struggle to decide between the Indian dishes on offer or the American dishes on offer.

The Chefs put a huge tub of chicken on the floor and have to be told to move it as it is unhygenic and could be dangerous.

After nearly an hour into the service no food has left the kitchen because of the chaos.

Andrew is leading the kitchen and Khan is standing around and isn't speaking up at all.

When it is announced that there is no more salmon and they need to make sure no one else orders it Martin is off somewhere on his mobile phone.

Gordon summons Martin to explain why one cook is stood in the kitchen doing nothing whilst the kitchen is busy.

After seeing the lack of management Gordon gets into an argument with Martin calling him a fake.

He accuses him of taking advantage of Mohammed by not doing his job but taking his money.

The evening service in the restaurant continues to be a disaster until the end.

The customers aren't happy with the flies in the dining room or the food and some leave unfed!

Gordon returns the next day for an inspection of the kitchen and finds a fly paper trap full of dead flies.

He discovers the worst hamburger he has ever seen, green chicken and rotten meat and vegetables.

There are also thousands of cockroaches, piles of rat droppings and rat traps down in the basement.

The bugs are all inside the fridges, boxes and all over the kitchen.

Gordon calls Martin to see the state of the fridges and shows him a bag of salad that Gordon was served from.

As he opens up the bag of salad a load of flies fly out of the bag.

He also shows him green chichken wings that he says could harm somebody if they were served.

Gordon spots a half rotten tomato which means the other half has just been served to a customer!

Gordon orders the staff to shut down the kitchen and ask the customers to leave as he refuses to let them eat the food.

Gordon arrives that evening in an exterminator suit bringing in an army of professional cleaners to deep clean the restaurant.

They will also need to throw away all of the produce in the restaurant.

Gordon takes Mohammed and the managers on a trip to his restaurant to show them how clean it is.

He shows them the clean fridges and explains to them the cleaning regime they follow.

On returning to the restaurant Gordon introduces his menu, they will only be serving modern Indian cuisine and abandoning the American menu.

A very happy chef gives Gordon the tightest hug that goes on forever and he has to be told by Mohammed to let go!

Gordon then introduces Chef Vikas Khanna, one of the top Indian chefs in New York city.

Vikas will be in the kitchen to help with the new menu and training the staff.

Overnight the restaurant is given a makeover and the horrible flashing sign out the front of the restaurant is taken down.

Gordon also wants to change the name of the restaurant and the new name of the restaurant is revealed.

The restaurant is named "Purnima", an authentic Indian name meaning full moon.

Gordon leads the owner and staff into the restaurant blindfolded and reveals the new look of the restaurant.

Mohammed is overwhelmed by the new look of the restaurant.

There is new linen and pictures on the wall. There is also a new awning out the front of the restaurant.

The new menu is revealed by Vikas and the staff love the taste of the new modern dishes.

Gordon tells Martin that he must turn his phone off during that evenings relaunch and be more attentive.

Martin doesn't like Gordon's comments and argues back to him, defending the staff.

The staff promote Purnima in New York with traditional dancers, leaflets and t-shirts.

For relaunch night, Vikas leads the kitchen whilst Gordon oversees the restaurant and keeps an eye on Martin.

The customers are loving the new decor and are pleased with the food to start with.

Confusion soon ensues with the servers as they are poorly managed and dishes start to back up in the kitchen.

Customers soon complain that the food they are receiving is cold, as it has been sat waiting on the pass waiting to be taken out.

It doesn't take long for the blame to be placed on Martin's failure to organize his staff.

Martin does not try to sort the mess out that has been caused by the servers.

He is more interested in saying that Gordon has it out for him and is wanting him to fail.

Gordon believes Khan can run the restaurant and asks him to step up and stop standing back.

Khan steps up and proves he is able to manage the restaurant instead of Martin.

The food is served to happy customers who love the taste of the food they receive due to Vikas and Khan working together.

The relaunch is a success but only due to Khan taking over the managerial role instead of Martin.

Before Gordon leaves he returns the next day and advises Mohammed to fire one of his staff.

With the saving he would be able to keep on Vikas on as a consultant.

Martin hears the conversation and tells Gordon that he has nothing to feel guilty about.

He then quits his position at the restaurant, leaving Mohammed shocked.



What Happened Next at Dillons / Purnima?


Martin tried to sue Gordon for $3million after claiming the show ruined his career.

Martin Hyde filed a lawsuit but also attempted to get an injunction to prevent the episode from being aired but the case was thrown out of court.

The full list of claims Martin made against Gordon are listed here.

Gordon revisits a year later, Purnima is clean, the food is excellent with Vikas Khanna still in the kitchen and customers are invited to see the kitchens and how clean they are.

Yelp reviews were mixed after filming the show.

In all of the Purnima reviews, some customers loved the food whilst others found it average.

There are complaints the dishes are over priced and reviews complain about the noise from the bar.

Purnima closed in 2009 but the website remained active until 2017.

Vikas Khanna is now at Junoon Restaurant and has written more than 30 cookery books.

He has hosted and appeared on Hell's Kitchen, Throwdown! with Bobby Flay and The Martha Stewart Show. He was a judge on MasterChef India.

Purnima has since become Characters Bar and Lounge and has had an extreme makeover. Yelp reviews are mixed.

Andrew is now a blogger, Huff Post Writer and writes cook books with Vikas.

Martin was said to be managing a car service company after the show.

Dillons aired on October 03 2007, the episode was filmed in March 2007 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 1 episode 2.

Read About More Kitchen Nightmares

Previous episode - Peter's

Next episode - The Mixing Bowl

This post was last updated in March 2023.

16 comments:

  1. most disgusting kitchen/storage area of all the episodes...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just came on to post that as well. Even the place with the rat was not as disgusting.

      Delete
  2. Attention, Martin: just because you don't see yourself a certain way doesn't mean every other person will see you that way as well. Stop filing frivolous lawsuits just because your eyes were opened as to how you really are and you didn't like what you saw. : P

    ReplyDelete
  3. First, did anyone notice that Gordon's team misspelled "Dillon's" as "Dillions" on the new canopies that they installed? Second, Martin claims in his lawsuit that he was the general manager of the restaurant's cabaret bar, not the dining area. He said that KN would not show that part of the business or allow him to explain his role in the business.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually Dillions was the original name of the restaurant. Gordon changed it to Purnima. The misspelling wasn't the shows fault, but the owners.

      Delete
    2. how on earth do you work that one out? the new canopies included the word "Dillion's", with the extra 'i'. nothing to do with the owners. the error is on the part of either the show or the people they got in to make the new canopies.

      Delete
    3. No.. the new canopies said Purnima. The original ones were named Dillions. I literally just rematched the episode. Sit down and shut up.

      Delete
    4. It says "Purnima" and then below it says "Dillion's Restaurant". Dude, don't tell people to shut up if you don't know how to read.

      Delete
  4. LOL. The website is STILL up and running. Some muppet is actually paying monthly/yearly fee's to keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow. The website is going longer than the actual restaurant.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Website still up on 1-28-2017!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah, it's really sad, like the website kinda like a ghost from the past.

      Delete
  7. Martin was a complete dunce. I'm glad his case got tossed so we could see just how awful the guy was. I doubt he did anything useful there except steal from the business and bang the waitresses.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If one good thing came of this episode it was bringing Vikas and Andrew together. Really nice to see them now, still best friends!

    ReplyDelete
  9. A restaurant that is described as "an American-Irish restaurant with an Indian ness to it" should never be trusted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know, being served a Taj Mahal crafted from colcannon and new york strips would be ... no, you're right.

      Delete

Comments are currently turned off due to an influx of spam comments.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.


Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter