Gordon Ramsay Brings Kitchen Nightmares to Manhattan Beach

About a month ago, famed chef and reality-television personality Gordon Ramsay made a stop in the South Bay.  His goal?  To help a local establishment wake up from a Kitchen Nightmare!

I was glad to be invited to participate as a diner in this event.  I got a call from the producers staffing the show and was quick to sign up myself and a few friends.  When I asked them how they found me, they said they did a search for “south bay foodies” and this site came up.  I wanted to celebrate for an SEO WIN!  When I found out they were filming at Lido di Manhattan, which is right around the way from my office, I was even more excited. 

I was even more excited to find that the dinner would be POST nightmare.  That is, we would be visiting after Ramsey had made suggestions to the owners at Lido; not before.  I’ve been to Lido a couple times in the past few years, once for dinner and once for a office party, and neither event was horrible.  If the conditions had gone down since then, I definitely wanted to see the upside!

Initially, we were asked to choose between a happy hour and dinner.  Not knowing how the experience would play out (nightmarish?), but knowing that Lido was a bit on the pricey side, I opted for happy hour.  That way, we could check out the dinner prices and stay for that if we wanted too.  If not, we could bail and still tell our grandkids about the day we saw Ramsay make the chefs and wait staff wet their pants.

The day of the dinner came and at the last minute, the happy hour was cancelled.  No matter, Lido is right next door to Bristol Farms so Margaret and I headed over there to make our own happy hour of sorts by checking out samples from all over the store.  We posted at Bristol Farms for a few and headed back over the Lido for dinner.

We checked in with the producers and were seated right away; table for two since the rest of our party couldn’t make it.  The place was buzzing with lights, cameras, and production assistants all being dodged by waiters and bus boys.  It was kind of a zoo.

Our server came out and explained the specials then came back in a few to take our order.  Margaret opted for the osso buco while I ordered one of the specials, a seafood linguine featuring fresh crab.  The dishes came out super quick; uncannily quick.  We weren’t sure why but we didn’t complain. 

The food was great.  The pasta was my fave, with the generous amount of crab being prepared delicately seasoned.  The noodles were not as I expected but were good; they were practically sauce-less, tossed in a light drizzle of olive oil and herbs.  I was hoping for more of a cream sauce but like I said, I was happy.  The osso buco was tender and flavorful.  The noodles served with it, though, were thicker and a bit tougher than expected.

Some of our fellow diners weren’t so happy with their meals; we saw a few tables send their dishes back.  This was noticeable because none of us could send something back without first telling a producer, having the camera crew and server come over, and then explain what was wrong.  I was wondering, after a while, if some folks were sending stuff back just to get some camera time!  We were filmed right when our food came out and as we tasted it but I’m sure my reactions will end up on the cutting room floor. Ha!  It’s hard to “look natural” while being blinded by a light and wrapping noodles around a fork.

Sadly, none of the staff fell apart or got cussed out by Chef Ramsay.  I was hoping for at least a nasty look from somebody on staff but it never panned out.  Instead, Chef was very calm the entire time, pacing quickly from the kitchen…to the host stand…through the dining room…and back to the kitchen.  He glanced at the diners’ plates as he walked by but never said anything.  One time, there was a group leaving and he stopped to chat about their experience.  Nice.  We were trying to time our exit so we might get the same deal but he went on break to chill in his trailer a few minutes before we got our bill.  Oh, and we were expressly forbidden to take pictures, make phone calls, text, etc. during the meal in addition to even thinking about talking to Mr. Ramsay.  Bummer!

In the end, I enjoyed the experience.  It’s always cool to see how a television show comes together.  I’ll be excited to see 1) how Lido fares now that Ramsay has been through the joint and 2) how the show comes together.  Look for me and my 0.5 seconds of not so famous fame!

Season Three of Kitchen Nightmares airs this fall.

PS:  I’m not sure of all of the areas of improvement Mr. Ramsay touched on but I did see a dead ringer.  The booth across from ours was unoccupied.  Being close to the terminal where the waiters were putting in their orders, I thought it was so the camera crew could get in close to capture some footage.  I noticed, though, that one seat of the booth’s covering (a leather-like material) was genuinely torn to pieces!  This week, I saw several of the booths outside Lido next to the dumpsters.  Perhaps a Kitchen Nightmares WIN?

Photo courtesy of australiantimes.co.uk.