The Oceana episode of Kitchen Nightmares has mostly disappeared after the owners of the restaurant sued the show (twice).
All longtime Kitchen Nightmares fans will know that it is certainly not out of the question for the owners of the restaurants featured on the show over the years, to harbor some hard feelings after Gordon Ramsay and the show’s production team pack up to left.
However, no owners have taken their disagreement with Ramsay’s often not-so thinly veiled critiques quite as far as Moe and Rami.
The two brothers manage the Oceana Grill, a seafood restaurant, which was originally featured in the fourth season of the show.
The real reason why the Oceana episode has disappeared
If you have recently re-watched season four of Kitchen Nightmares, then you may have noticed that the “Oceana” episode was missing from the lineup.
And, while this may seem like a simple glitch, this episode has actually been removed from many cable and streaming services, after the Oceana Grill’s owners sued Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares production team in 2011 (and then again in 2018).
Apparently, Moe and Remi were unhappy with the way that this Kitchen Nightmares episode portrayed their restaurant.
And although they failed to keep the episode off the air (as they initially intended), they did come to an agreement with the Kitchen Nightmares producers that the episode could not be remixed in the future (without the production team paying the restaurant $10,000) and that a disclaimer would be included which states that the episode did not reflect Oceana Grill’s current state.
The history between Oceana and Kitchen Nightmares
While it may be quite difficult to track the Oceana episode down these days, the owners’ plans to keep this episode on the down-low may just have backfired.
The Oceana episode has now become one of the most talked-about episodes in Kitchen Nightmares’ history.
This is all thanks to the highly-publicized chain of lawsuits which the owners have brought against Ramsay and the show over the years, which can be summarized as follows:
| Year | Lawsuit |
| 2011 | Cajun Conti LLC (the company that owns Oceana Grill) sued Gordon Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares production team to prevent the episode from airing. They explained that they felt the episode misrepresented the restaurant. This lawsuit was eventually settled privately. |
| 2018 | Cajun Conti LLC sued Gordon Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares producers for showcasing old footage of the restaurant and “fabricating” scenes. This was after a clip of the Oceana episode was shared on the Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Facebook page with the caption “no wonder this restaurant is failing…” |
Oceana’s other non-Kitchen-Nightmares-related lawsuits
Cajun Conti LLC’s legal battles did not end once the Oceana Kitchen Nightmares episode was (mostly) scrubbed from all corners of the internet.
This parent-company also sued their insurance company, Lloyd’s of London, on March 20, 2020, for the losses that they suffered while Louisiana’s restaurants were forced to close down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While a lower court had initially denied Cajun Conti LLC’s claims, the company later won their appeal in The Louisiana Supreme Court.
It is also noteworthy that the Oceana Grill owners have been involved in another insurance dispute (over a fire which erupted at the restaurant) and an employment discrimination lawsuit, through the years.
Does Oceana still have the same owners?
Although some sources have reported that Oceana has changed hands in the years following the premiere of this now-lost Kitchen Nightmares episode, this is untrue.
Cajun Conti LLC (the company that filed all of these lawsuits on behalf of Oceana Grill) is owned by Remi and Moe’s father, and Remi still lists Oceana as one of the restaurants under his management on his personal Instagram page.
The 2020 lawsuit between Cajun Conti LLC and Lloyd’s of London also lists Moe as Oceana Grill’s General Manager, which means that both brothers are likely still involved in the business today.
Is Oceana still open after all these years?
Outside of the fact that Oceana Grill and its owners seem to get themselves into legal hot water quite often, the restaurant actually seems to be doing quite well.
Not only is Oceana Grill one of only a handful of Kitchen Nightmares restaurants which remains open to this day, but the restaurant is actually fairly popular among the local New Orleans diners.
Oceana Grill currently has an excellent 4.1 out of 5-star average rating on Yelp, with one of the most recent September 2023 5-star reviewers stating, “I highly recommend this restaurant it is very cool and good quality food!”
And the reviews on TripAdvisor are even more positive, with Oceana scoring a 4.5 out 5-star rating.
