TV Restaurants

What Happened to Babelfish Bistro After Restaurant Makeover? (Guelph, ON)

Closed

As of October 2026, Babelfish Bistro has closed — confirmed via Google, October 19, 2026.

Primary source
Google ·
Secondary source
guelphtoday.com

Last verified

What the source shows: A Google Places listing for Babelfish Bistro at 80 Macdonell St, checked 2026-10-19, is marked permanently closed, and an undated GuelphToday article reports the longtime fine-dining restaurant at that address closing after 23 years.

  • Season / episode Season 1, Episode 5
  • Original air date
  • Address 80 Macdonell St, Guelph, ON N1H 4E2

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What happened after Restaurant Makeover?

Babelfish Bistro was a fine-dining restaurant at 80 Macdonell Street in downtown Guelph, Ontario. The episode, S1E5, aired 2005-05-03. Google Play's description says two former employees had bought the restaurant, that its business had plateaued, and that they were reluctant to accept outside help. Rotten Tomatoes lists the episode only as a professional makeover. RealityTVWorld's show page and Wikipedia's Restaurant Makeover article both credit chef David Adjey and designer Robin De Groot, and Wikipedia's table gives Guelph, Ontario as the location and marks the restaurant as no longer open.

GuelphToday reported that the restaurant had been at 80 Macdonell Street since the early 1990s, which places it at that address when the episode was made. As in other episodes, the show's format gave the team a very limited budget and time, with the owners' funds matched up to $20,000 (RealityTVWorld; reduced to $15,000 in later seasons). None of the sources we read say what was changed in the menu, the decor or the staffing for this episode, and we found no account of the relaunch or of how the owners felt about the result.

GuelphToday published an article headed 'Downtown Guelph loses longtime dining spot,' with the subheading 'Fine dining restaurant closes after 23 years.' The copy we read carries no publication date or byline, so we cannot date it. The article reported that a message left on the restaurant's answering machine called the moment 'bittersweet' and thanked customers for their patronage, and that the owner could not be reached for comment. The article does not mention Restaurant Makeover.

A public Google Places listing for Babelfish Bistro at 80 Macdonell Street, checked on 2026-10-19, is marked permanently closed. A listing's update date is not a closing date, and the GuelphToday copy is undated, so we do not give a closing year. We did not find a dated source that gives the closing date or the reason.

Featured on Restaurant Makeover

Season / episode
Season 1, Episode 5
Original air date
Episode title
Babelfish Bistro
What was featured
Two former employees who bought their bistro get help from a chef and designer
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Babelfish Bistro

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Visit info

Address
80 Macdonell St, Guelph, ON N1H 4E2
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

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Sources

  • Google — https://play.google.com/store/tv/show?id=VUxQg4mT6Cw&cdid=tvseason-IhBAVOADG0_8T_e5h2UlNA&gdid=tvepisode-OhAe4qxDZL4
  • rottentomatoes.com — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/restaurant_makeover/s01
  • realitytvworld.com — https://www.realitytvworld.com/realitytvdb/wiki/Restaurant_Makeover
  • Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant_Makeover
  • guelphtoday.com — https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/downtown-guelph-loses-longtime-dining-spot-560874
  • Google — https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Babelfish+Bistro+80+Macdonell+St+Guelph

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