TV Restaurants

What Happened to Burger Kitchen After Kitchen Nightmares?

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Burger Kitchen has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, August 6, 2025.

Primary source
dexerto.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Dexerto reports Burger Kitchen closed in February 2012, months after its two-part episode aired, and that owner Alan Saffron died in April 2020.

  • Season / episode Season 5, Episode 6
  • Original air date
  • Address 8048 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048

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What happened after Kitchen Nightmares?

Burger Kitchen was a gourmet hamburger restaurant on West Third Street in Los Angeles, opened in 2010 by Alan and Gen Saffron. Alan financed part of the restaurant with $250,000 he managed on behalf of his son Daniel's inheritance, a decision Daniel had not agreed to and that strained their relationship throughout the two-part episode, which aired November 4, 2011 (Season 5, episodes 5 and 6). Sixteen months in, the restaurant was losing $5,000 to $6,000 a month, had gone through about ten chefs and twenty servers, and had changed its menu roughly once a month. Alan blamed negative Yelp reviews for the decline; Gordon Ramsay was openly skeptical. When Ramsay ordered a sampling of the signature burgers, both the California burger and the restaurant's award-winning burger arrived undercooked despite requests for specific temperatures, and longtime chef David, frustrated by a lack of real authority in the kitchen, walked out mid-tasting and did not return. The neighborhood itself was not the problem: Third Street was, by the episode's own account, a lively, well-trafficked part of Los Angeles well suited to a burger restaurant, which only underscored how much the family's internal conflict, rather than the location or the concept, was dragging the business down.

In the second half of the two-part episode, with some of the family tension eased, Ramsay simplified the burger menu and ran a head-to-head cook-off between kitchen staff to help settle who should lead service going forward. The Saffrons responded well to the leaner menu and the more consistent cooking it produced, and the relaunch drew renewed local attention and positive early reviews.

The improvement did not hold. According to Dexerto (updated 2025-08-06), Burger Kitchen's closure came in February 2012, only months after the episodes aired. Alan Saffron, an Australian army veteran who had become a fan favorite on the show for his confidence in his own cooking, died in April 2020 at age 71 following a heart attack, per the same report.

Featured on Kitchen Nightmares

Season / episode
Season 5, Episode 6
Original air date
Episode title
Burger Kitchen
What was featured
gourmet burger restaurant; family financial dispute and undercooked burgers
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Burger Kitchen

Frequently asked questions

Is Burger Kitchen still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Burger Kitchen has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, August 6, 2025.

What happened to Burger Kitchen after Kitchen Nightmares?

Burger Kitchen was a gourmet hamburger restaurant on West Third Street in Los Angeles, opened in 2010 by Alan and Gen Saffron. As of September 2026, Burger Kitchen has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, August 6, 2025.

Is Burger Kitchen permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Burger Kitchen has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, August 6, 2025. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Burger Kitchen located?

8048 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Kitchen Nightmares featured Burger Kitchen?

Season 5, Episode 6 of Kitchen Nightmares, first aired November 4, 2011. The episode is titled “Burger Kitchen”.

Did the makeover last at Burger Kitchen?

The episode first aired November 4, 2011. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 15 years later —: As of September 2026, Burger Kitchen has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, August 6, 2025.

What do reviews say since Kitchen Nightmares?

Alan blamed negative Yelp reviews for the decline; Gordon Ramsay was openly skeptical. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Is Burger Kitchen still using the Kitchen Nightmares menu or branding?

Sixteen months in, the restaurant was losing $5,000 to $6,000 a month, had gone through about ten chefs and twenty servers, and had changed its menu roughly once a month. Anything newer than our last check on September 7, 2026 may not be reflected here.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
8048 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

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Sources

  • dexerto.com — https://www.dexerto.com/reality-tv/what-happened-the-burger-kitchen-kitchen-nightmares-2314819/

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