What Happened to Kingston Cafe After Kitchen Nightmares? (Pasadena, CA)

Kingston Cafe, a Jamaican restaurant on South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, California, was featured in Kitchen Nightmares' tenth episode of Season 4, filmed in early 2011 and aired April 15, 2011. Owner Una Morris, a radiologist and former Olympic sprinter for Jamaica who had opened the restaurant in 1992, ran the business with what Ramsay described as absolute control, overruling both her head chef and her son and general manager, Keone Chong, on nearly every decision including the menu. Ramsay found the space formally decorated in a way that read more like an office than a Caribbean restaurant, servers dressed in shirts and ties, and food, including jerk chicken and Jamaican patties, that had spent too long frozen or pre-made rather than being cooked fresh.

Morris told Ramsay she was deeply in debt and feared the restaurant would not survive another month. Ramsay's changes started with a patio barbecue setup that customers responded to immediately, then moved inside: he cleared out the frozen and packaged inventory, introduced fresh Jamaican dishes developed with the kitchen, replaced the formal tablecloths and china with casual table mats, put servers in more relaxed shirts, and added prominent new signage so passersby could find the restaurant. Keone was asked to take on more day-to-day responsibility, though the show suggested his mother would remain firmly in charge.

Kingston Cafe went on to operate for several more years, adding a dance floor and expanded bar along the way, with Keone eventually leaving to pursue other work while his mother continued running the business. According to Wikipedia's article on Una Morris, the restaurant closed to dine-in service in August 2018 and was converted into a catering and event-only operation, a change multiple after-the-show accounts also describe; a Yelp listing for the Fair Oaks Avenue address is marked permanently closed as of an August 2026 update. Morris has continued operating a diagnostic imaging center at the same property.