Is Leo's Still Open? Kitchen Nightmares Update (Cedar Creek, TX)

Leo's Italian Grill, an Italian restaurant with a Southern accent in Cedar Creek, Texas, appeared in season 9, episode 9 of Kitchen Nightmares, "Leo's," which aired March 4, 2025. Owner Leo Gaertner, who learned to bake bread from his grandfather at age 10 and worked his way up through kitchen jobs before opening the restaurant in 2018 with his wife, Michelle, built a menu blending Italian dishes such as lasagna and arancini with Southern touches like Texas gnocchi and a ribeye with salsa verde. The family was still grieving the 2022 death of their son, Leo Edward Gaertner III, known as "Bump," who had worked at the restaurant as a delivery driver, and, as shown in the episode, that loss had visibly worn on Gaertner and coincided with a decline in the kitchen's execution and customer service.

In an advance clip released by PEOPLE magazine, Ramsay is shown sending back a pasta dish after a customer complained the shrimp had not been deveined, then finding the shrimp undercooked and criticizing the kitchen for reusing the same unwashed pans for different sauces, calling the operation "all dysfunctional." Ramsay's team refreshed the restaurant's decor and worked with Gaertner and his kitchen staff on consistency and cleanliness, aiming to restore the quality the restaurant had built its reputation on before the family's loss. Following the relaunch, Leo's kept its full menu of Italian and Southern dishes, its bar area with televisions, and its weekly karaoke and live-music nights.

Reviews on Tripadvisor since the episode have been largely positive: visitors in 2024 and 2025 praised the food and hospitality, one calling it the best Italian food in Bastrop County, though a November 2022 review before the show had described the food as bland and under-seasoned. A Tripadvisor reviewer who visited in February 2026 called the restaurant a pleasant surprise and specifically mentioned having watched its Kitchen Nightmares episode beforehand. As of research in September 2026, the restaurant's Tripadvisor and Discover Bastrop tourism-board listings both showed current hours and an active address, with no indication of closure.