Where Is Luigi's D'Italia Now? Kitchen Nightmares Update (Fullerton, CA)

Luigi's D'Italia was a family-run Italian restaurant in Anaheim, California, opened in 1981 by Luigi Catizone and his father, Dominic. By the time the episode aired October 14, 2011, Luigi had brought his brother Tony into the business, and the two clashed openly in front of customers and staff. The restaurant carried a menu of more than 120 items, slow service, and dated decor, and the family was more than $1.5 million in debt. Gordon Ramsay's tasting turned up dishes that had drifted far from any consistent standard, and he spent as much time addressing the friction between the two brothers as he did the food itself.

Staff described feeling caught between the brothers' competing instructions during service, a dynamic Ramsay worked to defuse alongside the food and the menu itself. Ramsay trimmed the oversized menu, refreshed the dining room, and coached the brothers through their communication problems ahead of the relaunch. The response was strong immediately afterward: business rose by roughly 40% in the months following the broadcast, helping the family pay down its debt, with dishes such as the lasagna and pizza drawing particular praise from returning customers. The recovery lasted until 2017, when a family dispute and the sale of the building forced the original Anaheim location to close, according to Geeks Around Globe (updated 2026-05-04).

Rather than closing for good, Luigi's D'Italia reopened later that year in Fullerton, California, as a smaller, takeout-focused restaurant that still offers limited dine-in seating, a scaled-down version of the original Anaheim dining room, per the same report. Luigi Catizone continues to run the Fullerton location, with his wife, Grace, helping out. A Yelp listing for the Fullerton address shows continued activity, with several hundred reviews, in an update dated September 2026. The restaurant's Orecchiette Mushroom pasta, a dish that first appeared on the show, remains a listed customer favorite at the new location.