What Happened to Mojito After Kitchen Nightmares? (Brooklyn, NY)

Mojito Cuban Cuisine was a Brooklyn, New York restaurant opened in 2003 by then-married couple Marcelo and Katalina (Kata), according to Reality TV Updates and a Gazette Review account of the episode. By the time of Gordon Ramsay's 2009 visit, the pair had separated but remained business partners, were roughly $300,000 in debt, and argued audibly in front of diners; recap sources describe Ramsay being served cold chicken soup, oversalted black beans and rice, and undercooked tilapia, with a fight between the owners breaking out in the kitchen each time a dish was sent back. Ramsay found the kitchen using dated ingredients kept behind fresher stock and observed that Marcelo, expediting orders, had lost control of the kitchen during service.

For the relaunch, Ramsay's team lightened and opened up the dining room, cut the menu roughly in half, and had Katalina and Marcelo swap their usual roles for a night, she in the kitchen and he in the dining room, a change both handled reasonably well despite early stumbles, according to the same recap. Business improved by more than 25 percent afterward, per owner statements relayed in Reality TV Updates, though the couple's marriage did not recover; Ramsay revisited the restaurant again in a later episode that also featured return visits to Flamangos and Bazzini in New Jersey. Mojito continued operating for several more years.

According to a March 3, 2016 post on the Kitchen Nightmares Updates blog, the restaurant's own Facebook page announced the Brooklyn location's closure the day before, thanking "our entire Patrons for 13 years of support and loyalty" and stating the business would look toward its "next Chapter." A Gazette Review account independently gives the same March 2, 2016 closing date. Katalina has since appeared on other cooking competition shows, including Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen, and continues to post on the restaurant's Facebook page about her culinary career, according to Reality TV Updates. As of a 2023 update from that site, the former Mojito space in Brooklyn was occupied by an unrelated bakery and cafe, Le Petit Monstre.