Open or closed? OPEN
Episode Summary: Brothers Moe and Rami running a seafood restaurant out of busy Bourbon Street in New Orleans with Executive Chef Damon in the kitchen. The brothers have an explosive relationship with each other and with the staff. The place is dirty and has rats. Gordon arrives and sits down in the restaurant which appears to be in 2 halves. with 2 menus. Gordon speaks to the waiter and discovers that the owners fire a lot of staff, his server has been fired 4 times! Gordon orders the Seafood Gumbo, Crab Cake Platter and Blackened Bayou Duck. The gumbo is disgusting and it tastes old, the crab cake platter is soggy and tastes as if has been frozen and the duck is tough and tastes as if it has been cooked for 5 days. Rami agrees it is tough and Moe disagrees and eats it himself. The chefs deny that the crab cakes are frozen and owner Rami tells him they are. Gordon discovers his duck was cooked a month ago and frozen. Gordon oversees a dinner service and walks into a kitchen full of smoke. Lots of food is sent back to the kitchen, the warmer unit is not even hot, the crabs are milky, very old off prawns that make Gordon retch/vomit and there is sour food. The crawfish and pasta is cooked days in advance. There are boxes and boxes of going off food in the fridge and a bag of warm jambalaya. He then finds a mouse trip with 3 dead mice in. Gordon shuts down the restaurant.
Gordon calls in the exterminators a live mouse runs out the trap and finds out they have never had a proper clean, they start deep cleaning the kitchen. Moe starts shouting at Rami as he blames him alongside Damon. Moe then starts shouting at the servers, throwing chairs and downing shots. Executive Chef Damon is sacked. Moe has all his recipes in his head and won't write them down so the chefs have no idea what they are meant to be cooking. Moe shouts at Gordon. Gordon starts by revamping the menu as Moe offers no recipes and teaches them a blackened salmon. The owners allow Gordon to make whatever changes he needs to make. Moe vomits (?) Gordon does a dining room makeover with a fresh lick of paint and a decluttering. They samples the new menu and Moe likes it!
Relaunch night and it starts with Moe being M.I.A. Rami is supervising the kitchen and Moe running the front of house. Moe abandons the front of house and hovers around the kitchen and has to be sent back out the front. The customers are liking the new menu. Moe appears back in the kitchen and is moaning about the speed of the food. Moe walks out, Gordon goes after him. Gordon leaves and is unsure if Oceana will still be there when he revisits.
What Happened Next: The restaurant is still open. After filming, online posts seem to suggest that nothing had changed, the decor didn't look much different, unhappy customers still get shouted at and the menu was mostly the same too. A lot of the staff left too. I would suggest reading the Trip Advisor reviews (which are highly suspect as are mostly by new reviewers and done on mobiles, there is a rumour that you get a free drink for a positive Trip Advisor review) especially at the lower end as there is not much information on what happened next other than on review sites. Please email me any updates or information.
Extra Reading
After catching up on back shows, and watching this episode, the smartest thing Rami could do is buy out Moe, the guy isn't all there, now to be fair, some of it i'm sure is editing, but the way he's shown on the show, like saying he wants the shrimp salty so they will buy more liquor, really make him look like he's not all there and doesn't know a thing about running a resturant.
ReplyDeleteIm deeply surprised this restaurant is still open... Good AND bad. Rami being a great owner and trying his best. However, Moe is terrible at everything except intimidation. Hope all goes well for them either way.
ReplyDeleteThere is no owner stuberness for this one. I would suggest 11/10 for the crazy wannabe thug owner.
ReplyDeleteI was just there with my family this past weekend and the food was very good. I'm born and raised in Southern Louisiana and I don't just eat Creole/Cajun cuisine anywhere. We were pleasantly surprised even went back the next morning for slammin homemade pancakes. It looks like the owners took some of the criticism to heart and revamped their restaurant.
ReplyDeletenever thought that the restaurant would still be open.
ReplyDeletewhen u re that careless, generally u dont change. anyway, the best test, more than trip advisor or anything else, is to see that it's still on.
According to their web page, Moe is not mentioned at all, and they have a new owner, with Rami still there. It looks great. I don't live near it, so I don't think I'll be going anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteYup I noticed that Moe wasn't mentioned on the site as well. No doubt it's a good thing for the restaurant that he's out of the picture and I wish them all the best, though I'd never go there after seeing what lurked in the kitchen during the show even if it is supposed to be all cleaned up now.
ReplyDeleteIs still Oceana Open now, Feb,17, 2013 ? Good luck !
ReplyDeleteYes Oceana is still open today with plenty of great reviews.
Delete"He's British, he doesn't know English" yup, they all speak Gibberish in England especially when it comes to successful restaurants and businesses, they determinately don't know how to cook indeed, no need to take this guys advice even though he tried to save other restaurants for 4+ years :/
ReplyDeleteI ate there last night and I loved the food, it was absolutely delicious.
ReplyDeleteMost of the food is bought frozen from Sysco. Reheated food never tastes good unless you throw some sauce on top of it so you can't tell. Too many NO restaurants are doing this as well. Find out the background of the chef to make sure the restaurant you choose leaves you with an experience you want to remember.
ReplyDeleteTripadvisor has some posts saying that Oceana Grill has reviews that have only one post and are new accounts. Unusual for a small restaurant to have so many reviews. I think they are doing it to counter the above article.
Come on. Moe is still there. Just laying low. Wouldn't you?