Critic Reviews
| 90 |
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
Since CBS doesn’t want us to see "Kid Nation" in advance, I guess I’ll just have to declare Kitchen Nightmares the best new reality show of the fall. |
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
As usual, he's demanding, brutal and fearless. He repeatedly insults egotistical managers and chefs and yells, "Just smell that for me!" And they do. |
| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly Alynda Wheat
Mary Poppins it ain't--which is fine because the snooty broad couldn't begin to handle this. [21 Sep 2007, p.74] |
| 80 |
Variety Phil Gallo
Kitchen Nightmares is shockingly good storytelling and hilarious. This may be the most compelling show of the new season |
| 80 |
Arizona Republic Randy Cordova
He is just as blustery and foul-mouthed here as he is on "Hell's Kitchen." But he is also oddly endearing, mainly because he genuinely seems invested in the fate of each restaurant. |
| 75 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
This show is more entertaining than most unscripted series, but that praise doesn't raise the heat high enough. |
| 70 |
The New York Times Ginia Bellafante
The subtext of Kitchen Nightmares is that ordinary middle-class business owners need brash and brilliant moguls to save them from a sad reliance on their own mediocrity. It is an ugly message that Mr. Ramsay makes undeniably hypnotic. |
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
It is loud and manipulative and ugly to behold, but it isn't dull. |
| 50 |
Detroit Free Press Mike Duffy
If you like watching culinary train wrecks, this is your show. |
| 50 |
Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond
Kitchen Nightmares pushes all of the proper emotional buttons to draw we viewers in. But we're never for a moment able to suspend the notion that we, the audience, are being played. |
| 30 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
Leave it to Fox to take something the Brits did pretty well and muck it up. |
| 30 |
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
The show's boorishness is exceeded only by its dissimulation; not one frame of this thing--from the diners who seem not to notice that their table is surrounded by camera crews to the melodramatically villainous managers--is remotely believable. |
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