Where Is Casa Roma Now After Kitchen Nightmares?

Globally renowned chef Gordon Ramsay has earned himself a slew of Michelin stars, but what's truly sustained his claim to fame are his countless verbal takedowns of subpar kitchen professionals and the businesses he may or may not have saved on his show, "Kitchen Nightmares." Casa Roma, an Italian restaurant in Lancaster, California, is one of those more memorable businesses "rescued" by Ramsay on the show. Although the restaurant is no longer open today, it put up quite the fight even after its appearance on the television series.

During a March 2010 episode of the show's original run, Ramsay visits the restaurant and finds it to be one of the worst he's ever encountered. Casa Roma was considered the oldest restaurant in Lancaster, having opened its doors in 1958. The business was bought by Nylah and her eldest son Jeremy, both of whom had no restaurant experience prior to buying the business.

Nylah explains that the bar side of the business is what brings in the most money, while the restaurant side is a ghost town. As with most episodes of Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares," the situation looks very bleak before it gets any better. Cue Gordon Ramsay and his "Kitchen Nightmares" team.

On his first visit to Casa Roma, Chef Ramsay waits more than an hour just for an appetizer, while a look at the walk-in refrigerator leaves him hurling into a garbage can from all the rancid ingredients. On top of that, the decor and overall upkeep of the entire restaurant is sorely lacking, with booths falling apart and carpeting covered in unknown stains. A single pass of a black light over the bathroom revealed bodily fluids from floor to ceiling on every wall. 

After a heated back and forth with head chef Erick regarding the terrible food quality and slow kitchen, Ramsay recommends the owners fire him and promote their sous chef, Drew. With Drew leading the kitchen, Ramsay reinvigorates the whole staff's passion by revamping the menu. Rather than serving underdone, underseasoned Italian fare, Ramsay and team transform Casa Roma into a full-scale pizzeria with a lighter, condensed menu. Ramsay even had the business hold a pizza-eating contest in celebration of the relaunch — and the restaurant's 50-year anniversary. Despite a small snag rushing food out to customers, Casa Roma was successfully rebooted under the guidance of Ramsay.

Although Ramsay was able to help Casa Roma escape its nightmare, the restaurant's success wouldn't last. The business saw further change in the years following the 2010 episode.

One year after the "Kitchen Nightmares" episode, Ramsay returned to check on how Casa Roma was performing. By that point, Nylah had bought out her son Jeremy's portion of Casa Roma, becoming full owner. Overall, the business was doing well.

Unfortunately, a number of bad Yelp reviews in the years following the show indicated that the food quality and the restaurant as a whole had taken a nose-dive. Eventually, Nylah sold off a substantial portion of the restaurant and it was renamed to AV Roadhouse. Under the new name, Ramsay's menu was also discarded. Then in 2015, the restaurant underwent another transformation becoming CR Road House Bar & Grill, which featured Mexican cuisine. This somewhat improved the restaurant's reviews, with much of the kitchen staff hailing from another beloved, but newly-shuttered, local Mexican restaurant. Finally, in 2017, Casa Roma closed its doors for good, and Nylah retired in 2018..

Casa Roma joined the ranks of restaurants like Burger Kitchen and Mangia Mangia, which also appeared on "Kitchen Nightmares" and ended up closing. Even with beautiful makeovers and streamlined menus, more than two thirds of the restaurants that received Ramsey's help have closed since. As of early 2025, only 22 restaurants remain open — but nothing's a sure bet in the food and beverage industry.