Kitchen Nightmares (US) · S5 E16
Chiarella's
Philadelphia, PA
This one did not make it. The business closed in 2015.
The short answer
Italian restaurant (1600 S 11th St) closed roughly 3 years after its March 2012 episode, due to rental/lease issues.
What happened on the show
Whenever the numbers got to him, Tommy Defino disappeared into a weight room in the basement, which told Ramsay most of what he needed to know about Chiarella's. Tommy and his wife Dina had relocated the restaurant to South Philadelphia in 2007, transplanting a name her parents had run for 36 years at the Jersey Shore, and the success had not made the trip. The menu sprawled, and the food was grim: dreadful chewy veal Sinatra, and a Steak Sarah Ann so unappealing Ramsay said it looked like he had given birth, the steak raw under a clashing pile of mozzarella and prosciutto. The Land and Sea promised filet mignon and lobster but delivered New York strip and crawfish, because they had been out of filet, a waitress admitted, for years. When Ramsay's criticism landed, Tommy folded and retreated to the basement again, leaving Dina to try to hold the service together.
After the cameras left
Chiarella's held on for about three years past the episode before closing in 2015, brought down by rental and lease trouble at 1600 South 11th Street. A restaurant with 36 years of Jersey Shore history behind it could not replant that success in South Philly, and an owner who hid in the basement rather than face a bad night was never going to will it through. No successor carried the name forward.
Location
Philadelphia, PA
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Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.