restaurantRestaurant Takeover · Season 1, Episode 8 · Aired October 18, 2012
Royal Caribbean
Status unknown. No reliable current signal turned up. The last confirmed sighting we found dates to 2012.
What happened after
Caribbean-style restaurant owned by "Chef Ainsley," struggling due to nearby construction, per the show's synopsis. A Facebook page named "Royal Caribbean Cafe" exists and links directly to a Restaurant Takeover renovation post about this exact business, confirming identity, but the page shows no dated posts, address, or other operational signal in the content available to this pass.
What happened on the show
Chef Ainsley had the easygoing manner of a veteran cook, and that calm may have cost him. As construction tore up the neighborhood around Royal Caribbean, his Caribbean spot, he largely let it happen, watching the roadwork pull his business apart rather than fighting to hold customers. By the time Restaurant Takeover arrived, there were pieces to pick up. The show's six-day Food Network Canada format, the reboot of Restaurant Makeover, sent chef Andrea Nicholson and designer Montana Burnett to rebuild what the disruption and Ainsley's own passivity had eroded. The episode framed the problem around that temperament: a seasoned, likable owner whose relaxed attitude turned into a liability once forces outside his door started hurting the room. The team's job was to give Royal Caribbean a reason for a torn-up neighborhood to come back, and to light a fire under an owner content to ride out the storm.
After the cameras left
Royal Caribbean is unverifiable, but with one intriguing thread. A Facebook page under the name Royal Caribbean Cafe exists and links directly to a Restaurant Takeover renovation post about this exact restaurant, which confirms the identity, yet the page carries no dated posts, address, or other operational signal we could read. So while we know the business the episode featured, we cannot tell whether it is still trading today. Current status could not be confirmed. The last-known signal is that self-identifying page, enough to prove the restaurant was real and on the show, not enough to prove it is open now.
Sources
Last checked 2026-07-19.