Is Purnima/Dillons still open?
Current Status: >> CLOSED <<
(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 1 | View All Season 1 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: September 26, 2007
Purnima/Dillons Address: 245 W 54th St New York, NY 10019
Episode Recap
Dillons Lounge, later renamed to be Purnima, was a New York City restaurant featured on season 1 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the Purnima and Dillon’s Kitchen Nightmares episode originally aired in September 2007, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place in March 2007.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 1 Episode 2.
In this episode, we head to Dillons Lounge, which is owned by Mohammad Islaam.
Dillons is located off-Broadway in the heart of New York City. That’s in Manhattan, if you’re not familiar with the city.
Mohammad started the restaurant because he wanted better for his family.
Mohammad has hired three other managers, Martin, Andrew, and Khan.
Martin is the general manager, Andrew is the operations manager, and Khan is the floor manager.
That’s a lot of different managers, right?
Perhaps as a result of paying so many high-level employees, Dillon’s is losing $20,000.00 a month, which is a big part of why the Dillons Kitchen Nightmares episode exists.
Martin describes the restaurant as Irish-American with an Indian flare…which is just a weird combination.
In my opinion, Irish and Indian food doesn’t really mix.
To kick things off, Gordon Ramsay decides to order some food and see how Dillon’s does on the most important part of a restaurant (the food, of course).
Gordon swats a fly away as he reads the expansive menu.
Gordon’s server tells him the restaurant is nearly always empty and that there are always flies in the dining room.
Dillons has Indian cooks, but they do not cook western cuisine.
Andrew, the manager, steps in to cook the western dishes. Gordon is served a vegetarian platter with meat.
He informs Mohammed if that had been a paying customer, he could have a lawsuit on his hands.
Gordon’s curry has rotten tomatoes, and his beef dish is actually lamb.
Gordon goes to look in the kitchen after eating and notices that there are flies all over the kitchen.
Notice a trend with all the flies?
Suddenly, Gordon starts not to feel well, and the chef informs him he might have served Gordon old lamb because he was nervous.
Gordon finds the general manager Martin lying down in the booth having his head rubbed by a server.
During dinner, customers are overwhelmed by all of the choices on the menu.
One hour into dinner service, and still no food has left the kitchen.
However, Martin is nowhere to be found.
When Gordon finds him, he admonishes him for taking advantage of Mohammed.
Some customers walk out without eating anything because of all the flies.
Still more issues with flies!
It gets worse, though…
In the kitchen, Gordon Ramsay finds rotten meat and vegetables.
There are roaches, rat droppings, and rat traps set throughout the restaurant.
It’s just generally pretty disgusting.
Gordon finds a bag of rotten salad that he was served the day before.
Gordon also finds green chicken wings.
He immediately shuts down Dillons restaurant and calls in professionals to clean the kitchen.
Gordon takes Mohammed and the three managers to his restaurant to show them his cleaning regimen.
Beyond that, Gordon Ramsay makes big changes to the menu.
There is no more western food on the menu; the restaurant is strictly Indian.
The chef is so happy he hugs Gordon.
Gordon brings in a new chef, Vikas Khanna.
He is one of the top Indian chefs in New York City.
The restaurant is given a makeover as well as a new name.
This is one of the only times that Gordon Ramsay has renamed a restaurant on Kitchen Nightmares.
Dillons Lounge is renamed Purnima, a traditional Indian word that means full moon.
However, not everything is peace in the new restaurant and Gordon and Martin continue their fight over Martin’s use of his phone.
The customers are initially happy during the relaunch, but they are being served cold food.
The servers are poorly managed because Martin is preoccupied.
Vikas Khanna steps up and helps immensely.
Before Gordon leaves, he informs Mohammed he should fire Martin and keep Vikas on full-time consultant.
Martin overhears this, and before he can be fired, he quits.
So was the Purnima Kitchen Nightmares a long-term success?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if Dillons Lounge / Purnima is still open in 2024 and beyond.
Purnima/Dillons Update - What Happened Next?
Now that’s we’ve recapped the Dillons and Purnima Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened after the episode aired.
Overall, there was plenty of drama to satisfy any Kitchen Nightmares viewer.
Martin Sued Gordon Ramsay for Money and To Stop the Episode
Before the Dillon’s Kitchen Nightmares episode even aired, there was some drama.
Martin Hyde, the general manager from the episode, tried to sue Gordon for $3 million.
He also attempted to file an injunction to stop the episode from airing.
Given that the episode did end up airing, you can guess that Martin’s lawsuit failed.
Martin alleged several issues in his lawsuit, including that some of the parts were staged, such as the rotten meat.
He also said that he was only responsible for the front of house, even though the episode made it seem like the kitchen was his fault.
Gordon Revisits Purnima In Season 2
After Gordon’s help and the rebranding from Dillons to Purnima, the restaurant seemed to be doing well.
Gordon visited the restaurant one year later, and everything was running smoothly.
Vikas is still there, and customers are even invited back into the kitchen to see how clean it is.
The Purnima Gordon Ramsay revisit happened in Season 2 Episode 1.
In that episode, he also revisited Finn McCool’s, The Olde Stone Mill, The Mixing Bowl, Campania, and Peter’s Italian Restaurant.
If you want to watch the revisit, you can find it on YouTube here. The Dillons revisit part starts around 50:15:
Is Purnima still open?
Purnima closed in 2009, two years after the Purnima Kitchen Nightmares episode aired.
The Yelp reviews were mixed after the makeover and there were complaints about overpriced food and a noisy environment.
For a time, the old Purnima New York City location was occupied by a place called Dillon’s Comedy Club.
So it appears that the Dillons name lived on, even though the restaurant was gone.
However, as of 2023, the location now seems to be occupied by a place called The Grisly Pear, which is a bar and comedy club.
Here’s what the old Purnima location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view:
I’m not sure why Purnima closed.
Mohammad was having issues with a neighboring tenant allegedly causing damage to the Purnima property, but I’m not sure whether or not that played any role in the closure.
It could’ve been just do to business/money.
Purnima restaurant reviews after Kitchen Nightmares
At the time that Purnima restaurant closed, it had about six genuine reviews, with five of them being positive or neutral.
On the Purnima Yelp page, there are nine reviews in total, but three of them are just from fans of the show and were written well after Purnima Indian Restaurant closed.
To give you an idea of what customers were experiencing, here’s a sampling of a few reviews from after the Purnima restaurant Gordon Ramsay visit….
4 star Yelp review from September 2008:
After watching a re-cap of last seasons’s “Kitchen Nightmares” the night before, a few of us wanted to check out Purnima to see if they indeed had cleaned up their act.
The decor of the place was nice.
The seats were so comfy. A+++ to the person who ordered the furniture there…the chairs had great lumbar support.
The wait staff was friendly and super helpful.
The food was pretty good to boot.
Most memorable were the samosas and the chicken tikka masala…it was tasty and melted like butter in your mouth.
The chicken vindaloo was spicy and sour as expected and was delicious as well.
The prices were a bit expensive for Indian food but considering the location, it’s not unreasonable.
We even got to meet the chef, Vikas Khanna…what a talented, humble and handsome man….drool.
3 star Yelp review from October 2008:
Saw it on Kitchen Nightmares, so that sparked my curiosity.
We went with my indian friend who ordered the dishes.
Presentation and plating were good for the appetizers.
Main dishes with naan were served normally, nothing special.
Food was good, not exceptionally spectacular.
My friend had a dish with apples, potatoes, walnuts and such, sweet and good, he was impressed.
Staff was friendly and attentive.
We went on a Friday and the place was only a 1/3 filled.
Made me wonder.
3 star Yelp review from August 2007:
The experience was good, but not great.
The restaurant ambience needs a little work.
It has cheap-looking ceiling tiles, a glaring yellow paint on the walls, and just felt like it needed a bit of a face-lift.
We were seated right away (7PM or so), and the restaurant was virtually empty (3 other tables had patrons).
That’s never a great sign, so I was a bit nervous.
Our waitress, Julia, was nice and did a good job.
She stopped by with menus and offered up water.
The menus didn’t have a wine sheet or other alcoholic beverages, and Julia didn’t provide a separate wine menu.
We were a bit confused and wondered if it was BYO. We asked and she provided a wine menu. The selection was a bit limited, but we found a good red zin from Coppola for a reasonable price.
Before we dive in to the meal, let me mention that you get a bunch of free things with your meal. We got a free appetizer, salad, and dessert (mango sorbet).
These were all good, not great… but free! We ordered lamb korma, dal masala (chickpeas in a sauce), lamb madras (spicy, but not too spicy), and some garlic naan.
Everything except for the dal masala was 4 star. Good spice, good flavor. The dal masala was a 2 star dish. It’s flavor was just off.
If not for the “so-so” ambience, average tasting free items, and a 2 star dal masala, this would have been a 4 star dining experience.
Unfortunately, I’ve got to go with 3 for now.
Overall, the reviews seemed to be decent but not amazing.
What happened to Martin from Purnima / Dillons?
Martin Hyde was the general manager from the Dillons Kitchen Nightmares episode.
After being fired from Dillons / Purnima, Martin got a job as a manager at an upscale limo service named Swish Car Service.
I’m not sure if he’s still working there or what else he’s been up to.
As I mentioned above, Martin was also the one who filed the lawsuit against Gordon Ramsay and Kitchen Nightmares.
What happened to Andrew from Dillons / Purnima restaurant?
Andrew was the Operations Manager at Dillons when Gordon Ramsay visited.
After the show, Andrew seems to have become close friends with Vikas, who was the new chef that Gordon brought in.
So close, in fact, that Andrew continued working with Vikas long after the restaurant closed.
For example, here’s a 2020 Instagram post from Vikas where Vikas talks about the long business/culinary partnership that he’s had with Andrew:
13th Millionth Meal is dedicated to One and Only Andrew Blackmore.
I was introduced to him by @gordongram in 2005.
Everything changed after that.
Over the years he helped me improve speaking English, cooking, writing, movie making, documentaries and my confidence to face people & camera.
He took the picture of the cover of Flavors First and co-wrote Return to the Rivers.
His love for Indian Cuisine was a perfect partnership with me.
From being nominated to a James Beard Award to being Awarded a Michelin Star.
He was and will always be with me.
Thank you Andrew for making me believe in my imagination.
@andrewnybbod You. Are. Everything.
Overall, it’s great to see Andrew and Vikas achieve so much together.
Final thoughts on Purnima restaurant
Sadly, the Purnima restaurant was only able to survive for around two years after the visit from Gordon Ramsay.
As of 2023, the old Purnima NYC location is occupied by a place named The Grisly Pear..
I’m not sure what happened to Mohammad – he has a common name so it’s hard to find him on Google.
I hope he’s doing well, wherever he is.
If you want to see another Manhattan Kitchen Nightmares episode, you can also check out our post on The Black Pearl from Season 2.
Other New York City Kitchen Nightmares episodes include Mojito in Brooklyn, Mama Maria’s in Brooklyn, and PJ’s Steakhouse in Queens.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the Purnima Kitchen Nightmares episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dillons-restaurant-and-lounge-new-york
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Last updated: 2023-06-18 03:58
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