TV Restaurants

What Happened to Mama Rita's After Kitchen Nightmares? (Newbury Park, CA)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Mama Rita's has closed — confirmed via dexerto.com, September 28, 2023.

Primary source
dexerto.com ·
Secondary source
realitytvupdates.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Dexerto, a named entertainment-news outlet, reports Mama Rita's closed in December 2010; a separate tracker site independently corroborates the same closing month and year.

  • Season / episode Season 3, Episode 8
  • Original air date
  • Address 360 Via Las Brisas Ste 110, Newbury Park, CA 91320

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What happened after Kitchen Nightmares?

Mama Rita's Mexican Cantina was a Newbury Park, California restaurant opened in 2008 by Laura Papenfus, who had previously run a successful catering business, according to Dexerto's 2023 account of the episode. Papenfus stated in a comment posted to a later fan-tracker update that she opened the restaurant in a nearly empty shopping center during the 2008 recession and that it took three years to build the business up to that point. By the time of Gordon Ramsay's 2009 visit, the restaurant was an estimated $2.2 million in debt, and Ramsay found the kitchen relying heavily on frozen, pre-cooked food; Reality TV Updates describes roughly $12,000 worth of frozen product in the restaurant's freezers, some of it nearly a year old, along with reports from past customers of food-poisoning symptoms after eating there. Ramsay brought in chef Naris Mardirosian as a temporary head chef to help retrain the kitchen around fresh ingredients, and the relaunch, while rocky in its first stretch of service, ultimately went well according to the recap. Papenfus stated in the same tracker comment that much of the show's more sympathetic footage of the family was cut for time, and that she and her staff had asked for the show's help mainly for publicity. After the show, Papenfus kept original chef Perla in the head chef role rather than following through on the planned staffing change, and largely reverted to the restaurant's prior menu. According to Dexerto, Mama Rita's closure came in December 2010, several months after the episode aired; Reality TV Updates independently corroborates a December 2010 closing date and reports that customer reviews had stayed fairly positive up to that point, pointing to the restaurant's debt load as the more likely cause. Papenfus later worked at Mission Oaks Cafe in Camarillo, California, a restaurant she says in her own comment on a tracker update that she helped rather than owned, which itself shut down in 2019. As of the most recent tracker updates, the Newbury Park space that had housed Mama Rita's was occupied afterward by a restaurant called The Local Table and, according to a 2024 update citing the Conejo Valley Guide, more recently by a restaurant called Gema.

Featured on Kitchen Nightmares

Season / episode
Season 3, Episode 8
Original air date
Episode title
Mama Rita's
What was featured
Mexican restaurant carrying heavy debt and relying on frozen, pre-cooked food
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Mama Rita's

Frequently asked questions

Is Mama Rita's still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Mama Rita's has closed — confirmed via dexerto.com, September 28, 2023.

What happened to Mama Rita's after Kitchen Nightmares?

Mama Rita's Mexican Cantina was a Newbury Park, California restaurant opened in 2008 by Laura Papenfus, who had previously run a successful catering business, according to Dexerto's 2023 account of the episode. As of September 2026, Mama Rita's has closed — confirmed via dexerto.com, September 28, 2023.

Is Mama Rita's permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Mama Rita's has closed — confirmed via dexerto.com, September 28, 2023. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Mama Rita's located?

360 Via Las Brisas Ste 110, Newbury Park, CA 91320. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Kitchen Nightmares featured Mama Rita's?

Season 3, Episode 8 of Kitchen Nightmares, first aired March 19, 2010. The episode is titled “Mama Rita's”.

Did the makeover last at Mama Rita's?

The episode first aired March 19, 2010. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 16 years later —: As of September 2026, Mama Rita's has closed — confirmed via dexerto.com, September 28, 2023.

What do reviews say since Kitchen Nightmares?

According to Dexerto, Mama Rita's closure came in December 2010, several months after the episode aired; Reality TV Updates independently corroborates a December 2010 closing date and reports that customer reviews had stayed fairly positive up to that point, pointing to the restaurant's debt load as the more likely cause. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Is Mama Rita's still using the Kitchen Nightmares menu or branding?

After the show, Papenfus kept original chef Perla in the head chef role rather than following through on the planned staffing change, and largely reverted to the restaurant's prior menu. Anything newer than our last check on September 7, 2026 may not be reflected here.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
360 Via Las Brisas Ste 110, Newbury Park, CA 91320
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • dexerto.com — https://www.dexerto.com/reality-tv/mama-ritas-kitchen-nightmares-open-or-closed-2312902/
  • realitytvupdates.com — https://realitytvupdates.com/kitchen-nightmares/mama-ritas/

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