What Happened to The Dovecote Bistro After Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares?

The Dovecote was a family-run bistro in Red Lion Yard, Okehampton, Devon, when it featured in the Channel 4 special Ramsay's Great British Nightmare, aired on 2009-01-30 alongside the Sheffield rescue of The Runaway Girl. The Tavistock Times Gazette reported on 2008-07-30 that Ramsay and his crew spent that week in the town for the series, that it was the first West Devon restaurant the program had selected, and that the crew based itself in the Waitrose car park, where Ramsay cooked duck à l'orange for locals and about 30 visiting Army cadets.

The problems: TheTVDB's listing for the episode describes a bistro that had lost its customers, its money and its hope, with dated wallpaper, vacuum-packed lamb and a stubborn chef-owner who would not admit his mistakes. According to Wikipedia's episode list, the owner was Mick, with his wife Mo and daughter Michelle, and he had little cooking skill, was secretive about spending and was deeply in debt. The Tavistock Times Gazette said Ramsay was angered by a lamb shank served from a vacuum pack.

What the rescue changed: Ramsay kept Mick out of the kitchen and put Michelle, who had no cooking experience, in charge of it, per Wikipedia's episode list, which says the bistro was renamed Martins' Bistro during production. The reopening went well, and Michelle was later sent for culinary training.

The relaunch: The Tavistock Times Gazette reported on 2009-02-05 that Ramsay returned in December 2008 during the credit crunch, that a new chef, Rose Drake-Davis, had been hired to train Michelle, that everything was now cooked from scratch to order, and that Ramsay had the upstairs psychedelic wallpaper painted over. The restaurant had begun opening on Sundays for traditional lunch, and the family marked seven years running the business the week before the article.

Google's listing for Dovecote Tea Room And Bar at 38 Red Lion Yard, Okehampton EX20 1AW, was marked permanently closed in October 2026. The listing sits in the yard named in the Tavistock Times Gazette's 2008 and 2009 reports.