Kitchen Nightmares: Whatever Happened To Sushi Ko?

At the end of Season 3, Episode 12 of Gordon Ramsay's reality television show "Kitchen Nightmares", it seemed like Japanese restaurant Sushi Ko in Thousand Oaks and the beleaguered Hatae family running it had something to feel hopeful for. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. After filming in May 2009, Sushi Ko lasted just a few months before closing its doors for good. 

While the episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" aired in May 2010, the restaurant shut down in August 2009. Starting as a sous chef at Sushi Ko in Bel Air, Akira Hatae moved up through the ranks over about 25 years to become an owner, before launching an independent Sushi Ko with his wife Lisa in Thousand Oaks, California. However, four years later, things had gone downhill when Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef host of "Kitchen Nightmares", stepped through Sushi Ko's doors.

Ramsay uncovered many issues at Sushi Ko: broken fridges, frozen fish served as fresh, soup held hot overnight in a bain-marie, a hair in his food, and the infamous "sushi pizza", which Ramsay called "an insult to Japanese culture". One major source of Sushi Ko's problems was chef Hatae himself: He wasn't cooking anymore, and seemed defeated and overwhelmed by dwindling customer numbers and mounting debts. The episode highlighted the emotional toll on Akira, Lisa, and their children, Hana and Samson, as they struggled with the failing fortunes of their family business.

Ramsay convinced Akira to get back in the kitchen, running his restaurant from behind the sushi counter. The chef host also gave Sushi Ko a full makeover, kitting out the restaurant with the latest kitchen appliances, a new menu, a refreshed interior, and a relaunch complete with a traditional Taiko drum performance. We saw smiles on the faces of the Hatae family, with a somewhat upbeat epilogue explaining that business improved after the show, and the couple was working better together. However, the epilogue's conclusion noted that the Hatae family was seeking a new location with lower rent: An ominous foreshadowing of how things ended for Sushi Ko.

Unfortunately, "Kitchen Nightmares" arrived a moment too late. The episode was filmed during the Great Recession, when people were dining out less, and the Hataes were losing between $15,000 and $20,000 per month on Sushi Ko. Lisa Hatae explains what happened next: "We lost the restaurant, then we lost the house, then we got rid of a car. We spent a lot of money building the new restaurant, and lost it all." However, the family survived the ordeal. After briefly managing a Denny's in Moorpark, Lisa went on to run a coffee cart at Pepperdine University. Akira left hospitality to export U.S. cosmetics to Japan, while Hana is now an interior designer, and Samson is a photographer.