Borelli's Pizzeria - Kitchen Nightmares Update

On this week's episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay is in Chicago, Illinois to help out the restaurant Borelli's Pizzeria.  Borelli's Pizzeria is supposedly crumbling due to an inexperienced staff and uninspired leadership. Gordon learns about the personal struggles the owner is dealing with which is also impacting the restaurant. Gordon will need to help the owner's well being as well as the restaurant.

Kitchen Nightmares visited Borelli's Pizzeria in May 2025 to film the episode, and I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Borelli's Pizzeria to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Gordon Ramsay visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Kitchen Nightmares):

Positive Reviews:

• "The workers are chill and the owner is funny and eats a lot of Dum-Dums. Everyone here deserves a raise especially the cook in the cat hat he is so cool and so is the bartender and all the servers. Must come every Thursday for jam night."'
• "I love Borelli's and the team that works there. Everyone is so nice. The Thursday night jams there, by the local Old Town School of Music really make this is very very special place. I will be there frequently."
• "This place is fabulous! Our new go-to for thin crust on our area. I've been driving by it for years and never knew! Super crispy very thin crust; we went with vodka sauce instead of regular sauce and that's the move. Looking forward to stopping in soon!"
• "Delicious food and great music vibes!"
• "Always great. Tasty pie and pasta dishes New menu items and remodeled interior. Featured live music could be of any genre, but is always fun."
• "great family owned pizza place with amazing pizza and live music"

Negative Reviews:

• "6pm on a Saturday night, I order a pizza online to pick up, pay, walk up the street to pick it up, THE RESTAURANT IS CLOSED. The online ordering should’ve never taken my order or payment. Now I have to call my bank and dispute to get my $30 back. What a nightmare. First and last time customer."
• "Closed Friday June 26th. It's good if it's actually open but don't trust the online hours."
• "Pizza was good but the boss-man was on something else today. The 3 mins in the store was very uncomfortable with how he was talking down to his employee and mocking DoorDash. Can't imagine sitting there to eat through all that."

*Reviews from Google

Other News and Links:

• The makeover for Borelli's Pizzeria happened in May 2025, so more than a year before the episode first aired.
• Here is the Borelli's Pizzeria website and Facebook page.
• Borelli's has a lot of events at the restaurant such as live bands.
• Their mission on their website says, "Borelli's Pizzeria has been serving the Lincoln Square and Ravenswood communities since 2013. As a family-owned, local business, Borelli's aims to give back to our community through good food, live music, and private events."
• Their restaurant hours revolve around events, so you need to check the event calendar on the website to see when they are open. (Link)
• When Kitchen Nightmares was filming, there was a Reddit thread where people say the owner is a character, so it may have been why they were selected for the show.  People also say reviews of the restaurant were good. 
• Here are the reviews for Borelli's Pizzeria on Yelp and Google.

Conclusion:

The reviews for Borelli's Pizzeria are mostly positive with people liking the food, service, and live entertainment.  It seems like people also comment a lot about the owner Mark Borelli and how he is a character. There are a few negative reviews that mention the restaurant being closed on random nights despite it being on the weekend, so they may want to work on informing guests of their hours. 



*To see updates on all the restaurants from Kitchen Nightmares and to see which ones are open or closed, visit the Kitchen Nightmares Update Page. Plus Follow on Twitter to keep up to date on closings.