Gordon Ramsay’s New York venue hit by cash and quality allegations

Gordon Ramsay’s flagship operation at the London Hotel in New York, is being pursued by creditors and has been hit by complaints from customers about its service and quality of food.

According to the assistant restaurant manager Jeffrey Giordano, who resigned on Thursday, there is also an infestation of fruit flies behind the bar and a dead mouse was discovered in an air conditioning unit as diners ate their lunch two weeks ago.

Giordano also told the Mirror that business had “tailed off” since the start of the year, leading to cutbacks.

He said: “I have personally decanted cheap-brand supermarket liquor which I have bought into bottles of expensive gin and vodka behind the bar. And I've mixed together the remains of different bottles of wine to reduce the number of bottles we had to open.”

There have also been reports of numerous complaints from diners who lament the high-cost, poor-quality service and food at the restaurant.

But a spokesperson for Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) vehemently denied all of the allegations: “We have carried out a full investigation into Giordano’s activities and are positive he acted alone with minimum impact. He has now left the company.
“The mouse entered the bar from the street and was caught in a trap before it progressed into the building. It is categorically untrue that we receive anything like 12 complaints a day, in fact we receive very few.

“We have made no secret that we have had cash flow issues, but many of our outstanding creditors have now been paid and other accounts are being settled on a weekly basis. In fact the restaurant was in profit for the first time in June.”

The most recent accounts for GRH, show that it owes £5m to suppliers. Creditors at the London NYC include food importer Paris Gourmet, which was owed £6, 500.


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By Gemma Sharkey

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