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A restaurant owner has revealed his failing business could not be saved despite a 'makeover' by celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge on his Kitchen Nightmares program. 
The revelation followed claims by another cafe owner, Cheong, that she lost business after her appearance on the show. 
Unlike Ms Cheong, Anthony Davies does not blame Kitchen Nightmares for his restaurant failing, but has questioned some of the advice he was given by the Channel 7 show's team. 
Mr Davies and his partner Lauren Crisell owned the Araucaria restaurant at Winmalee in the Blue Mountains which featured on Tuesday night's edition of the program, but shut their business very shortly after filming ended. 
He said some of the advice he was given by the show 'absolutely failed to deliver' improvements to the restaurant, which shut due to 'financial hardship'.
Lauren Crisell (left) and her partner Anthony Davies (right) shut their restaurant very shortly after filming finished for an episode of Kitchen Nightmares
'We were at the point of closing six weeks before we got to filming - we were just limping along, and we went into the whole process hoping so



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Mr Davies said the five-day makeover done by the Kitchen Nightmares team was not enough to turn around underlying problems and that the show tried to 'cultivate ... tension' with some of its menu changes.
He said the show 'seemed to imply we weren't putting significant effort into the "pub playlist" menu - things like burgers, schnitzels and beer battered fish'. 
According to Mr Davies, Araucaria was left with a menu with no garlic bread and no bruschetta and Kitchen Nightmares implied they were 'overreaching' with some of their dishes. 
The Araucaria restaurant (pictured) closed shortly after it was filmed for Channel 7's Kitchen Nightmares show
He said the show told him to pay more attention to basics and not to high-end offerings, 'but we were just trying to be different from every other pub in the mountains'.
In her Facebook post, Ms Crisell said 'anyone who saw Anthony and his team in the kitchen knew that he gave a million per cent every day - even to the point of exhaustion and at the expense of his health'.
Though she worked full-time elsewhere, she also managed the administration and social media aspects of the business, and worked some shifts in the restaurant.
Some of the advice offered by Kitchen Nightmares host Colin Fassnidge's (pictured) to a NSW restaurant owner 'absolutely failed to deliver' improvements
She said she and Mr Davies were 'devastated' the restaurant had to close. 
Addressing their customers, she said 'I'm sure many of you will find this outcome perplexing, since the feedback on the food was always so positive and beautiful, and Anthony's kitchen was kept spotlessly clean at all times.'
Looking on the bright side, she said she and Mr Davies are 'parents to amazing kids'.
Because of a lag between filming and going to air, the couple had shut their business four months before their episode was shown.
They had no option but to close after going bankrupt with $140,000 in debt.
Mr Davies said he didn't blame Kitchen Nightmares for the closure, though he did point out aspects of Fassnidge's advice that didn't work for them. 
Anthony Davies (pictured) said some of the advice given on the Channel 7 show Kitchen Nightmares didn't work for his restaurant
These included adding lettuce to a dish at a time when a head of iceberg lettuce cost $12 a head in supermarkets, and moving to a very expensive crumb for their chicken schnitzel. 
'I was open to the suggestions they put forward but it didn't address the food cost,' he said.
Mr Fassnidge spoke about the closure on TikTok, saying the series 'shows all aspects of what can go wrong in this current climate', and that Araucaria's experience was 'a very sad one'. 
Mr Davies said he had 'no resentment or malice' towards the show and that Fassnidge and his team 'were a bunch of really lovely people and very professional'.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel 7, Colin Fassnidge and the owners of the  Araucaria restaurant seeking comment. 
Fassnidge is seen advising Ms Cheong during the program. She said her business suffered after the show aired
Virginia Cheong who owns Cafe de Vie at in Homebush in Sydney's inner west, said her business lost money after Kitchen Nightmares rebranded her business as Cafe Tabouli offering only Lebanese food.
Ms Cheong, who is of Chinese heritage, said she had no experience running a Lebanese restaurant, and was only left with a menu of six items to go off after the show ended.
'Our business dropped instantly after they stopped filming,' she said.
'We were losing about $4,500 a week in business. One week we were down $6,000.'
Fassnidge told Nova FM radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa it wasn't his idea to rebrand the business but the guests who tried the new menu in the episode loved the food.
'The way that the restaurant world cup 2022 is at the minute like you can come in, you can do a paint job you can do a new menu,' he said.
'But not everyone's gonna survive, that's the brutality of the industry we're in.'




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