This year sees the closure of two legendary restaurants – London landmark Le Gavroche, which closed its doors in January, and Denmark's Noma, which is regularly named the world's best restaurant and will close at the end of the year. Sadly, these aren't the only culinary stars we've lost. We look at the incredible restaurants that have gone for good, from Jamie Oliver's chain to old-school spots that delighted diners for decades.

Read on to discover other incredible (and much-missed) restaurants that have closed around the world, from fine-dining spots on many people's wish lists to beloved burger chains that once rivalled McDonald's.

Michel Roux Jr closed the doors of his French fine dining restaurant Le Gavroche in January 2024, after 34 years at the helm. The restaurant was first opened in 1967 by French restaurateur brothers Albert and Michel Roux Sr (Michel's father and uncle, respectively). At the time, it was the only French restaurant of its kind in London, combining glossy, classical food with high-end service. Michel took over the restaurant in 1991, earning two Michelin stars and maintaining its world-famous reputation as a bastion of classical French cookery.

TV personality and former Masterchef: The Professionals judge Michel said he wanted a 'better work/life balance' when he announced the closure of Le Gavroche but revealed an iteration of the restaurant, ‘Le Gavroche residencies at sea’, will launch on board Cunard’s luxury Queen Anne and Queen Mary 2 liners in June 2024. Le Gavroche's signature dishes include the Soufflé Suissesse (a decadent, double-cooked cheese soufflé, pictured), which was on the menu for 40 years. Top chefs who have worked at Le Gavroche include Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti.

French pastry chef and restauranteur Dominique Ansel worked for several Michelin-starred restaurants in France before moving to the US in 2006 and eventually opening his renowned London bakery in 2016. One of the leading pastry chefs in the world, he made his name with one sweet creation: the Cronut, a croissant and doughnut hybrid launched in 2013 and since patented.

The Cronut's success allowed Dominique to open other bakeries and restaurants around the globe. He has also authored several cookbooks and has been recognised with numerous awards and accolades throughout his career, including a prestigious James Beard Award.

However, in late 2020, he announced his London bakery would permanently close, as the COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions made it impossible for the Belgravia-based bakery to continue operating profitably.

Despite the rather confusing name, Español Italian Restaurant survived close to 100 years as a favourite dining spot for many in California’s state capital. It was actually Sacramento’s oldest restaurant, opened in 1923, and was known for hearty Italian and Italian-American dishes like spaghetti and meatballs and ravioli. Meals were served family-style, with all lunch and dinner orders including a tureen of the day’s soup, salad, main course and dessert.

The seemingly incongruous name came from the fact it was originally housed in an old Basque boarding house. With a clientele of loyal older customers and being particularly popular with large groups and families coming in for celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries, it struggled to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. The restaurant originally planned to close temporarily but, in August 2020, announced it would not be reopening.

Reportedly the oldest café in Texas, this iconic spot was known for its original neon sign, diner-style bar stools and classic, made-from-scratch dishes like chicken fried steak. Cafe Texan opened in 1936 and customers – both locals and visitors – adored the vintage, time-stood-still atmosphere, with walls displaying photos from years gone by, and some staff working there for decades. Many customers frequented the café throughout their lives too.

The café, whose regulars included a high number of older people, stayed closed during the first months of the pandemic for the safety of customers and staff, and had intended to reopen. Financial pressures became too much, however, and Cafe Texan closed for good in August 2020. The building was sold, and reports suggested the buyer planned to turn the space into a downtown museum.

Chef David Chang rose to fame as the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group, quickly becoming a leading figure in the culinary industry and receiving numerous awards. Opened in 2015, Momofuku CCDC marked the Virginia-born chef's first opening in his hometown market and was the largest restaurant to date. As with all Momofuku restaurants, it became famed for innovative Asian-American cuisine, drawing inspiration from David's Korean heritage with traditional Korean flavours and ingredients. 

But, in 2020, David announced he was permanently closing Momofuku CCDC and Momofuku Nishi, in New York City. He also revealed he would be relocating Ssam Bar – Momofuku’s second restaurant, also in New York City – to be combined with the existing Momofuku restaurant, Wayo. The chef blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for forcing him to re-evaluate his portfolio.

Chefs don't come much more legendary or innovative than Ferran Adrià, the Spanish chef who revolutionised cooking and trained many future culinary stars. He carved out his reputation as head chef and co-owner of the restaurant elBulli in the Catalonia region of Spain, widely regarded as one of the best restaurants in the world. 

elBulli is considered the birthplace of modernist and molecular cuisine – a style of cooking which focuses on reinterpreting traditional dishes through extensive use of modern culinary techniques such as foams, gels and emulsions. In 2010, Ferran rocked the culinary world when he announced he would be closing elBulli despite its phenomenal success. The restaurant had its last service in 2011, never reopening as a traditional restaurant.

In 2013, Ferran opened the elBulliFoundation stating the organisation would focus on transforming the renowned elBulli restaurant into a platform for promoting innovation and creativity in the culinary world. The foundation has since then aimed to preserve the legacy and spirit of the restaurant and inspire new ideas and breakthroughs in the world of cooking. 

Ferran and his equally talented brother, Albert Adrià, launched this Michelin-starred restaurant together, taking tapas to another level. It quickly became an institution in Barcelona. Located in the trendy Raval neighbourhood, Tickets was named number 20 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019 and its popularity meant getting a reservation was almost impossible.

Apparently being one of the best restaurants in the world, serving great food, and having an incredible reputation that keeps you fully booked is still not profitable enough. Like many other restaurants, Tickets fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic and filed for bankruptcy in 2020.

British chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver has fronted many cooking shows and launched several all-time bestselling cookbooks. He's also known for his campaigning, from food waste and healthy eating in schools to using the food industry as a tool for good.

Jamie opened his restaurant Fifteen in London in 2002, followed by a second in Newquay, Cornwall in 2006. The restaurant operated as a social enterprise that trained unemployed and disadvantaged workers as chefs. He also launched several franchises around the world, including in Melbourne in Australia and Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

In 2018, Jamie put London restaurant Barbecoa into administration, and shortly after his restaurant group – responsible for Jamie’s Italian and Fifteen London – was declared bankrupt, with 22 locations closing in total. In December 2019, Fifteen Cornwall, which had been run independently by the Cornwall Food Foundation, closed after an independent financial review. 

A Montreal institution, Moishes was a family-owned iconic Jewish steakhouse that was a part of the city's culinary landscape for 83 years. The restaurant became famous for its high-quality steaks and served many famous politicians and celebrities including Celine Dion and Leonard Cohen.

The restaurant claimed to have survived the Second World War, a devastating ice storm in 1998 and periods of global economic turmoil throughout the years. But COVID-19 was the final straw, having a devastating effect on the restaurant. It was preparing to move to a new location prior to the pandemic, but the costs were too high in light of heavy losses in 2020.

In 2020, Moishes closed its doors, but left customers with the hope that it may not be the end of the brand. In 2022, some news channels reported that the restaurant would be opening later that year, but no progress has yet been seen. Regardless, the original steakhouse will never return. The location is now owned by Sportscene group, which also owns several sports bars.

For 231 years, this Tokyo restaurant served customers with a selection of freshwater delicacies. Kawajin was founded in 1790 during the Japanese Edo period, a time known for the presence of samurai clans and lords as the country was ruled by feudal lords. Since then, the institution was passed down generations of the same family. It was name-checked in novels and showcased in an award-winning Japanese film series known as Tora-san, which aired in Japan from 1969 to 1995.

Yet, like many restaurants, it couldn't survive the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions. The eighth-generation owner explained the drop in customers was too damaging, despite his best efforts and government grants. For fans, the closure is a loss to Japanese culture and the legacy of the recipes that have survived through so many generations. 

Noma, led by the celebrated restauranteur and chef René Redzepi, has been adorned with three Michelin stars, introduced the world to New Nordic cuisine and dominated the annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Many believe the restaurant changed the face of fine dining, focusing on hyper-seasonal ingredients and inventive dishes. But it seems none of that is enough to keep the celebrated restaurant, in Copenhagen, Denmark, open, and René has announced it will be closing for good in 2024.

The restaurant topped the 50 Best list five times between 2010 and 2021, prompting the organisation to introduce a new ‘Best of the Best’ list to allow room for other eateries in the main awards. It’s not the first time Noma has closed, however. In 2016 René, who claimed his creativity was suffering from routine burnout, closed the restaurant’s doors and took a culinary holiday with his entire team to operate a pop-up in Tulum, Mexico. He returned in 2018 to reopen in a different location, with its own farm and a revised ownership structure.

This time, René has announced he will be focusing his efforts on Noma Projects, a food lab dedicated to new innovations. The chef argues that the industry has become unsustainable and that it has become difficult to make ends meet and pay all the staff a fair wage. He has also claimed that paying interns – a policy introduced in late 2022 – has added a hefty £41,000 ($50,000) a month to its wage bill, with many calling for better working conditions across the fine dining industry. 

There’s a scene in TV drama Mad Men where Peggy, Don and Pete sit munching fries and slurping milkshakes in Burger Chef, preparing to pitch to the fast food chain and take on its advertising. It may have largely fallen out of the collective consciousness in favour of the ubiquitous McDonald's and Burger King, but in the 1960s and 1970s, the orange roofs were everywhere.

At its peak, there were around 1,200 Burger Chefs flipping patties and dishing out fries throughout the USA. The chain was also a pioneer of what has become a fast food mainstay – the meal deal. The Triple Threat with a burger, fries and a drink was a customer favourite, selling for just 45 cents (34p).

A series of ownership changes and image redesigns through the decades saw its influence – and number of restaurants – dwindle, while McDonald's established itself as the burger behemoth. Its final franchise, in Cookeville, Tennessee, shuttered in 1996, around four decades after the chain was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Die-hard fans still drool at the memory of those generous, juicy burgers and the bottomless salad bar.

This Portland favourite opened its doors in 1978 and they may as well have been revolving; it went through so many closures and relaunches. It was originally a jazz club with magicians, relaunched as a late-night dining and drinking den – and then relaunched again as an acclaimed French-style brasserie. Perhaps because it couldn’t quite make up its mind, it closed for good in 2016 and has now been replaced with a trendy wine bar.

You can still find those old-school New York diners where thick pancakes come with crisp rashers of bacon, bottomless coffee and as much maple syrup as your plate can carry – but they’re getting harder to come by. Lower East Side favourite Cup & Saucer closed in 2017 after nearly 70 years serving customers at its counter complete with swivel chairs. The owners of the luncheonette blamed its demise on rising rents.

In Chicago, new restaurant openings – and restaurant closures – are an everyday occurrence. But Charlie Trotter’s, which operated in the Windy City between 1987-2012, was different to the rest. This was the place to go for a special occasion or just to treat yourself. Chef and owner Charlie Trotter achieved legendary status when he introduced what was, at the time, a radical idea: the fine-dining tasting menu. At its peak, the restaurant held two Michelin stars.

Charlie also ran a foundation to help kids from low-income backgrounds attend culinary school and launched the careers of lauded chefs including Grant Achatz and Homaro Cantu. He closed the restaurant to focus on academia, and tragically died after suffering a stroke the following year. An obituary in the New York Times described Trotter as a 'homegrown talent', going on to praise his menu of 'multiple small courses, each audacious in its inventiveness and exquisite in its ingredients'. His influence on Chicago's dining scene can still be felt today.

A connection to gonzo journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson is usually enough for a restaurant to earn cult status. But this tiki bar and restaurant went a leap further with a famous fish as its mascot. Bahooka opened in West Covina, near Los Angeles, in 1969 before moving location to nearby Rosemead seven years later.

There it reigned, trussed up like a shipwreck with buried treasure, topping stiff drinks with umbrellas and dishing up stacks of sticky ribs. Stuffed with licence plates, Polynesian head statues, surfboards and anything pineapple-shaped, it was used as a location in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the film adaptation of Thompson’s cult road-trip novel. Rufus, an ageing Pacu fish (he was 38 at the last count) and the restaurant's mascot, even appears on screen with Johnny Depp in the movie.

When it closed in 2013, fans queued for hours to sip one last Mai Tai cocktail within the bamboo-lined walls. The Fliegel family, who owned the restaurant, closed the place because they wanted to retire and there were no other family members to take over operations. Rufus, and his tank, was going to be adopted by the building’s new owners and placed in their new restaurant, but he's since gone missing.

Martin Berasategui is a leader of contemporary Basque cuisine, and head chef of his eponymous restaurant in Lasarte, Spain, which he opened in 1993. The renowned chef boasts 12 Michelin stars across his multiple restaurants in Spain and Portugal. However, he was still forced to close one of his one-star restaurants in his birth town of San Sebastian.

Eme Be Garrote was Martin's elevated sidrería-style restaurant – a traditional Basque restaurant that usually features a rustic and casual atmosphere, typically serving traditional Basque dishes featuring local products. Opened in 2013, the lauded spot served an elevated yet affordable tasting menu, becoming the first sidrería to ever receive a Michelin star. However, in 2022, Martin announced he was closing the restaurant, claiming that it was always meant to be a short-lived project. 

Its cioppino – a tomatoey stew packed with seafood, invented by Italian fishermen in San Francisco – was legendary. So was its linguine with freshly dived clams. But Caesar's, close to San Francisco’s busy Fisherman’s Wharf, is one of many old-school Italian restaurants to shutter over the past decade or so. It served its last bowls of pasta in 2012, after 56 years in business, with high rents believed to be the culprit.

Who wouldn’t want to eat some rotisserie chicken served up by country crooner Kenny Rogers? Now imagine if Dolly Parton swung by to perform an impromptu duet, and maybe even top up your bottomless mug of coffee... OK, so this chain owned by the late music legend wasn’t quite that exciting, but we’d still have loved to dine there.

At one point, the chain – founded in 1991 by Kenny together with a former CEO of KFC – had around 425 locations spanning the globe. It was known for wood-fired rotisserie chicken, carrying the tagline 'Deliciously Healthy'. The first restaurant was in Coral Springs, Florida and the menu soon expanded with turkey, ribs and plenty of sides.

Fans of sitcom Seinfeld might remember an entire episode dedicated to Kramer’s love of the chain, which first aired in 1996. Alas, after a series of ownership changes, the last US location shuttered in 2011. You can still try it if you’re travelling in Malaysia or Indonesia, though: Kenny Rogers Roasters still has around 150 franchises in Asia.

This popular chain, which launched in 1975, was named after the founder’s wife (her nickname was Chi Chi). The first spot opened in Richfield, Minnesota and it quickly became a go-to spot for casual family feasts of tacos, burritos and salsa. By 1986 there were more than 200 branches of the Mexican restaurant, whose slogan was 'life always needs a little salsa'.

Sadly, shortly after the then-owners filed for bankruptcy in 2003, a Pittsburgh-area branch was hit with an outbreak of hepatitis A, traced back to green onions used in the food. Four people died and hundreds were infected. It signalled the end for Chi-Chi’s in the USA, though there are now franchises in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North Africa.

Few launches warrant as much fanfare as the Official All Star Cafe, a chain of sports-themed restaurants from the team behind Planet Hollywood. But then, few restaurant chains have such starry line-ups. A who’s who of the sporting world, including basketball hero Shaquille O’Neal and tennis players Monica Seles and Andre Agassi, lined up to invest. The first, in New York’s Times Square, was followed by nine others. Ownership changes and fading popularity led to the last one closing in 2007.

With 28 ice cream flavours and a menu devised by legendary French-born chef Jacques Pépin, how could the Howard Johnson’s restaurant chain fail? Well, it didn’t – at first. Founded in 1925 by US entrepreneur Howard Deering Johnson, it started as a soda fountain and lunch counter just outside Boston. Fast-forward three decades and he had 400 restaurants across the US. By the 1970s, there were more than 1,000 of them.

This wasn’t fast food; the Howard Johnson’s name stood for high-quality meals and traditional, family-focused dining rooms. Food was prepped at central hubs and delivered to the restaurants to keep a consistent standard, and even the style of decor was prescribed. Fried clams and 'frankforts', submerged in butter before being grilled, were always on the menu.

Ho-Jo's, as it was nicknamed, lasted to see a century – quite a feat in the world of restaurant chains. Now only one franchise remains, in Lake George, New York. It proudly displays a sign declaring it’s the 'last one standing', though it’s become more of an attraction for road-trippers and retro Americana fans than diners. Meanwhile the associated hotel brand was taken over by the Wyndham hotel group.

San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest in the US and is a perennial favourite for food lovers. And Empress of China was a landmark among landmarks, with views across the city from its rooftop restaurant and cocktail bar. Its walls were plastered with photos of celebrities including Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and it was a popular venue for weddings. At some point, however, the old-school establishments – all banquet-style dining and white tablecloths – fell a little out of favour as trends moved further towards more casual (and perhaps trendier) places. 

The building was sold, and the restaurant forced to close, in 2014, after 48 years in business. A local group campaigned for the building to become a museum dedicated to Chinese-American history, though instead it sat empty for five years before Michelin-starred Hakkasan chain’s former international executive chef, Ho Chee Boon, took over the space. He opened his Cantonese restaurant, Empress by Boon, there in June 2021 and has so far attracted rave reviews. So, while we can only dream of the egg rolls and pot stickers once devoured by Ol’ Blue Eyes and his Rat Pack mates, a new dining destination has risen from the ashes.

MasterChef Canada judge and chef Lynn Crawford has had a successful career both as a chef and as a TV personality. The Food Network celebrity chef has released three cookbooks and is one of the most well-known Canadian chefs, mostly due to the success of her hit TV series Pitchin’ In.

The chef opened Toronto's Ruby Watchco in 2010. The fine-dining restaurant received widespread recognition as one of the top restaurants in the country and was well-known for celebrating farm-to-table family-style dining and the use of local ingredients.

In 2020, the restaurant announced it was closing after a decade of successful service. While many restaurants were forced to close during this period due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lynn stated online that the closing of Ruby Watchco was due to a family decision.

Hiked-up rents have killed off many a favourite dining spot and Da Silvano, a legendary Italian restaurant in New York’s Greenwich Village, remains one of the saddest losses. Owner and chef Silvano Marchetto was a pioneer of northern Italian cuisine in the Big Apple, serving osso buco (slow-cooked veal shanks), tripe and pasta with shaved truffles when other menus were all about meatballs and red sauce.

The celebrity clientele certainly helped the restaurant achieve fame too. Madonna, Owen Wilson, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Rihanna are among the stars to have dined there. Unsurprisingly, with all those stellar names, the restaurant made regular appearances on celebrity gossip pages.

Silvano blamed huge rents and a rise in the minimum wage for forcing him to close his doors in 2016, 41 years after opening. The celebrities had to find somewhere else to go, and there remains a crostini-shaped hole in the hearts of many New Yorkers.

The sandwiches at Carnegie Deli, crammed with four-inch-thick pastrami or corned beef and Swiss cheese, were enormous – and so were the queues. Delis don’t come much more classic, or more New York, than Carnegie, which opened in 1937 opposite Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan. 

An appearance in Woody Allen’s 1984 film Broadway Danny Rose only cemented its iconic status. To regulars, it was already a huge star. The deli was packed out all day, every day with people digging into house-made cheesecakes and rugelach, a sweet, flaky Jewish pastry. But the restaurant shut its doors in 2016, breaking the hungry hearts of its many, many fans. 

Owner Marian Harper Levine primarily blamed the 'gruelling hours' and the toll they took as the reason for the closure. Carnegie still produces its cured and smoked meats at its New Jersey plant, however, and it even ships the famous sandwiches and cheesecakes to hungry customers nationwide. They also opened a stall at Madison Square Garden so, although you can't visit the legendary deli, you can still get a gloriously overstuffed Carnegie sandwich.

There was (and still is) an outpouring of grief when Louis’ Restaurant announced its closure in July 2020. This unpretentious spot had occupied arguably the best location in San Francisco since 1937, when it opened on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean; the area became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in the 1970s. The restaurant was known for delicious comfort food from burgers to fresh seafood and survived several fires over the years.

This iconic eatery was unable to survive the continuous stay at home orders and restrictions imposed due to COVID-19. Owners Bill and Tom Hontalas, grandsons of Greek immigrant founders Louis and Helen Hontalas, made the announcement on the restaurant’s Facebook page, saying that to wait out the pandemic was 'financially unreasonable'. Fans flocked to buy coffee mugs, menus and aprons bearing the logo, keen to own souvenirs of their favourite place to eat.

In some ways, Threadgill’s was Austin. This legendary hangout was opened by Kenneth Threadgill in 1933 as a gas station and basic bar, serving only beer. It gradually grew into a restaurant and music venue, making history in the early 1960s when one Janis Joplin – then a student – began playing at weekly folk sessions there. Eddie Wilson – who owned the equally legendary Armadillo World Headquarters next door – closed his venue and took over Threadgill’s in 1981, bringing with him a Southern-style food menu.

Eddie described Threadgill’s as representing 'a time before disco or microwaves'. He opened a second location, in South Austin, in 1996 – though that restaurant closed in 2018 due to high taxes and rents. Threadgill’s remained popular thanks to comfort food favourites like burgers and po' boys, though was unable to withstand the COVID-19 restrictions and, despite initially trying to stay afloat by offering takeaways and deliveries, closed in April 2020.

It’s not hard to find good food in New Orleans – just ask any local or follow your nose. But even among the many legends of the Big Easy dining scene, K-Paul’s was a standout. The French Quarter landmark was opened in 1979 by Paul Prudhomme and his wife Kay (pictured), who had already made his mark as executive chef of the city’s acclaimed Commander’s Palace. It quickly became known for excellent Cajun and Creole cuisine.

The restaurant is credited with putting those cuisines on the map with dishes like gumbo and jalapeño and Cheddar rolls and continued to thrive even following Paul’s death in 2015. His niece Brenda took over with husband Paul Miller, yet made the 'heartbreaking' decision to close after being repeatedly hit by restrictions due to COVID-19. They announced the permanent shutdown in July 2020, having been out of service for several months.

Now read about the world's oldest food brands that have outlived the competition

Last updated by Dominique Ayling.