Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Restaurants On The Edge’ On Netflix, Where International Restaurants With Great Views Get A Glow Up To Stay In Business

The idea behind the series Restaurants On The Edge, which debuted on Canada’s Cottage Life network in January and is being released worldwide on Netflix, is that restaurants in amazing locations with fantastic views, often have rotten food. The show’s hosts — chef Dennis Prescott, designer Karin Bohn and restaurateur Nick Liberato — go to locations all over the world to renovate the restaurants’ menus, business models and decor in order to keep them in business. Read on for more.

RESTAURANTS ON THE EDGE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A montage of beautiful locales mixed with closeups of food being prepared.

The Gist: The first episode takes place on Malta, in the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. The restaurant Haber 16 has a gorgeous view of the Mediterranean, but the online reviews have been mostly horrible. When the experts walk in, they see bland decor, empty fish tanks and a mess behind the bar. The owner is Justin Haber, who is a goalie in Malta’s top professional soccer league and for the national team; fishing has been his passion, and he felt that this restaurant would be a reflection of that.

But Prescott is alarmed that Haber has been importing shellfish from other countries despite being right on the Mediterranean; he goes to the local market to buy local seafood and visits the “Julia Child of Malta” to figure out what traditional Maltese dishes are. Bohn visits the capital city of Valletta to get some decor inspiration, looking at bright tiles as well as the influence of all the island’s occupiers over the millennia. Liberato stays with Haber, trying to understand where his passion is, why he thinks he let the restaurant decline, and if he can juggle the restaurant with soccer and family responsibilities.

Our Take: If you didn’t realize this by now, the title Restaurants On The Edge has a double meaning. The restaurants the show goes to — the first Netflix season also visits Hong Kong, Tobermory in Canada, St. Lucia, Austria and Costa Rica — are on the edge of a fantastic locale, leading to fantastic views. But they’re also on the edge of failure, having leaned on its locale more than developing a vibe and a good menu. In a lot of ways, this is a more scenic version of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, but with three more friendly people gently helping the restaurateur instead of one screaming chef and a staff of no-name designers. The thing is, we like Ramsay’s approach better.

One of the reasons is that the show does a great job showing the beauty of the locations where they shoot, but really don’t get much into the nuts and bolts of remaking the restaurant. The scenes of Valletta, for instance, were so inviting that we were ready to book a trip to Malta right away. But it felt that there was no dry runs, no training of the chef and staff to what the new menu should be. We’re fine without scenes of the hosts grimacing at the mediocre food and we don’t need extended shots of the kitchen in chaos. But the show felt heavy on scenery and light on things relating to actual restaurant business.

The other reason is that we’re not huge fans of the hosts’ approach with the locals. Liberato, who stays with the owner to get an idea of where their minds are, is the only one of the three hosts who is fine stepping back and letting the person he’s talking to take focus. Prescott feels like he’s talking at most of the locals he’s with, like when he visited an island where a family salt farm is located. He hulks over the woman in charge of the farm and she seems to barely get a word in edgewise. Bohn feels like she’s just mining for ideas instead of truly absorbing the culture behind those ideas. “This really ticks off a lot of items on my list,” she says about the tile, while the historian who’s with her nods blankly.

Yes, we know they’re on TV, and they’re playing to the cameras. But as fans of Anthony Bourdain know, the best travelogues are when the host embraces and tries to blend into the culture, and doesn’t just use it as a way to mine images and soundbites. Two of three hosts aren’t practicing this and it makes for a very “Ugly American” image (though in this case, it’s “Ugly North American” image, since everyone is from Canada). We’re tired of travelogue shows, especially ones that are food related, that feel like their strip-mining the culture instead of embracing it.

Parting Shot: Haber 16 has a successful opening night party, and it looks like it’s still in business.

Most Pilot-y Line: The food critic for Malta’s leading lifestyle magazine claims she’s never heard of the restaurant, then says she can do a story about him at the end-of-week launch party. But by the time we get to the party, the article is already published and framed on the wall. Hm… magazines tend to have more than a month’s lead time. Suspicious….

Our Call: STREAM IT, but only for the scenery. Restaurants On The Edge won’t show you anything about running a successful restaurant, but at least it’ll be easy on the eyes.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Restaurants On The Edge On Netflix