A spinoff of Spike's Bar Rescue, Hungry Investors is another "business rescue" reality TV show, hosted by Jon Taffer along with chefs Tiffany Derry, and John Besh. Yes folks, this is indeed yet another copy of Kitchen Nightmares with two twists to the concept.
First off, the show attempts to help out two similar restaurants that are in trouble per episode. Additionally, the two restaurants, both within the same general area of each other, are also both asking for the hosts to invests in their restaurants for further key upgrades, and only one of them can receive an investment with a better pitch and offer, blending the Kitchen Nightmares idea, with Dragons' Den or Shark Tank. The winning restaurant gets the investment, while the losing one gets a handshake and a wish of good luck in the future.
This show provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: David from Mr. Sushi in "Sake Bombed."
- Awesome, but Impractical: A few examples. As pointed out in several cases, some of the food is really good and delicious, but their food costs are often very high, and eat into the profit margin, such as Outlaw Burger's signature burger. The investors often try to come up with a cheaper or alternative that has a much higher profit margin.
- Bad Boss: For the most part, nothing too extreme yet. You have your stubborn bosses, bosses who can't manage and lack communication skills, though nothing on the level seen in Bar Rescue.
- The owner of Elements is currently the worst owner seen on the show. How bad was he? He caused Taffer to walk out from even investing in him before the initial meeting was even over. The fact that he also threatened to call the cops on the entire production team at one point certainly puts didn't help his case.
- Berserk Button: Taffer maintains the exact same ones he has from Bar Rescue. Expect a shouting match once per episode. Additionally, unlike on Bar Rescue, where the chefs are experts brought in just to improve a location, John Besh and Tiffany Derry are also two of the three investors, meaning during the final decision meeting between the three investors, shouting matches can and do occur over differing views on which location is the better choice.
- Bittersweet Ending: For the losing restaurant. While both restaurants do get a few improvements each to their location (such as additional tables, maybe a few pieces of equipment, upgraded point of sales, etc.), they don't get the big prize of the investment, often for some really good upgrades they could really use to help them get out of the hole they're in financially.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Sort of. The owner of Tamale Man from "Tacos and Tantrums" claimed he had one of the best tamales in Los Angeles and the investors agreed. However, he didn't put nearly as much effort into his other food, and he didn't stay open for dinner because he preferred to spend evenings with his friends. He shaped up in time to get the investment, however.
- Didn't Think This Through: Elements' owner from "Diva Las Vegas" chose to insult the investors, rather than answer their questions and criticisms about the front of the building during the initial meeting. This utterly destroyed his chances of getting the investment right from the get go.
- Downer Ending: "Diva Las Vegas" was this. Two high end styled restaurants tried to compete. The Bistro had cleaning issues, but fixed that, only to reveal the other problem was their slow times wasn't letting the tables be flipped fast enough. In Elements' case, the owner was an arrogant Insufferable Genius who kept on back talking and insulting the investors, and getting angry in the kitchen. End result? The Bistro's owner gets a friendly handshake for being a decent guy with a polite "thanks, but no thanks". Elements, on the other hand, gets a much less kinder HA HA HA—No. No one gets the investment.
- Hope Spot: Accidentally in "Motha Shuckas," due to one of the owners mishearing Taffer. He said that they would invest in Neyow's, but the owner of Bistro Orleans thought John had said "y'all's," and actually hugged the investors believing that they had chosen him for the investment. You can see how heartbroken the investors were when they had to clarify that they wouldn't be investing in him.
- Insufferable Genius: Almost once an episode, at least one of the restaurants owners will refuse to accept advice from either Tiffany Derry or John Besh, because they think their way is better, often proven wrong.
- The owner of Baby Back Shak from "Brisket Beatdown", refused to acknowledge he was preparing briskets the wrong way. Despite Derry trying to explain to him the right way to cook briskets in an oven, he kept refusing to accept that her way was better. It took taste test comparison during the Invest Test to finally get the point across to him.
- The owner of Outlaw Burgers from "Westbound and Ground" refused to let people customize their orders from what came standard on the burgers, insisting that if they "didn't like it, they shouldn't eat it" or remove the items in question themselves, becoming very belligerent. This despite numerous times the investors have to point out to him that if people have dietary restrictions, such as allergies or religious reasons, the food in question can't come in contact with each other.
- Elements from "Diva Las Vegas". If for some reason you haven't read the other entries yet on this page, let's just say the owner can not take one ounce of criticism before launching into a vitriolic rage.
- Large Ham: Oh, hello again, Jon Taffer.
- Besh can have his moments too, often when Taffer and Derry are heaping praise on one of the restaurants, while seemingly ignoring a glaring flaw. Often leads to Ham-to-Ham Combat between him and Taffer during the final investment decision meetings.
- This is made clear in the very first episode, "Brisket Beatdown" where he launches into a rant at the others, for praising Baby Back Shak, while ignoring the fact that the owner refused to follow Derry's instructions on cooking brisket multiple times, and finally required a taste test comparison between the owner's way, and Derry's way (with Derry's winning) during the investment test before it finally dawned on him that Derry was correct.
- The first episode, "Brisket Beatdown", featured the Baby Back Shak, whose owner proclaimed himself "the King of BBQ", and played this hard. It actually helped him win the investment for that episode as the investors reasoned that kind of attitude would be great for marketing.
- Besh can have his moments too, often when Taffer and Derry are heaping praise on one of the restaurants, while seemingly ignoring a glaring flaw. Often leads to Ham-to-Ham Combat between him and Taffer during the final investment decision meetings.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: John and Ki from "Sake Bombed." It was John's Red Oni tendencies that eventually lost them the investment, since he refused to take money with strings attached.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Taffer pulls this on Elements in the episode "Diva Las Vegas", before he gets done with the initial greeting with the owner. He makes it bluntly clear throughout the episode, he is not going to invest into Elements.
- John from "Sake Bombed" apparently didn't realize that the money from the investors would come with strings attached, and Rage Quit right before the final presentation. As a result, they didn't get the investmet.
- Third-Person Person: Cynthia from "Westbound and Ground," occasionally fell into this habit.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: John, the head chef, and Ki, the general manager, from Sake Sushi Bar and Grill in "Sake Bombed." They lean a lot more to the vitriolic side at first, to the point where the "Best Buds" part seems like an Informed Attribute until the day of the invest test.
- What The Hell, Chef?: "Westbound and Ground", an episode between two Los Angeles burger joints featured Outlaw Burgers. The investors thought the food was good, but there was one major problem: the owner refused to listen to customers dietary requests, such as those regarding allergies. As the owner reasoned, "If you can't eat it, then don't". It did not make him look good. It ended up being one of the major reasons leading to him to lose out on the investment.
