Gordon Ramsay's restaurant loses nearly 500 lucky cat figurines to theft

By Minh Nga February 23, 2025 | 10:04 pm PT

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in a photo posted on his Facebook page in January 2025.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has revealed that nearly 500 lucky cat statues were stolen from his newly opened London restaurant in just one week.

The 58-year-old restaurateur recently launched "Lucky Cat 22 Bishopsgate by Gordon Ramsay" in one of London's tallest skyscrapers, BBC reported.

The restaurant's decor features maneki-neko, or "beckoning cats"—a well-known Japanese cultural icon often displayed in restaurants, shops, and businesses to attract good fortune and prosperity.

Embracing this theme as part of its design, the Asian-inspired restaurant displayed numerous figurines throughout the space. However, it appears the statues proved so appealing that they kept disappearing, taken by certain patrons.

Speaking on ITV’s "The Jonathan Ross Show", Ramsay revealed that an alarming number of figurines had been stolen.

"The cats are getting stolen. There were 477 stolen last week – they cost £4.50 [US$5.70] each," said Ramsay, famous for his reality shows "Hell's Kitchen" and "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares".

Despite the large-scale theft, the City of London Police said it had not received any reports from the restaurant, The Guardian reported last week.