Barb’s Best Bet: Want A Hot New Online Slot? Step Into Hell’s Kitchen!

As the old saying goes, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. But if you’re clamoring for some sizzling excitement in the form of a red-hot new slot game, you’ll want to hurry to one kitchen pronto–Hell’s Kitchen!

Surely you have heard of Gordon Ramsay, the very outspoken British chef and TV personality whose hit TV show Hell’s Kitchen has been running on Fox TV since 2005.

Perhaps you have also had the pleasure of dining at one or both of Gordon Ramsay’s two Atlantic City restaurants. Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill at Caesars Atlantic City is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. Gordon Ramsay Steak at Harrah’s Resort serves dinner only Tues.-Sun. There is also a restaurant in Las Vegas that is actually called Hell’s Kitchen. We’ll tell you about that later.

But I bet you didn’t know that Hell’s Kitchen is also the name of an online slot. Although the slot wasn’t even released until March 2021, the good news is it’s now available on almost every NJ gambling website.

So, at long last, for all of you who are big fans of Gordon Ramsay’s savory cuisine and/or can’t get enough of his colorful personality and fiery temper, your lucky day has arrived. You don’t have to wait for the next TV episode or when you can conjure up enough dough to dine at one of his fine restaurants because you can enjoy the excitement and drama of Hell’s Kitchen virtually.

Hell’s Kitchen basics

Hell’s Kitchen is an online video slot that’s a joint collaboration between the world-renowned chef, restauranteur, and TV personality Gordon Ramsay and NetEnt, one of the top manufacturers of online slots for casinos all over the world.

Like many other modern online slot games, Hell’s Kitchen consists of five reels, three rows, and 20 fixed paylines. But what makes this slot unique is its full menu of special features, including Random Wilds and not one bonus round but two, where win multipliers galore make the action even wilder. If you’re truly lucky, you will trigger both the Team Challenge Bonus Round and Gordon’s Bonus Round. And it’s not as hard as you might think due to this game’s extraordinarily high return to player or RTP.

The setting for the game is the kitchen of an upscale restaurant, much like you’ll find in one of the various dining establishments that Gordon Ramsay owns in real life. But this isn’t just any random kitchen. It’s Ramsay’s kitchen, which means it serves up some of his favorite signature dishes like Beef Wellington and Sticky Toffee Pudding.

You will even get to hear some of the chef’s colorful phrases and comments, though not to anywhere near the same extent as on TV. When I was playing in demo mode, I occasionally lamented how I wasn’t hitting winning combinations with the same frequency as I had been earlier. But not for long. All of the sudden, lo and behold, out of nowhere, Ramsay would utter remarks like “That’s enough,” “Let’s spice things up,” or “Let me show you how it’s done.” At that point, knives would go flying all over the screen, turning 5-7 regular symbols into wild symbols and non-winning combinations into winning ones.

Hell’s Kitchen bet range

Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants are not low priced, but the slot game Hell’s Kitchen is surprisingly budget-friendly and accommodates players of all bet sizes. The minimum bet per spin is only 20 cents, while the maximum is $400.

In other words, this game should suit the bankroll and playing preferences of anyone from the smallest bettors to high rollers. Hell’s Kitchen can also be played for free in demo mode.

Hell’s Kitchen RTP and volatility

Before deciding whether or not to play any online slot for real money, two variables that should always enter into your decision are the return to player (RTP) and volatility.

RTP

Luck is an important factor in any slot game, so superior slots do not necessarily produce superior results every time. Sometimes you will lose when playing one of the best online slots, and sometimes you will win playing another slot with a lower rating. But in the long run, you can expect to preserve more of your bankroll with slots with a better than average RTP (theoretical rate of return).

Keep in mind that you have no way of knowing ahead of time what kind of luck you will have initially. In case it isn’t good, the high frequency of payouts will probably give you enough leverage, even if most of those payouts are small, to keep you in the game without losing a big chunk of your bankroll prematurely.

That is why slot games with a high RTP are your best bets and also why all of the games I single out as Barb’s Best Bets here on NJ Gambling Websites must have an RTP of 96.0 percent or higher.

Hell’s Kitchen, with an RTP of 96.81% more than qualifies.

Volatility

Volatility or variance refers to the degree to which, over the course, of your play, the game is capable of producing large fluctuations in your bankroll. All slots tend to have periods where they run either hot or cold but to greatly different degrees.

A slot with high volatility gets the player’s adrenalin pumping, and many players prefer this extra excitement, especially when top wins can be very high, as they frequently are in such games. On the other hand, small players with very limited bankrolls need to be very careful. A single bad session could wipe out most or all of their bankroll.

Given Gordon Ramsay’s fiery temper, I expected Hell’s Kitchen to have high volatility. But that isn’t the case. Instead, the volatility level for this slot is described as “low medium.” In other words, you can expect enough variation in the outcomes of your spins to keep the game from being repetitious and boring but not so much that tapping out becomes a real worry. As long as you don’t overbet your bankroll, it should be sufficient to allow you to play comfortably for a reasonable period of time.

Which NJ online casinos offer Hell’s Kitchen?

NJ online casino players will have no trouble finding a place to play the slot game Hell’s Kitchen. It is available for both desktop and mobile play (on currently used iOS and Android phones and tablets) at all of the following NJ gambling websites:

• BetMGM
• Borgata
• Caesars
• Golden Nugget
• Hard Rock
• Mohegan Sun
• Pala
• Party
• PlaySugarHouse
• PokerStars
• Resorts
• Scores
• Unibet

Hell’s Kitchen symbols

The symbols on the reels include eight regular symbols, a wild symbol, and a scatter symbol. All of these symbols except the four lower paying regular symbols, the playing cards Jack-Ace, clearly relate to Gordon Ramsay and Hell’s Kitchen.

Regular symbols

The eight regular symbols, in descending order of payout value, are as follows:

• Beef Wellington
• Spicy Burger
• Fruity Cocktail
• Sticky Toffee Pudding
• A
• K
• Q
• J

Winning combinations are formed in the same manner as on most online slots. You need three or more matching symbols to line up on consecutive reels horizontally or diagonally starting with the reel farthest to the left.

Wild symbol

The wild symbol turns up a lot in this game, and it is very easy to identify because it simply says “HK WILD.” It can appear anywhere on the reels both in the main game and during the Team Challenge Free Spins feature. On its own, it has no monetary value, but it can substitute for all other symbols except the scatter symbol to help form or add to winning combinations.

Scatter symbol

The scatter symbol is the face of none other than Gordon Ramsay himself surrounded by flames. Since his appearance is for the purpose of awarding you free spins, a smile would be nice, But instead, he has a stern look that’s somewhat intimidating, as if to say, no matter how well you perform in the kitchen, it’s not good enough.

The scatter symbol only appears in the main game and only on reels 1, 2, 4, and 5. So, four scatter symbols are the most you can get on any given spin. One or two aren’t good enough, though, as you need at least three to show up simultaneously to trigger the Team Challenge Free Spins bonus round. Depending on how many scatter symbols land–three or four–you receive either 10 Free Spins or 15 Free Spins, respectively.

Hell’s Kitchen special features

What makes Hell’s Kitchen such a highly entertaining slot has to be the fact that it’s so loaded with special features, there’s never a dull moment. From the moment you start playing, this kitchen is a buzz of activity.

Random Wilds

As mentioned, throughout the course of your play, wild symbols can randomly show up on any of the reels, both during the base game and during the Team Challenge Free Spins bonus round. However, they appear much more frequently in the latter (approximately once every three spins instead of about once every 20 spins).

Of course, the presence of one or more wild symbols doesn’t guarantee a paying combination every time. But because there are eight different symbols they can substitute for, your chances are very good, especially with multiple wild symbols. When the Random Wilds feature is activated, you get from 5 to 7 wild symbols appearing on the reels simultaneously!

Team Challenge Free Spins bonus round

It may take a while before 3 or 4 scatter symbols land on the reels to trigger the Team Challenge Free Spins, or it might not happen at all during your playing session. But the good news is that this game’s very high RTP will ensure that at the very worst, you won’t lose more money than you can manage in the interim. Or, with the help of the potentially highly lucrative Random Wilds feature, you might even get a couple of big enough wins to pull way ahead!

On the other hand, if you have ever watched the TV show, you know that Hell’s Kitchen is all about cooking challenges and which team will impress the tough critic Gordon Ramsay the most. In this slot game version, the Red team is up against the Blue team. Pick whichever team you think will win and hope you make the right choice.

How the Team Challenge Free Spins bonus game works

As soon as you choose your team, this is how the challenge plays out.

As mentioned, if three scatter symbols appear anywhere on reels 1, 2, 4, and 5 simultaneously, you get 10 Free Spins. Or if four scatter symbols appear, you get 15 Free Spins.

These spins take place in two separate play areas, one for the Red team and one for the Blue team. Each play area consists of 5 reels, 3 rows, and 20 fixed paylines. The paylines for the Red team are numbered from 1 to 20, while those for the Blue team are numbered from 21 to 40.

All Team Challenge Free Spins take place with the same bet size as on the spin that triggered them.

During each Free Spin, 1 to 3 of the following Order Up features randomly activate for each team.

• 2x line win multiplier
• 3x line win multiplier
• 3-8 wild symbols

If both a 2x multiplier and a 3x multiplier of the same color get activated during the same spin, any line wins for the corresponding team get multiplied by 5.

While the challenge is in progress, you can keep tabs on each team’s total winnings so far. The challenge ends when all of the Free Spins are complete. At that time, whichever team is ahead will be declared the challenge winner. The Team Challenge Free Spins cannot be re-triggered.

Regardless of the outcome, you get to keep all winnings accumulated during the challenge by both teams. However, if your team wins the challenge or if the challenge ends in a tie, you receive an extra treat. You get to play Gordon’s Bonus Game, too!

If your team loses, you return immediately to the base game.

Gordon’s Bonus Game

You can only activate Gordon’s Bonus Game after having picked the winning or tying team in the Team Challenge Free Spins bonus round. This gives you the chance to win even more playing a pick-and-click game.

You’ll see 15 menus on the screen, hiding 12 random prizes and 3 X symbols. Click on one menu at a time to reveal what prize, if any, it offers.

You can win any of three different types of prizes:

• Random prizes of 2, 3, or 5 x your bet
• A 2x win multiplier
• A 3x win multiplier

If you unlock both the 2x and 3x multipliers during this bonus game, their values are added. Or if you don’t unlock any multipliers, your total win during the bonus game is multiplied by 1.

Try to avoid the X symbol. Besides not getting any prize, as soon as you unlock three of those symbols, the game is over. Your total win from Gordon’s Bonus Game equals the sum of whatever prizes you have won multiplied by the total multiplier you unlocked during the game.

The bottom line: What makes the slot game Hell’s Kitchen Barb’s Best Bet?

Most slot games based on hit TV shows and/or endorsed by celebrities only have an average RTP at best. In other words, you pay extra for the added entertainment. However, that is not the case at all with Hell’s Kitchen. The combination of a familiar, highly entertaining theme, a great RTP, and a ton of special features caught my attention immediately.

While Gordon Ramsay is much too full of himself for my personal taste, if you can get past that minor annoyance, I think you will find this slot game not only thoroughly enjoyable but potentially highly profitable as well. Hell’s Kitchen doesn’t offer a progressive jackpot. But with so many other great features going for it, you don’t need one.

Also, regardless of what type of player you are, this game will work for you due to the extremely wide bet size range. To maximize your win potential, I recommend playing for the highest stakes you can possibly afford. I can’t prove it, but I suspect that playing at higher stakes increases the likelihood of triggering the bonus rounds sooner rather than later.

Can’t get enough of Hell’s Kitchen? Try the restaurant with the same name in Las Vegas!

Lastly, after you raise hell in Hell’s Kitchen, in case you don’t know what to do with your big stash of cash, here’s a suggestion. Go to Vegas and treat yourself to dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen Restaurant located in front of Caesars Palace overlooking the Strip. The restaurant offers floor-to-ceiling windows, and red and blue kitchens, just like on the TV show serving Hell’s Kitchen signature dishes for lunch and dinner. There’s also a private dining room and a contemporary bar featuring the latest mixology trends.

But even if a getaway to Las Vegas or another irresistible vacation spot you’re longing to visit isn’t in the cards for now, no problem. If you’re looking for a new slot that’s hotter than even the dog days of August, you’ve found it in Hell’s Kitchen!