Restaurants

The latest news and updates on restaurants, from the business journalists at Catering Today. We bring you the latest on what’s happening in the restaurants, bars and catering industry, with exclusive stories, analysis, best practice and industry comment.

Dec- 2021 -

8 December

Whitbread’s Bar + Block to open in Edinburgh this month

Whitbread’s contemporary steak brand, Bar + Block, is set to open the doors to its second site in Scotland, launching on Princes Street in Edinburgh on 13 December, taking its portfolio to 18 sites. Bar + Block Edinburgh takes over the former New Look site on Princes Street, which has…
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7 December

Firmdale Hotels appoints new executive head chef

Firmdale Hotels has announced the appointment of Joe Fox as its newest group executive head chef. He will be responsible for overseeing the menus and operations across the six London brasserie style restaurants and bars across Firmdale Hotels, as well as in-room dining, private events and pop-up dining experiences including…
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7 December

Chinatown welcomes two landmark restaurants

Shaftesbury has announced that the Malaysian-Singaporean restaurant, Rasa Sayang, has relaunched at Chinatown in London, and Japanese robatayaki grill restaurant and bar, Yatay, has opened its debut London restaurant at 22 Wardour Street. Rasa Sayang has launched a newly refurbished 1,790 square feet site at 5 Macclesfield Street, and the…
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7 December

The Coconut Tree to open in Birmingham

Sri Lankan street food restaurant group The Coconut Tree is continuing its “organic” growth, with a new site set to open in Birmingham in early 2022. The eighth restaurant in its portfolio, following Reading and Bath openings in 2021, will join other branches in Cardiff, Bristol, Oxford, Cheltenham and Bournemouth.…
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6 December

One in five restaurants forced to shut amid supply issues

Almost one in five partner restaurants have been forced to close their doors during business hours over the past three months because of supply chain issues, according to a new survey by Deliveroo. Of the restaurants polled, 54% have had to remove items from their menus due to lack of…
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6 December

Drink sales fall below pre-pandemic levels, CGA reveals

Drink sales fell 12% in the week to Saturday 27 November compared to the same week in 2019 after Storm Arwen affected weekend trading, CGA’s Drinks Recovery Tracker revealed. Average sales by value for Britain’s managed pubs, bars and restaurants fell below pre-pandemic levels, and Friday and Saturday were the…
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3 December

StarStock and Morrisons partner to support hospitality operators

StarStock, the online marketplace which aims to “revolutionise” the on-trade food and drink supply chain, is expanding its existing partnership with Morrisons to “help operators across the UK fulfill their food and drink order requirements”. As part of a revised focus to support hospitality businesses, the platform has reduced its…
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3 December

Sticks’n’Sushi posts record profits in FY21

The Danish sushi chain Sticks’n’Sushi has reported record pre-tax profits of 51.5m DKK (£5.89m) for the financial year 2020/2021, up 4% compared to 484m DKK (£55.4m) in 2019/2020. The chain also saw revenues of 503.2m DKK (£57.6m), marking the first time Sticks’n’Sushi has hit the 500m DKK (£57.2m) mark in…
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1 December

Loungers to open 25 new sites as profits surge

Loungers has announced plans to open 25 new sites next year after securing pre-tax profits of £12.8m for the 24-week period ended 3 October 2021. During the period, revenue increased to £102.4m from £53.5m in 2020 whilst like-for-like sales grew 26.6% compared to 2019. The business has continued to achieve…
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Nov- 2021 -

30 November

Nando’s losses double after ‘most challenging year’

Nando’s has revealed that its annual pre-tax losses for the period ending 28 February 2021 have more than doubled to £240m in what it called the “most challenging year in its history”. The company announced that revenues were down by 39.3% during the period to £665m (2020: £1.09bn), after “significant”…
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