Boparan Restaurant Group will open a seventh UK restaurant for southern US fast casual brand Slim Chickens at the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent in February. It will join three Slim Chickens sites in London, and one in each of Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, and more new restaurants are planned to open in UK cities throughout 2020.
The New World Trading Company’s The Botanist brand will open its latest new bar and restaurant in Cardiff on 10 February, local media report. It will be part of the new Church Street development in the city that also includes restaurants from Mowgli, Pho and Honest Burgers.
A new bar, restaurant, bowling and escape room concept called Play at Pins has opened its first venue at the Hayes in Cardiff. The 8,000 square feet is below the Miller & Carter restaurant there. Play at Pins also has plans to open in London, Birmingham and Bristol this year.
Whitbread will open its latest Bar + Block steakhouse in Portsmouth in late February. The 560 square metre, 165-cover restaurant will be the 14th opening for the Bar + Block brand since Whitbread launched it three years ago.
Franco Manca has been granted a licence to open a new restaurant on Mitchell Street in Glasgow. It will be its second location in the city.
Tomahawk Steakhouse is opening a new restaurant in Beverley in Yorkshire in mid-March. It will take over a unit on Flemingate that was previously occupied by Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Tomahawk Steakhouse currently has six sites across Yorkshire and the north east, in Darlington, Husthwaite, Newcastle, Ponteland, Potto and Yarm, and several more new openings are planned this year.
Plant-based burger concept Halo Burger has opened on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. It also has an operation in Brixton.
JD Wetherspoon has confirmed details of some of the 15 new pubs and hotels it plans to open in the UK and Ireland this year, mostly in smaller towns. Announcing its latest financial results this week, Wetherspoon said it was preparing pubs in Bourne, Diss, Ely, Felixstowe, Hamilton, Newport Pagnell, Prestatyn and Waterford.
Nando’s has been lined up for an opening at the Riverside development in Rochdale. It has taken a 3,500 square feet unit there. Another new arrival at the scheme is Heavenly Desserts. Work on the Riverside is due to be completed by the end of April.
Wagamama has confirmed a new opening at the Fort Kinnaird retail park in Edinburgh—a fourth restaurant in the city. It is due to open in March.
Bar Douro, the Portuguese wine bar and restaurant on Flat Iron Square by London Bridge, is opening a second location at 1 Finsbury Avenue in the City. It will soft launch from Tuesday (28 January).
London steakhouse brand Flat Iron has relaunched its joint venture with Winemakers on Bevis Marks near Liverpool Street as a standard standalone Flat Iron. The brand has nine restaurants across London.
The Mission Mars group is opening a new branch of its Rudy’s pizza brand in Leeds in the next few weeks. It will be a fifth location for Neapolitan-style Rudy’s, which also has two restaurants in Manchester and one in Birmingham and Liverpool.
McDonald’s is to open on the site of the former Jamie’s Italian in Guildford later this year.
The group behind Salon restaurant in Brixton and Levan in Peckham will open a New York inspired deli and restaurant called Larry’s in March, adjacent to Levan.
Glasgow-based fish and chip brand Blue Lagoon is planning to open a new site in Edinburgh, according to local media. Blue Lagoon currently has 12 managed and franchised restaurants in Glasgow and several other towns in Scotland.
