US chicken wings brand Wingstop is to open its second UK restaurant in Dalston. It has secured a unit on Kingsland High Street. Wingstop first launched into the UK with an opening on Shaftesbury Avenue last year and is planning more London openings in the next few months.
Neighbourhood bar and restaurant group Darwin & Wallace has confirmed plans for the opening of its eighth location in Canary Wharf in October. It will be called No 35 Mackenzie Walk and will have 130 covers. Darwin & Wallace’s other venues are in Pimlico, Clapham, Richmond, Chiswick, Battersea, Wimbledon and Ealing.
Ramen restaurant group Tonkotsu will open its 11th site at Peckham Market on 21 September. It has restaurants in Bankside, Battersea, Ealing, Hackney, Haggerston, Notting Hill, Soho and Stratford, plus concession within branches of Selfridges on Oxford Street and in Birmingham.
Loungers’ Cosy Club bar and restaurant brand is opening a new venue at the Festival Place development in Basingstoke in early October, according to local media. It is taking on a site there that was previously occupied by Giraffe.
Pizza Union has acquired a fifth site in London, on City Road by Old Street. It will join locations in Aldgate, Dalston, Kings Cross and Spitalfields when it opens in November.
BrewDog opens its latest new bar in Cambridge city centre next Friday (30 August).
Thai brand Giggling Squid is taking on an old Jamie’s Italian unit on Wheeler Street in Cambridge as it continues a rapid rollout of restaurants around the UK.
Fast sushi brand Kokoro has applied for permission to open in an old retail unit in Bournemouth, local media report.
Nando’s will open two new restaurants in the Manchester area over the next few weeks, local media report. One is at White City Retail Park near Old Trafford, and the other will be located at the Crown Point North Shopping Park in Denton.
US-style smokehouse concept Hickory’s has secured a new site in Shrewsbury. It will open the 170 cover restaurant on the site of an old nightclub in December. Hickory’s currently has ten restaurants across the Midlands and north-west.
Coyote Ugly has opened its fifth saloon bar and restaurant on Broad Street in Birmingham. The unit was previously occupied by the Mooch Bar. Coyote Ugly’s four other venues are in Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester and Swansea.
Wagamama has opened a restaurant at the Leisure Park in Stevenage. It follows a conversion by The Restaurant Group of its Chiquito restaurant there.
Chinese dim sum and noodle concept BaoziInn has opened a second restaurant on Southwark Street, following the success of its first in Soho.
Mini-golf and bar brand Puttshack opened its second venue at Lakeside in Thurrock on Saturday (17 August). The original Puttshack is in White City, and a third venue is following at Bank soon.
Premium steakhouse concept Wagyu Bar & Grill is opening a new restaurant at the Victoria Gate development in Leeds in the next few weeks. It is a third Yorkshire location for the brand, after previous openings in York and Harrogate.
The El Pastor group has opened a second branch of its Mexican taco street food concept Pastorcito, at Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant & Castle.
The first Pastorcito is at the Arcade Food Theatre on New Oxford Street. El Pastor’s other London restaurants are in Borough Market and Coal Drops Yard in Kings Cross.
The McGinty’s group opens two new restaurants in Aberdeen on Friday (23 August): the Esslemont Bar and Restaurant and Mac’s Pizzeria. They are the result of a major refurbishment of the old Esslemont and Macintosh department store on Union Street in Aberdeen, with the bar and restaurant on the ground floor and the pizzeria on the first. McGinty’s now has nine venues in all
Bar and mini golf concept Ghetto Golf has opened a new Birdies Bar next to its site in Birmingham’s Custard Factory. Ghetto Golf also has venues in Liverpool and Newcastle.
A new small plates restaurant called Loyal Tavern will launch in Bermondsey in September. It has been set up by Riding House Café founder Adam White and former Duck & Waffle chef Tom Cenci, and is in a unit on Bermondsey Street previously occupied by the Village East restaurant. It will have 100 covers plus two bars and a private dining room.
