Ex-Zaika to reopen in Chinese disguise

The building that housed Claudio Pulze's original Michelin-starred Zaika restaurant in London's Fulham Road reopens as a Chinese restaurant on 15 October.

Pulze, who runs the Lon-don-based restaurant group Cuisine Collection, closed Zaika in July. Three days later, he moved it to the site of his failed L'Anis restaurant in Kensington High Street (Caterer, 12 July, page 5).

The Fulham Road building will be the first Chinese restaurant in the Cuisine Collection group.

The restaurant does not yet have a name, but the head chef will be Wi Ho.

Wi came to London from Hong Kong in the 1980s and was one of the two original chefs in the Zen group of Chinese restaurants.

He later worked at Harrods and is currently a consultant chef for Whitbread.

The Fulham Road restaurant will have about 70 seats. A company spokeswoman said that the food would be "contemporary ethnic with a little twist".

Asked what the average bill per person would be, she added: "Claudio will look at what other people are doing and then pitch the bill 25% cheaper."

by Louise Bozec