Takings soar at First Dates restaurant

Couples have flocked to book tables at the Paternoster Chop House in the hope of rekindling romance
Dating guru: maitre d’ Fred Sirieix

The City restaurant where the hit reality TV show First Dates is filmed has seen its takings soar as couples flock to book tables in the hope of rekindling romance.

Revenue at the Paternoster Chop House — where maitre d’ Fred Sirieix acts as a dating guru — is up 25 per cent in a year when most restaurants are struggling to increase sales.

The restaurant, close to St Paul’s Cathedral, is part of the D&D London group and has gained cult status through its role as the setting for the Channel 4 show since its first series in 2013. The programme films singles getting to know each other over dinner.

Des Gunewardena, chairman and chief executive of D&D London, said: “The performance at Paternoster Chop House has certainly been fuelled by First Dates, especially at the weekend when it used to be fairly quiet but is absolutely packed.”

Across the group, which also includes Quaglino’s and Le Pont de la Tour, turnover was up 16 per cent to a record £125 million last year. But Mr Gunewardena said trading was “volatile” with a strong June and July followed by a “disappointing” August and September.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in