Ramsay to close f lagship restaurant
GORDON Ramsay is closing his flagship Maze restaurant in Mayfair after his firm slumped to a loss.
It comes as the firebrand chef announced plans to open five outlets in fast-growing overseas markets to stem the flow at his holding company Kavalake, which lost £3.8 million in the year to August 2017.
The company owns acclaimed London restaurants Petrus, Savoy Grill and Bread Street Kitchen, but since 2012 it has made only one annual profit. Maze opened its doors in 2005 under chef Jason Atherton, and serves modern European food with an Asian twist.
Despite winning early praise from critics and the public, recent visitors have complained the venue lacks atmosphere.
Annual accounts published by Kavalake state that Maze, which is in the Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square, will shut next year.
Ramsay’s firm will replace it with an as-yet unnamed restaurant operating at the same site under a ten-year lease.
The 51-year-old father of four – who became the first Scot to win three Michelin stars in 2001 – intends to open a Bread Street Kitchen in Sanya, China, this year, and add four sites in North America. They will include a new concept called Hell’s Kitchen in Las Vegas, trading off the name of the cookery TV show he hosts in the US.