Oriental restaurant closing to make room for more banqueting

London's Dorchester hotel will close its Oriental restaurant at the end of December to create more space for its booming banqueting business.

A spokeswoman said that the conference and banqueting side was so busy it was spilling into the Promenade area off the main lobby.

This was compromising the atmosphere of the Promenade and hampering new developments, she said.

The Oriental was set up in 1990 as London's first high-quality authentic Cantonese restaurant. It currently seats 80 diners in the main restaurant and up to 16 people in three private dining rooms below.

Both areas will be revamped into extra banqueting space to cope with a growing demand that has secured the hotel 240 bookings for next year.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 11 November 2004