Wahlburgers to convert to full-service restaurant six months after opening

Six months after opening their first UK restaurant Mark and Paul Wahlberg have announced that the Covent Garden Wahlburgers will be converted into a full-service restaurant with standalone bar.

The restaurant will also bring its opening time forward to 9am, offering a new breakfast menu.

New starters, sides and main courses will also be added to the existing menu, with the bar offering a range of cocktails and launching Wahlburgers DJ Nights from 9pm to 1am, Thursday to Saturday.

Paul said: "Each Wahlburgers around the world has a specific set of dishes that we feel fit anywhere we have a restaurant. During our first half year of operating in London we received some feedback from our guests that they'd also like to see some other options, and we listened."

The Covent Garden site opened in May 2019, and has so far failed to win over national critics including Grace Dent who said the restaurant left her "in the deepest of umbrages". The group had earlier said it aimed to open 50 UK restaurants in the next five years.

At the same time as revealing the operational changes Wahlburgers announced a new charity partnership with the Felix Project.

The group will donate surplus food to the charity for redistribution. The project has also linked the group to Greenhouse Sports, a charity that provides sports coaching and mentoring to young Londoners from disadvantaged backgrounds.

On top of this it will launch two paid apprenticeship schemes for 15-19-year-olds.

Wahlburgers opened its first restaurant in Massachusetts, US in 2011 and has since grown to 31 sites worldwide.