Celebrity chef Rick Stein considers shutting restaurant

Rick Stein’s Marlborough restaurant has confirmed it is consulting its team on a potential closure but still hopes this can be avoided.

The chain says its Marlborough branch has not delivered the same success as its other restaurants and hotels around the UK.

A spokesperson for Rick Stein Marlborough said: “We can confirm that we are proposing the closure of our Marlborough restaurant and are consulting with the team to explore whether this can be avoided.

“Our other restaurants and rooms continue to trade well, but this particular site has not delivered the same level of return.”

The Rick Stein restaurant group has around a dozen locations, many of which are based in Cornwall.

The restaurant(Image: Newsquest)

Mr Stein, who has featured on an array of TV cookery shows over the years, runs the restaurant group with his wife Jill and sons Charlie, Jack, and Ed.

Accounts filed with Companies House on Tuesday, September 23, revealed that Stein’s Trading Limited, one of the companies directed by Mr Stein, had made an operating loss in 2024.

The Seafood Restaurant Padstow Limited, a holding company for the group, also reported an operating loss in 2024.

The first Rick Stein location, The Seafood Restaurant, opened in 1975 on the harbourside in Padstow.

Over four decades later, the Marlborough restaurant was opened in 2016.

The venue serves some of Mr Stein’s most recognisable dishes, including the Dover sole a la meunière and turbot hollandaise.

It also opened with the promise of new meals like salt pork belly with split pea puree and sauerkraut, and baked guinea fowl with garlic beans and smoked sausage.

The town centre restaurant has been threatened with closure before and nearly shut its doors in 2020 after the pandemic broke out.

A closure was announced, and 39 members of staff were reportedly given notice.

But the restaurant’s landlord stepped in to keep the venue going by reducing rent by 25 per cent and wiping away rent arrears.

At the time, Mr Stein said: “I’m delighted that our landlord in Marlborough made such a generous offer, I had resigned myself to losing the restaurant and our wonderful team and I am so pleased that we can reopen.”

Jill Stein added: “I think it is a wonderful site in a beautiful market town.

“Kate, Ed, and I put a huge amount of thought into the look and feel of Rick Stein Marlborough and I am relieved that we will be reopening.”