AN award-winning Chester restaurant has announced it is to return to the city centre, temporarily reopening in its former home.

The Chef's Table won national plaudits for its dishes when it was in business at the Music Hall Passage, and its owners had hoped to open a new, larger premises.

But ongoing delays put back the proposed opening, and in the meantime the Music Hall Passage site closed, to be replaced by a joint venture with Meltdown, as grilled cheese bar MeltTown served luxury cheese toasties to customers between summer 2021 and January this year.

Following MeltTown's closure, the owners of the Chef's Table have announced they will now, temporarily, be reopening at the Music Hall Passage venue until its larger restaurant – now confirmed to be in Pepper Street – is ready to open.

In a statement posted on the Chef's Table Facebook page, the owners said: "The move to our new premises has taken such an unexpected amount of time - we never intended for our doors to be closed more than six months but as we are now nearing one year, we think it’s high time that we all have a bit of fun!

"We’ve been very fortunate to secure our original location and will be running a pop-up 'little Chef’s Table' there temporarily until our new, larger premises on Pepper Street are complete.

"Our builders are currently giving the space a refresh and we hope that the new touches will get you excited about what is still to come. Weekly bookings will soon be available from April with the pop-up running Thursday evening to Sunday lunch with full services both Friday and Saturday.

"In addition to seeing your lovely faces again and giving you an opportunity to finally use those vouchers, we will be utilising this time to work on our menu development and team-building ahead of our permanent move.

"We cannot thank you all enough for your patience and support over the previous year and are thrilled for the opportunity to welcome you all back very soon."