Chain serves up its largest airport restaurant at Gatwick (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

Chain serves up its largest airport restaurant at Gatwick

3:15pm Saturday 18th August 2012 in News

The YO! Sushi chain has opened its largest airport restaurant to passengers in Gatwick’s North Terminal.

The chain, which offers fast Japanese food, opened its latest restaurant last week.

The opening followed hot on the heels of the new Jamie Oliver restaurants, which opened at the airport earlier this summer.

Located on the upper level of the North Terminal departure lounge, the Yo! Sushi restaurant spans 1,101 square metres, and includes its trademark ‘kaiten’ conveyor belt.

The restaurant blends urban contemporary design and modern furniture with elements of a rural forest, and has been created that way to give passengers a relaxed environment to eat in.

More than 90 Japanese-inspired items will be freshly prepared in the restaurant each day, including soups, rice or noodle-based dishes, salads, tempura and classics dishes, while for early morning passengers, there will be a range of breakfast options on offer.

Spencer Sheen, head of retail at Gatwick Airport, said: “The new addition of YO! Sushi just goes to show how committed we are to invigorating Gatwick and providing passengers with sought-after eating options.”

He said: “As we continue our journey to transform the airport, providing modern facilities and giving great customer service, passengers are seeing the benefits of a much wider range of choice between ‘food on the go’ outlets, relaxed coffee houses and high quality dining restaurants.’’ YO! Sushi chief executive officer Robin Rowland, said: “As we continue to innovate our dishes and restaurant design, we have naturally expanded our on-the-go portfolio to locations like Gatwick Airport, offering a fantastic choice of Japanese-inspired dishes to travellers looking for something different.”

He said: “Customers can quickly grab and go, or enjoy a more leisurely meal if waiting with family and friends.

“Along with our array of healthy, high quality and great value dishes, we provide a fun and fast-paced environment which appeals to the huge variety of consumers that travel through airports and train stations.”

The restaurant will be open to passengers from 6am and will stay open until after the last flight departs.

Gatwick has recently scored a number of airport firsts, including the opening of Jamie Oliver's first airport restaurant, won a number of key international routes, and has had millions of pounds worth of improvements spent on it.

It recently opened the UK’s first interactive virtual grocery store with Tesco and a £53 million upgrade for its railway station is expected to start soon.

A £1 billion programme of improvements designed to transform the passenger experience at Gatwick was unveiled in 2010 by the airport's owners, a group of international investment funds, of which Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is the majority shareholder.