Catering Scotland NewsScottish catering and hospitality news in Scotland

The team behind Edinburgh's The Kitchin have today announced a new city centre restaurant in the Capital.

The new restaurant - Castle Terrace - is due to open in July and will see Tom Kitchin's friend, Dominic Jack, at the helm as chef-patron.

Dominic said: 'Tom and I have always talked about doing something together so it's great that this is finally happening. I've been working alongside him for the past year and a half, getting to know the Scottish market and looking for the right location. The next few months will be a very exciting time for all of us.'

Hotels in Scotland have enjoyed an increase in occupancy during March but a fall in rooms yield, according to the latest monthly survey by accountants and business advisers, PKF. The firm's monthly survey found that occupancy levels rose 3.8% in Scotland as a whole, with a 5.2% rise in Glasgow and a 3.4% increase in Edinburgh. However, rooms yield fell by 1.5% in Edinburgh and 5.6% in Glasgow.

Alastair Rae, a partner in the Real Estate and Hospitality sector at PKF, said: 'These figures indicate that, like much of the Scottish economy, the hotel sector is experiencing a shallower but longer after-effect from the recession than the rest of the UK. Thus the occupancy levels are up, but not by as much as the rest of the UK, and the rooms yield is down, but by a bit more than the rest of the UK.'

'There remains considerable uncertainty over the impact of public sector cuts and possible increases in inflation and interest rates, however the high rate of the Euro against the pound would indicate that this may be another summer of 'staycationing' in the UK which should go some way to help the sector.'