THE asking price for a popular North-East restaurant that is up for sale has been slashed by half despite bouncing back after Covid.

Restaurant D’acqua, in Sunderland City Centre, has been run by the current owners Mr and Mrs Shadforth for several years, but now it is up for grabs.

The asking price for the popular restaurant, on John Street, has been cut in half - from £150,000 to £75,000.

Mr Shadforth says this is because he is keen to move forward with a new project.

D’acqua closed during the Covid-19 lockdown but, since reopening, trade has bounced back with strong average weekly sales.

The business also introduced an "incredibly popular" take-away service, which saw 40 orders on its first night despite owners "keeping it quiet".

Mr Shadforth said: “We have decided to reduce the price to try and facilitate a quicker sale, as we have a really exciting new project that we are looking forward to getting our teeth into, but it’s impossible to do that and run the restaurant at the same time.

"We took our time when re-opening after lockdown because we wanted to get it 100 per cent right for our staff and our customers.

"We’re following the government guidance down to the letter and the feedback we’ve had from customers has been excellent.

"The take-away service we’re now offering has proven so much more popular than we thought – we deliberately kept it quiet and announced that we would start at 4pm on Friday, September 18, and on that night we took 40 orders. Our customers feel completely safe and at ease when they dine with us and we’re proud of that.”

David Cash, associate director at Christie & Co is handling the sale, said: “Many restaurant businesses still remain closed, or are trading at such a limited capacity that they aren’t profitable.

"Since reopening, D’acqua has come close to achieving pre-Covid levels of turnover without compromising on the quality of their offer.

“The reduction in price is no reflection on the performance of the business. To fit out and equip a restaurant of this quality would cost way in excess of £75,000 and so to offer a trading business with a huge amount of goodwill for sale at this level presents an incredible opportunity for a prospective buyer.”