The curtain is almost ready to go up on a new theatre restaurant at Norwich Theatre Royal following a fire.

Kemp's Restaurant on the ground floor of the theatre shut on January 16 after a small kitchen fire and has moved upstairs to the Adnam's bar temporarily.

The restaurant is set to open on April 30 with a modern look and a new name which will be revealed in the next few weeks.

They will offer full table service for morning coffee and cakes, lunch, afternoon refreshments and pre-theatre dinners.

Stephen Wright, Norwich Theatre Royal hospitality manager, said: 'Our focus in redesigning the restaurant is to improve the overall customer experience, allow more customers to dine with us and give the restaurant an identity within Norwich's competitive dining market.

'We wanted to realign the space to have the most efficient and comfortable working environment and to ensure it has the capacity to manage our customer levels now and in the future as we grow the hospitality elements of our business.'

The kitchen is also being completely redesigned and there will be a broader offering of food and drink.

Stephen Crocker, Norwich Theatre Royal chief executive, said: 'We are very excited to be able to announce this new addition to Theatre Royal.

'This is giving us the opportunity to take a fresh look at our unique dining environment, review and improve what we offer and ensure we can continue to give all our current and future customers even more of an exciting and memorable experience when they visit us and that the quality of our offer in front of the stage matches the quality of our work on the stage.'

Firefighters were called just after 7am on Wednesday January 16 after an alarm activation which turned out to be a tumble dryer fire.

At the height of the incident there were five crews called, from Carrow, Sprowston, Hethersett, Earlham and the aerial ladder platform, but that the response was then scaled down to three.

The building was declared safe and re-opened to the public at 11am, with a matinee performance of the Cinderella pantomime going ahead.