A town’s popular Chinese restaurant which had been closed for over a year and left a community baffled has finally reopened.

The Royal Garden Chinese restaurant in Attleborough was forced to close when the coronavirus pandemic hit back in March 2020.

But unlike most businesses in the hospitality industry, which closed and reopened multiple times under government restrictions, the restaurant in Besthorpe Road was not heard from again – until now.

On Sunday, October 31, Attleborough residents were thrilled but also surprised to see that the restaurant was back and open for business.

Wen Lin, manager at the restaurant, said: “We wanted to clear up some rumours.

“We haven’t sold the business. We are still here. It’s the same owner and everything is the same.

“Some customers said that they thought we were stuck in China.

“We did try to reopen, but then more restrictions came in, so we decided not to. We didn’t want to spread the virus in our restaurant it wasn’t safe for our customers.

“We also lost a lot of staff. We didn’t have enough to reopen. That’s the reason why it took us so long to reopen.”

But now Ms Wen said the business, which has been in the town for 18 years, is happy to be back - which wouldn’t have been possible without the community’s support.

“We appreciate the strong support from local people,” she said. “Otherwise we wouldn't have reopened.

“It felt like a really long time and we hope there won't be any more lockdown or restrictions, if not we will really struggle. I don’t think we would cope."

She continued: “When we reopened, we actually didn’t advertise we just turned the lights on.

“We didn’t think we would have many customers but surprisingly people drove past and came in. It was really touching.

“Some people said they were coming every week to check if we are open. That’s why our restaurant is still here. We are happy to be back.”