Plymouth site first of Rockfish group to reopen

02 July 2020 by Lisa Jenkins

Rockfish, the seafood restaurant and takeaway group in Devon and Dorset, will open the doors of its Plymouth restaurant this Saturday, with a new menu and ordering system.

The group has taken time during lockdown to review the whole business and introduce not only Covid-19 safety measures, but also changes to systems and processes to improve the experience for staff and for customers.

Mitch Tonks (pictured) commented: "We're opening our restaurants up one at a time and making sure all the changes and measures we're introducing absolutely work for our customers and our teams.

"It will be a little bit different, with a changed menu and ordering process for instance, but we're retaining all the Rockfish magic that customers have come to love.

"Plymouth is opening first – it is a great, big, spaced-out restaurant overlooking the boats and water, it has loads of outdoor space, different entry and exit doors and so on. It's the perfect place to reopen first. The marine aquarium next door to us is also opening – it feels good to be back!"

Plans to expand the group along the coast will be put on hold temporarily as the group "deals with the new world," while plans to "go back to our roots" include a retail fish offering from the flagship Brixham site and home delivery of seafood nationwide.

Tonks added: "We were performing strongly before lockdown and on track for our best year yet. Lockdown has put incredible pressure on hospitality, but we are confident and optimistic about the future. We've been helped by our bank, by government loans and we've used the time wisely to develop great ideas we've had on the back burner for a while and come out of this with a modern, fresh business.

"I believe we will emerge from this as one of the strongest restaurant businesses in the south west. We've updated everything, in line with all the government guidelines, and have produced support documentation and training programmes for all staff, which start this week - it's a big operation but it is also an exciting one, a chance to reboot!