Korean BBQ to take over closed Pizza Express in Reading

The Italian eatery, based at 55 St Mary’s Butts next to Reading Minster Church, has been empty since it closed during the pandemic in 2020.

Work is currently underway by company I/We Korean Kimchi Ltd into a new restaurant called AKA Korean BBQ.

The firm has applied to Reading Borough Council to sell alcohol and play recorded music from 11.30am to 11pm every day.

The business is currently on the lookout for full and part-time chefs and floor staff.

AKA Korean BBQ is looking for chefs and floor staff as it is seeking to open at the old Pizza Express restaurant in Reading town centre. Credit: James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporting Service

Once it opens, the restaurant is expected to serve up kimchi, curries, rice dishes and barbecued meat and seafood to diners.

The site served as a Pizza Express for more than 10 years but closed during the pandemic in 2020 and never reopened.

It was taken over by the shortlived Smokin’ Buns and Saucy Chicks restaurants which opened in October 2021 but closed by January the following year.

AKA Korean Barbecue Foods has a branch in Eastbourne, Sussex.

Pizza Express maintains one restaurant in Reading, found at the Oracle Riverside, which underwent a refurbishment in the summer.

To view the licensing application, you can see it once it appears on Reading Borough Council’s current premises licence applications webpage.