A PLUSH new restaurant on Southend seafront has had its opening delayed by at least three months, with bosses not expecting it to launch until shortly before Christmas at the earliest. 

Zinnia is part of a £125 million development in Southend’s Western Esplanade, where almost 90 per cent of the homes have already been sold.

The seafront restaurant and cocktail bar was set to open alongside the apartments this month, but bosses have blamed construction delays while stressing: “They are on site building it.”

James Struth, managing director at Clifftown Shore, said: “It is late, but it is happening.

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“The last conversation I had with them; is they would try to get it open by Christmas.

“I don’t know whether that will happen or not, but that is the aim.

“It is a way off at the moment, so it will be Christmas at the earliest.”

Mr Struth said last week’s mini-budget by the Government had given a boost to the property side of the development. 

He added: “We can offer one bed Park View apartments with zero Stamp Duty. 

“We have got a few flats left, some on the front, some on the back.

“We expect the remaining ones to sell fast, so don’t miss out.”

The project has been years in the making, built on the site of the old Esplanade pub and the Marriott’s fish restaurant next door. 

Alongside the apartments, there is a gym and secure parking.

The restaurant will offer food lovers a menu designed around the culinary fusions of North and South America, the Polynesian islands, eastern Asia, and Australia.

Councillor Matt Dent pointed to the troubled picture with the economy overall.

He said: “The trouble is that is the environment we are in at the moment with the economy and inflation, unfortunately, these are the situations we are facing.

“It is good news though that they are delayed rather than cancelled, as obviously we want to see new restaurants, new attractions, that bring people down to the seafront and you know we have already seen the success of that at the high street and we want to continue that on.”