A Watergate Street seafood restaurant has "closed indefinitely" just months after first opening its doors. 

The Sandbar Restaurant officially opened on August 5, based in the lower ground floor of Chester's Watergate House.

Launched by the owner of Chester Market's Sandbar Seafood Shack, Martin Taylor, the venture was also backed by industry legend Jerry Brunning.

The restaurant served a range of meat and vegetarian dishes, using ingredients selected from local farms (Nub News)

Specialising in "great seafood", the restaurant served a range of meat and vegetarian dishes, using ingredients selected from local farms "for quality and taste".

However, bookings are now unavailable for the eatery, with its closure confirmed on its Instagram page, which reads: "The Sandbar is now closed indefinitely".

The building was formerly home to the Henry Potts pub, which opened in June 2022, before closing in July last year.

At the time, pub boss Jeremy Brunning had cited more people working-from-home and "ridiculous electricity bills" as the culprits behind the low trade output. 

Taking to Instagram to announce the closure in 2024, he said: "It's a beautiful pub, like a cosy little underground hideaway with excellent staff and the best quality food and drink. However, it's simply not doing enough trade. 

The Henry Potts pub opened in June 2022 and closed two years later (Image via: Christie & Co, Pubs & Restaurants)

"If you saw the numbers they'd look like a lot, but in today's economic environment, with ridiculous electricity bills and a host of other inflationary costs, it needs to be busier to be viable."

Branding the city "a bit of a ghost town", he explained that the numbers of customers entering the doors weren't enough to keep the pub running. 

Chester Nub News has contacted The Sandbar for comment.