A WESTON restaurant has ditched its frozen food and ‘soulless’ atmosphere after getting a huge wake-up call from Channel 5’s restaurant inspector.

The Panoramic restaurant and bistro, formerly known as the Nook and Harbour, in Knightstone Road, appeared on The Restaurant Inspector on Monday night.

Father-and-son duo Alan and Luke Vinnicombe took over the premises a year ago last March, when they were drawn in by the summery scenery and hordes of tourists filling the restaurant to the brim.

But when the sunshine disappeared and winter months rolled in, the team felt the cold pinch of reality of trying to maintain a seaside business.

This is when they called in the help of restaurant professional Fernando Peire, owner of London’s The Ivy restaurant.

During the 45-minute show, Fernando compared the restaurant to a sinking ship and described it as ‘soulless’ and ‘a very, very mediocre place.’

Customer reviews were not much better, with Alan and Luke serving up dishes such as deep fried frozen salmon and solid cold profiteroles.

At that point the former restaurant had no chef, and meal preparation was left to Luke. Fernando’s assessment of the duo and their establishment gave rise to comments such as ‘shabby and confused,’ ‘unprofessional’ and ‘lazy.’

During an intensive three-month revamp, The Ivy owner gave out some valuable advice which led the duo to bring in two professional chefs, repaint the entire interior and rebrand the business with a new name and sign.

Fernando also insisted that father Alan take the lead in the business and assert his authority. After the screening of the show, Alan said: “It was a rocky road, but we got there in the end.

“We had a lot of discussions because Fernando did not know Weston at all and we wanted to make him understand that people do not have much money to spend on a la carte food.

“We intended to make changes anyway and it was great to have advice from him.

“We agreed that the food wasn’t any good but we did genuinely care, that’s why we wanted to change it.

“We worked about 100 hours a week, so it wasn’t to do with laziness, and we knew we had to get rid of the frozen food.

“I’m used to working in big cities, not in the seaside trade, and it was a bigger job than we expected - and much more difficult than working in the city.

“But I can’t begin to explain how much better things are now.”