A NEW restaurant has opened in Burnham-on-Sea.

The Lounge on College Street has set up shop in place of The Mitre and has a new dining room and bar and a fresh menu.

Owners Craig Peters and Jimie Scully said it has been a rush to get the restaurant open as they only decided to take on the venue on New Years Day.

"We used to manage the restaurant for the previous owners when it was The Mitre," Jimie said.

"In December last year, the previous owners said they didn't want to manage the restaurant anymore and on New Year's Day we sat down with them and asked if we could lease the restaurant and they agreed."

The duo said they wanted to breathe new life into the eatery and revamped the dining room and bar in just nine days. 

"It has been a really busy time and we have been working day and night to get everything ready," Jimie said.

"We have replaced the carpets, repainted and got a new bar as we felt the restaurant looked dated and needed a new look.

"Craig has also spent time coming up with a new menu filled with seasonal produce.

"We are sourcing a lot of our food from local suppliers, we get our fish from Burnham Seafood, our vegetables from Gardiner Whites and our meat from a local butcher so we are doing our best to keep it local."

The restaurant officially opened on January 10 and Jimie said he is hopeful the eatery will be 'something different' in the town.

"The launch night went really well, we were nearly fully booked it was lovely to see so many people coming through the door.

"We had great feedback from our customers about our menu and the restaurant's new look. 

"We want to create something different in Burnham that will last, there are already a number of Indian restaurants and pubs in the town and we want to break away from that and offer people a new place to eat.

"We hope to get more customers coming in to enjoy our restaurant."

The Lounge is open from 6pm to 9pm from Wednesday to Saturday and from noon to 3pm from Thursday to Sunday.