DINERS are being welcomed back to an Italian restaurant which was forced to close for four months after a devastating fire.

Customers were keen to see the new look Impasto in St Swithin's Street which has undergone a renovation after the kitchen fire caused £25,000 worth of damage.

The restaurant opened its doors for the first time yesterday (Tuesday) after a fire broke out in a pizza oven on Thursday, July 8.

Owner Adam Giangnotti, who also runs Olive Branch, said: "It's great to be open again and because the Olive Branch is often full we can now send them here.

"The fire caused a lot of damage so we had to change a lot of things but it also gave us the chance to improve things too.

"One of the things we have changed is that we are now accepting bookings at Impasto.

"We have a lot of families booked in as there are the University of Worcester graduations taking place at the Cathedral.

"When we opened we thought it would be casual dining but I am not sure why we thought that because the food is just as good as the Olive Branch the only difference is we don't have tablecloths.

"When we first thought about opening and selling pizza and pasta I thought we would be popular with students but that didn't happen.

"But we are definitely more relaxed than Olive Branch."

Mr Giangnotti said he had been working long days to get the Italian restaurant open on time after the fire.

Impasto had only been opened six months before the fire but had built a good customer base who were excited to see it reopen.

"It's been amazing to see the reaction I couldn't have asked for anything better.

"We weren't open for that long but we got a good following of customers all waiting for us to reopen so the response has been fantastic."

One of the restaurant's best sellers is the carbonara dirty fries and they have added a tandoori oven to make the pizzas as well as selling homemade dried pasta for people to take away.