A DEVASTATED restauranteur who made the difficult decision to close her establishment just five months after it opened and let go of her 10 staff says she is ‘gutted’ to be shutting down.

Yvandi’s Kitchen owner Yvonne Purdie has announced that her popular Gourock eatery will no longer be trading due to difficulties with rising running costs.

The local chef told the Telegraph of the ‘terrible’ moment she had to break the news to her 10 employees at an emergency staff meeting on Monday.

She has now thanked her customers for their support and says she has reached out to everyone who had made a booking or bought vouchers for the restaurant.

(Image: George Munro)

She said: "It was the running costs, I made some mistakes at the beginning.

"We were busy at weekends, I should have closed a couple of days during the week when we were quiet. At the end up there were more outgoings than what was coming in.

"I think it's the current climate, people are just not going out during the week.

"I should have maybe closed more days at the start.

“I am gutted. I just decided a few days ago. I looked at the booking for the week ahead, I had a birthday booking for a birthday on Monday and if it hadn't been for that I would have made Sunday the last night."

Yvonne also runs the award-winning Cottage Cafe Bistro in Greenock and the food delivery platform Clyde Eats with her sister and business partner Janine Brennan.

But running a restaurant was always her dream and she took over the former Fusion eatery on Hopeton Street in May.

She believes the current economic climate and quiet weekday bookings have taken their toll on the business.

Yvonne says the worst part of closing has been having to let go of her dedicated team, which includes four full-time kitchen staff and six part-time front of house staff.

(Image: Duncan Bryceland)

The local chef says her family and friends have offered her words of support to help her through the tough time.

She said: "They said at least I gave it a bash. We had excellent reviews about our food, customers still might be able to sample some of the dishes at the cafe, our chicken satay which was the best by a country mile."

She continued: "I want to thank all our customers. I appreciate every single one. I am gutted at letting them down, I have contacted everyone who has made a booking or who have bought vouchers."