Doors close on Wellington restaurant Global Kitchen

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

A Willis St eatery, opened by the owner of a restaurant at the centre of indecent assault allegations, has closed just weeks after opening.

Global Kitchen opened on February 28 in the site previously occupied by Saigon Restaurant, where, in March last year, two members of an official Vietnamese delegation allegedly indecently assaulted two female workers.

Both restaurants were owned by Giang Do who also owns Global Kitchen in Palmerston North and Global Food Kitchen in Feilding.

Recently appointed operations manager Nicky Murphy said the decision to close Global Kitchen in Wellington was a financial one.

“Obviously we had the lease, so we thought we would give it a month or so, but after two or three weeks there just wasn’t the interest.”

It had been pitched as a fine dining restaurant, which hadn’t worked in the current economic environment, she said.

“By the time people leave work and the CBD, they want to go home. I could see it being a struggle to get people who were going home to drive back into the city and dine.”

Murphy didn’t believe its failure had anything to do with the assault allegations.

“People will hear and believe what they want to, but people that want to eat, they don’t care about those issues. Realistically it was a financial thing … when you’re haemorrhaging thousands of dollars a week then you’ve got to make a sensible business decision.”

She was now focused on the more profitable Manawatu restaurants. “I’d rather focus on my two that are going well and put 300% into those.”

The closure follows that of Avida, on Featherston St, and Cuba St’s Ekimburger, which shuts up shop next week.