ASIAN food chain Itsu will keep its Cornmarket Street restaurant when it opens a new branch at the Westgate Centre.

Itsu opened the Oxford branch in 2013, taking over from The Works stationery shop.

Itsu, selling sushi, noodles, cooked rice and Bento boxes, spent £1m on the branch in Oxford city centre, the first in the chain to open outside London.

Now a new Itsu is due to open on Friday, July 20 at the Westgate Centre.

The frontage has been created at the Westgate unit and the final preparations are being made for the opening day.

A member of staff at the Cornmarket Street store said: "We are not closing the restaurant here - no jobs are going.

"We are looking forward to opening in Westgate - there will be some special deals on the day we open."

Itsu is the brainchild of Julian Metcalfe, who was behind the Pret a Manger cafe and sandwich bar business.

Itsu in Cornmarket featured 104 seats over two floors, serving Asian-style food to eat in and takeaway.

Shortly after Itsu opened in Cornmarket, with 18 staff, it boasted eight million customers around the globe.

There are 50 Asian-inspired, restaurant dishes, all under 500 calories.

Mr Metcalfe opened Itsu as an informal Katien Japanese restaurant in Chelsea, having previously co-founded and built Pret A Manger into a global brand.

The decision to stay in Cornmarket and open a new outlet at the £440m Westgate Centre, which opened in October, will reassure traders.

They feared the traditional main shopping street would lose out on footfall if too many stores relocated to the revamped shopping complex.

Top clothing brands Next and River Island opted to leave Cornmarket for Westgate and the Next unit remains empty.

Gentlemen's outfitters is also due to close its Cornmarket store before switching to the Westgate Centre.

Graham Jones, a member of traders' group ROX - Promoting Oxford Business, said: "It would make no sense for Itsu to leave Cornmarket.

"Staff always look very busy in there and it's the perfect location for the fast-turnaround takeaway food they serve.

"They are well established in Cornmarket and it's right they should stay."

Fans of Asian food are well served in Cornmarket. As well as Itsu there is Japanese chain Wasabi, which opened in 2016.

The window of the Itsu unit at Westgate now says: "It's coming."