i360 restaurant The Belle Vue will open its doors this weekend while the West Pier Tea Room will open next week.

The Belle Vue is a 226-seat restaurant at beach level with sea-facing terraces.

It was named after Belle Vue Field, the former name of Regency Square in the 18th century, which featured in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

The attraction is soft launching its menu this weekend, with a full finalised menu to follow in mid September.

James Wilkie, catering director for Heritage Portfolio, which managing catering at the attraction, said: “We aim to perfect our offer and test what the public like best over the coming few weeks and will launch our full food and drink offer at the attraction in mid-September.

“We will serve quality food cooked from scratch, using superb local ingredients. The restaurant will cater for a wide variety of visitors throughout the day, from breakfast through lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, at sensible prices, with plenty of flexible dishes so that there is something for everyone.”

Eleanor Harris, chief executive of British Airways i360, added: “We believe there is a gap in the market for a destination beach-side restaurant?. Our vision for The Belle Vue restaurant is to serve the best of Sussex so that customers can enjoy food and drink that has been grown, reared, caught, brewed or produced in Sussex – the landscape which our visitors can enjoy at 450 feet.”

Menus for the attraction have been developed by Heritage Portfolio with former MasterChef: The Professionals Winner Steven Edwards.