Titanic (restaurant)

Titanic was a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus within the Regent Palace Hotel in London that was open between December 1998 and January 2002.

It became a known celebrity hang-out, but went through two legal battles; first with shipbuilders Harland and Wolff and then with Oliver Peyton, proprietor of the Atlantic Bar and Grill which was also within the same hotel.

[7] The opening party was attended by a number of celebrities, including Billy Zane who had recently appeared in the film Titanic (1997), as well as the Spice Girls, All Saints, Goldie, Lenny Kravitz and models Sophie Dahl and Mandy Smith.

The first was when shipbuilders Harland and Wolff launched an action due to the use of the name "Titanic" as the ocean liner was built in their shipyard between 1908 and 1911.

[9] The challenge was ridiculed in the British press, with Sebastian Faulks stating in The Evening Standard that "A deep-sea diver instructed to work on an 86-year-old shipwreck many fathoms deep off the American coast could so easily be misled into going into a restaurant off Piccadilly Circus that bears the same name.

"[10] The second was when Peyton launched a legal challenge to the location of the restaurant around the time that it first opened, as his contract with Forte Group had an exclusivity clause.

[11] Peyton dropped the injunction and damages case following the second day of the hearing, which resulted in White declaring a victory saying that "The Titanic has sailed over the Atlantic – and they have failed to sink us.

Rupinder Singh had run up a £895 bill, and subsequently issued death threats and punched through a glass wall panel.

He said that "Titanic is a total waste of life and only worth visiting if you're the sort of saddo who thinks it's essential for your credibility to be seen in the latest MPW restaurant".

[21] Sebastian Faulks in The Evening Standard took along a younger friend, who praised the roast pheasant and the Caesar salads.