Restaurant company Leon has secured £2.8m to open three new London sites.

Launched last year in London’s Carnaby Street, Leon sold itself as a fast-food operation with high-quality ingredients – typically using free range chicken, grass-fed lamb and sustainable fish stocks.

Co-founder John Vincent said: “The food industry has been destroying food by the very act of creating an industry. This is a chance for all of us to fall back in love.”

The next opening will be in Ludgate Circus.

The group’s other founders are Henry Dimbleby, who was a chef at Michelin-starred Four Seasons Inn on the Park, and Allegra McEved, who ran the kitchen at Robert De Niro’s TriBeCa Grill in New York City.

The leading investor is Active Private Equity and the fledgling group also counts La Tasca boss James Horler and Wagamama’s chief executive Ian Neill as backers.

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