A MUCH-LOVED Borehamwood restaurant will be knocked down and replaced with 12 flats and three bike sheds.

The popular Italian restaurant Bengiamino, in Shenley Road, owned by Marco Donghi and Giulio Pollano, served its last meals on Saturday night to a packed room of hungry diners.

Maureen Bennet, 43, of Manor Road, Borehamwood, tucked into some proscuitto e melone with her husband Bill, who had pizza. She said: “I’ve been to Bengiamino pretty much every month since it opened a few years ago. The food is great and it’s a grand old Thirties building in a great location — a local landmark.”

The restaurant was known for its charitable contributions and, every Christmas, staff whipped around to buy presents for ill children staying at Barnet General Hospital.

But now the restaurant’s manager, two chefs, one waiter and one waitress have had to hunt for work elsewhere.

Chef Sala Hamed said: “We were given a month’s notice. They told us the landlord wanted to cut the kitchen in half and that we couldn’t make food on a building site.”

Hertsmere Borough Council granted permission for the changes to go ahead on September 3.

The restaurant, which opened in December 2005, is on the same road as Elstree Studios and around the corner from the BBC Elstree Centre, in Clarendon Road, and has seen many famous guests in its time.

Mr Hamed said: “We’ve had Big Brother contestants, EastEnders actors and actresses, footballers like David Seaman, Noel Edmonds, Roger Moore, Torvill and Dean.

“They’re all quite friendly and sometimes give autographs. I got Dot Cotton’s autograph for my daughter.”

Head chef Samir Seghir added: “Torvill and Dean were regulars.

Jayne Torvill was quite partial to our penne arrabita dish, and she was quite health conscious. But Christopher Dean would order a wide variety of things.

“Chris Tarrant was also quite a regular — he would sometimes order steak and sometimes fish. I liked him, because he was a very good tipper.”

Alicja Soloduszkiewicz, a waitress at the restaurant, said she had been in a show for Big Brother with another waiter when the producers had visited their restaurant one day.

She said: “Everyone at Bengiamino was very nice and there were always a lot of people about from many different countries. I have many good memories of the place.”

She said she had been lucky to find a new job in Elstree. The rest of the staff are still looking for work. It is understood Bengiamino will not open elsewhere.

When landlord AVO Catering Co Ltd was contacted about the closure, a spokesman said: “It was their decision to leave.”

He declined to comment on any previous planning appeals and would not discuss the recently approved application to build flats on the site.