Restaurateur Jim Kospetas opening two CBD eateries

The website for China Republic at World Square lists the restaurant as "closed for renovations". With a rumoured $7-million interior, you wonder what else they could possibly tinker with at the 18-month-old restaurant. We are about to find out.

China Republic, which had some lukewarm reviews when it opened, now has a phone message declaring it under new management and primed for a grand reopening. Centre management says a name change is also mooted – to Tang Hui.

Other restaurants at World Square, where Din Tai Fung rewrote the dumpling script and which Neil Perry chose as the base to launch his Burger Project, appear to be booming.

Restaurateur Jim Kospetas, who recently helped launch My Kitchen Rules contestants Helena and Vikki Moursellas into their own restaurant in his Civic Hotel on Pitt Street, is joining the World Square party. He'll open Margherita & Co there in September.

"It's an enoteca and vinoteca. We are taking over two sites and creating a piazza in World Square," Kospetas explains.

He believes the success of the centre is partly due to its four street entries "feeding people from every direction", as well as its mix of business clientele and local residents.

Kospetas is also busy at the other end of the city, opening a 130-seat Greek restaurant near Martin Place in early 2016.