A new restaurant chain is to move in to the £35 million Leisure Exchange in the heart of Bradford city centre.

The £500,000 Nandos restaurant will join the Frankie & Benny's and Pizza Hut already operating in the centre on the Vicar Lane car park. The restaurant, which will have 104 seats, will specialise in Piri-Piri spicy Portuguese chicken dishes, and is expected to open in autumn.

Most of the company's 60 restaurants are in the South of England but it recently opened premises in Leeds. Developers J J Gallagher are about to go out to tender and construction will begin in about a month.

The boost to the centre comes four weeks after the opening of a £5 million Express by Holiday Inn in the complex which has 120 bedrooms. Other attractions include a 16-screen Cineworld Cinema and Hollywood Bowl.

Simon Newsholme, director of J J Gallagher, said: "This is very good news, They have the confidence to come to Bradford and it is prompted by the success of the scheme."

Deputy manager of the Express by Holiday Inn David Pineau said: "We have only been open for seven weeks and it is definitely so far, so good."

Cineworld's chief executive Steve Wiener said audiences were also increasing at the Leisure Exchange.

"We are thrilled with the number of people visiting our multiplex. There are a total of 3,200 seats in our 16 screens which all have state of the art digital surround sound which really brings the movie to life and beats any home video experience."