The Restaurant Group has experienced significant losses as part of Britains’ casual dining crunch.

Alongside these writedowns, 42 Chiquito restaurants, which is over half of the UK total, have been identified as being located in “unfavourable” places and earmarked for closure. In March this year, Restaurant Group said it would close a further 76 Frankie & Benny’s restaurants.

The Restaurant Group’s shares have fallen 12% as it accumulated an £88m pre-tax loss for the six months to June. Contrastingly, for the same period last year the company, experienced a £12m profit. Revenue in this time period also rose from £326 to £516, boosted by the inclusion of Wagamama sales for the first time.

Debbie Hewitt, Chairman of Restaurant Group, said: “We’ve just started a piece of work on what the options are for the US.”

Whilst the USA represents only a small part of Wagamama’s operations, it was previously regarded as a way to boost growth which would allow it to duplicate its market-leading success in Britain.

The group wrote down the value of its two US outlets by £2.3m.

Ms Hewitt said that the priority for Wagamama remained in the UK. She said: “When we did the acquisition we took the view that the states was an option.”

She added that the US had been “stabilise” however she said that there were “absolutely no preconceived ideas” about what will occur with operations there.

Andy Hornby, who joined the group as chief executive in May, said: “Yes the sector is tough, (but) we have three businesses (Wagamama, pubs and concessions) that can out-perform.”

Douglas Jack, Peel Hunt, said: “The long-term challenge is to maintain momentum at Wagamama, and avoid cannibalisation(and losing money) from delivery.”