Is Kingston en route to being the alfresco eating out capital of Greater London? Thanks to the Thames, the answer could be yes.

The riverside between Bishop’s Hall and Town End Wharf already has an eclectic mix of cafes, restaurants and pubs, all with outdoor seating.

Now work has begun alongside Kingston Bridge that will bring several more – including three of the currently most fashionable and sought after ones.

Canadian & Portland Estates has named this new £30m development Riverside Kingston, and one of its most ringing endorsements is that Alan Yau has bagged prime space there for his latest restaurant concept, Naamyaa.

No man has had a greater influence on restaurants worldwide than this brilliant perfectionist, born in 1962 to an impoverished family in Hong Kong.

In 1975 he came to Britain and after years of menial work in Chinese restaurants and takeaways, joining a McDonald’s training programme, and saving relentlessly, he began his good food revolution with Wagamama.

Launched in 1992, this was the UK’s first experience of affordable menus, based on Japanese noodles, and eaten canteen-style, sitting on communal benches.

It had 26 UK branches, franchises across the globe, and a host of imitators when he sold it in 1997, and went on to launch nine other ground-breaking companies, including the UK’s first Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant.

He was also awarded the OBE for services to the restaurant industry.

Naamyaa, which offers “all day eating Bangkok style”, will, he says, probably be his last restaurant creation before he moves into other fields.

Yau’s phenomenal achievements owe much to his meticulous personal vetting of all the dishes on his menus and all his locations; so the fact he is choosing to bring his new “offspring” to Kingston indicates that the new Riverside Kingston will indeed be a winner.

Two other prominent restaurateurs think so too. Both CAU and Cote Brasserie have taken space there, and hope to be open for business by Christmas.

This will be the third branch for CAU, which was launched in Guildford in 2011.

Its initials stand for Carne Argentina Unica (ie, unique Argentina beef) but its menu also includes fish, pork, pasta and salads.

With its bold, Argentinian-style decor, steaks bred on the pampas, and special hyper-hot charcoal grilles, this will be something not seen in Kingston before.

The first Cote Brasserie opened in Wimbledon Village in 2007 and 37 more have been launched since then.

Your Local Guardian: Fresh look: An artist’s depiction of Riverside Kingston after the completion of phase one

Fresh look: An artist’s depiction of Riverside Kingston after the completion of phase one

Now, at long last, Kingston is to get one, and locals will no longer have to go to Richmond or Esher to sample the Paris bistro cuisine that has earned it the fastest-growing revenue in the UK’s restaurant and pub portfolio.

The first phase of Riverside Kingston, due for completion later this year, will comprise six restaurants, all offering outdoor seating and fine views of the Thames.

It has meant demolition of the car park off Thames Street, and the present dismal entrance yard will become a pleasantly landscaped approach to the river.

Phase two of the Riverside Kingston scheme is for three more restaurants, plus five shops and 9,688sq ft of offices.

But work cannot begin until 2019 because the project is basically a re-modelling of Bishop’s House, which dates from the 1970s, and there are tenants – TK Maxx, McCluskies night club and Russell Cooke Solicitors – who still have five years to run on their leases.

After that, Canadian & Portland will transform the rest of the building with glazing, stone and new terraces, and provide, says a company spokesman, “a new gateway to Kingston, which we hope will boost revenue growth for the surrounding area”.

l Still on the subject of eating, I see that Creams Cafe is about to open in the Clarence Street premises that were home to Blacks Outdoor Leisure until it went into administration last year.

The menu will specialise in Italian ice-creams and desserts plus waffles, milkshakes and crepes.

l Meanwhile, a new cafe is almost ready for business in Eden Walk.

Called the Cheeky Pea, and occupying what used to be the Meat Roll cafe, it promises “home-made Mediterranean food and a hummus bar”.

I hate to see shops close down, and was saddened to see that two have just gone from Kingston town centre.

One is the Modern Touch nail studio in Clarence Street. The other is the stationery specialist, Paperchain, in Crown Arcade.

Click here for more articles by June Sampson.