A local restaurant has seen hundreds of new customers come through its doors after an e-mail about its promotions spread like wild fire across the Island.

Japanese restaurant D'Mikado at Pier 6 opened its doors quietly in July on Front Street in Hamilton, but the manager says the phone has been ringing off the hook as Bermudians received an e-mail about the sushi and teppanyaki bar.

So far the only promotions for the restaurant have been sushi and fire shows during Harbour Nights, with the owners banking on word of mouth to fill the restaurant.

However, on Wednesday last week manager Alex G. Ty sent out an e-mail of the special offers available to a select few customers. At the bottom he put "please forward'', and in days the e-mail has spread right across the Island.

The promotion, which includes 50 percent off for birthday parties and ten percent off if you show your Bermuda driving licence, proved a hit.

The restaurant was not only filled to capacity at the weekend, but has now booked up for the next three weekends.

"I am amazed at the response to the e-mail,'' said Mr. Ty, who has been in the Japanese restaurant business for nearly 20 years and who previously worked at the Mikado at the Marriott.

"I thought about putting an advert in the paper to promote the offers, but I did not want all the customers to come in at once, so I thought an e-mail would spread across the Island at a slower rate.'' But logged on computer-savvy Islanders have responded quickly to the electronic messages.

Now Mr. Ty is thinking of continuing using e-mails to advertise promotions locally.

Mr. Ty will later this month assemble two further teppanyaki tables in the restaurant, which can hold up to 120 people. And he is travelling to the United States to get further supplies for the restaurant and is looking to hire more qualified chefs to man the new bars.

"I am delighted at the success of the D'Mikado, and once we have more tables up we will be able to cater for more people. At the moment we are having to turn people away because we are so busy.''