Another slice of rattlesnake, sir?

The main course could be Kentucky fried bullfrog and mountain gumbo gravy, antelope steak and chips, piranha fish and chips, or ostrich doner - while the highlight of the drinks menu is snake wine, which comes with a coiled serpent in the bottle and a dubious reputation for improving the libido.

London already has a restaurant serving squirrel - St John in Smithfield, where the bushy-tailed creatures appear braised in wine and stock and dished up with shallots and bacon. Now less appetising beasts, including crocodile, ant and scorpion, are on the menu of a new establishment opening this month in Clerkenwell.

It may sound like a joke, but owner Todd Dalton believes London's sophisticated food-lovers are ready for something a little different.

Wildlife campaigners, however, are disgusted. They claim the restaurant, optimistically called Edible, will be an "enforcement nightmare" for the authorities because illegal traders will use it as a cover for the import of endangered species. However, Mr Dalton, who sells similar "exotic" items through shops, is unperturbed by the fuss.

"It is something I have wanted to do for some time," he said. "I am a trained chef, but I started the Edible food range because I wanted to get out of the kitchen environment I was working in. But this is the right time to go back and I feel London is the best place in the world to start a restaurant of this kind."

Mr Dalton's interest in unusual animals began when he grew up in Louisiana and kept a small "zoo", with lemurs, monkeys, wild cats and bats.

After training as a chef in the US he travelled in the Far East where he developed a taste for insects and exotic food. He eventually settled in England where he opened a business making food such as chocolate-covered bugs and flavoured insects .

Everything on the Edible menu is imported under strict European guidelines, Mr Dalton, 26, said, adding he was confident people's tastes were liberated enough to make the restaurant a success.

"Customers may want to try something traditional like stinging nettle soup or more extreme people will like ant mashed potatoes, but all the food is based on the type of comfort food they probably have now - just with a twist."

Shibani Chopra of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: "This will have major repercussions because a legal operation like this creates loopholes for illegal activity. What it will do in effect is open up new routes from Africa and Asia to the West. There is also a possible health risk for customers because these foods are travelling a great distance to the UK. I think it's disgusting and I certainly wouldn't eat there myself."

The restaurant, which opens in Exmouth Market on 22 April, will be visited by environmental health officers.

Jan Hart, Islington council's head of public protection, said: "It will be subject to the usual rigorous checks to make sure that all the food offered on the premises is fit for human consumption."

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