A Wellington chef says it hurts to see high profile local restaurants closing.

In the past fortnight, Field and Green and Shepherd have announced they'll be shutting at the end of the year.

Logan Brown chef Shaun Clousten says hospitality is the heart and soul of the city.

He says times are tough and he doesn't think the problem is too many restaurants.

"We know there's a lot of restaurants, and I can tell you right now that you really don't want to be putting a cap on things and saying- no, you can't do that because somebody else is already doing that."

He says restaurants are likely to need to up their prices.

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