SHANGHAI – A downtown pizza restaurant apologized on Sunday for publicizing its location as being in "the French Concession" after outrage exploded over a name identified with the stigma of the city's colonial history.

The newly opened outlet of Pizza Marzano issued a statement on its micro blog Sunday saying: "Pizza Marzano comes from Britain and the management team is formed by British who are unfamiliar with Chinese culture. We didn't intend to offend nationalist sentiments of Chinese people."

The statement said all promotion leaflets were withdrawn on Feb 21 when a customer complained about the wording.

Actually quite a few foreign restaurants in the Xuhui and Luwan districts promote themselves as located in "the French Concession". El Gato Verde, a Mexican restaurant, claims that it is a "French Concession favorite" on its website.

Many store managers say they mean no offense, and they only promote themselves in this manner because the term has high name recognition among foreigners.