Buffet restaurant approved for shopping centre in Cork city centre

Cork City Council has granted permission for a large buffet-style restaurant in the Merchant’s Quay Shopping Centre.

YOLO Party Limited applied for permission to open Wing’s World Cuisine on the first floor, consisting of the change of use and amalgamation of multiple vacant units.

Units A through F10 will be changed to a single, unified, buffet-style restaurant.

While the restaurant will be accessed from the normal shopping centre entrances on the ground floor, the applicant has also been granted permission for a new entrance to the unit from Patrick Street, through a door that is not currently in use by the public, for customers to use when the shopping centre closes at 6pm.

The development includes internal demolition, signage (illuminated and non-illuminated), internal reconfiguration of partitions, drainage, bin storage, kitchen, toilets, facilities, plant and associated site works all at ground-, first-, and second-floor levels, with the second floor, which is not open to the public, to be used for back-of-house operations for the restaurant.

The proposed restaurant will be of a buffet self-service-type style, and will be able to seat up to 286 people.

A maximum seating time of one and a half hours on weekdays and two hours on weekends will be implemented.

The applicant operates two similar restaurants, one in Dublin and one in Middlesbrough in the UK.

Music chain HMV is also set to open in the shopping centre, creating 10 new full- and part-time jobs.

It comes 12 years after the closure of HMV’s Patrick Street outlet. The store is expected to open before Christmas.