Green light for major buffet restaurant on Cork's St Patrick Street
Merchants Quay Shopping Centre, Cork.
Cork City Council has given the go-ahead to amalgamate several upstairs units of Merchant's Quay Shopping Centre to create a large new restaurant space.
Dublin firm Yolo Party Ltd, headed by Ho Wing, lodged plans for the development with City Hall in September, stating the space would be used for the provision of a 'Wing's World Cuisine' restaurant.
The company already runs such an outlet on Dublin's Wolfe Tone Street as is described as a casual dining buffet with a variety of cooking stations preparing meals from around the world.
Along with the change of use from retail to restaurant use, the application also sought approval to create a new entrance from St Patrick's Street using an existing private door.
Permission was also granted for internal demolition, signage, drainage, bin storage, a kitchen, toilets, plant, and all associated site works at ground, first- and second-floor levels.
Recent financial accounts for the restaurant show the business recorded a turnover of more than €5m in 2024, with after-tax profit in the 12 month period rising to €1.18m.
In 2019, the owners of the shopping centre, Clarendon, received planning permission to change the use of the former Kylemore restaurant on the first floor to a licensed restaurant with a new direct pedestrian entrance from Patrick’s St.
The company said it wanted to create a new large, first-floor window on the corner of Merchant’s Quay and Patrick’s St to open up the views of the river and St Anne’s in Shandon and that they were planning to attract a “high-quality” restaurant to the location.
Recent weeks has seen several new additions to the long-standing shopping centre, with music store HMV and UK retailer Next both opening up new shops in the centre's downstairs floor, bringing a new life to the building which during the covid years, lost two major retailers, Debenhams and SuperValu.
The shopping centre was originally built by developer Owen O'Callaghan in 1989, who assembled the long quayside site stretching to the city’s bus station. For decades it has remained a retail fixture at the northern end of the street, anchored by Marks & Spencer and Dunnes Stores.
The adjacent former Roches/Debenhams building has a pending planning application for its redevelopment by new owners, Elverys, to create new retail spaces on the street.
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