YORK'S new Vangarde Shopping Park will see the opening of Italian restaurant chain Prezzo's 200th outlet.

Fifty new jobs have been created at the restaurant, which is opening on Wednesday following a £700,000 investment.

The 182 seater restaurant, which also features an outside garden terrace, is the second Prezzo in York in addition to the brand's city centre restaurant in Clifford Street.

Jonathan Kaye, chief executive and founder of Prezzo, said: “We opened our first Prezzo on New Oxford Street, London in 2002 and we’ve come a long way since then.

"We’re thrilled to officially open our 200th restaurant here in the prestigious city of York.

“All of our Prezzo restaurants are individually designed and our York Prezzo is no different. We’ve even created a special champagne cocktail to mark the occasion, the Prezzillini Minster.

“We’d like to say thank you to all of our present and future customers, as we wouldn’t be celebrating our 200th opening if it wasn’t for them.”

Deb O’Donnell, Centre Manager at Vangarde Shopping Park comments: “The opening of Prezzo has been highly anticipated and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the Vangarde family.”

Vangarde Shopping Park is home to York’s first John Lewis department store, the region’s largest M&S store and a state-of-the-art Next store.

Prezzo now joins the impressive line-up of restaurants which includes Giraffe, Costa Coffee, Ed’s Easy Diner, Nando’s and Frankie & Benny’s.