A YORK city-centre cafe and bistro is expanding in a bid to double its capacity.

Barbakan, a Polish restaurant in Walmgate, was originally a small deli before becoming a restaurant.

Now, owners Grzegorz Blasiak and Anna Wieczak want to expand again.

They have submitted a planning application to City of York Council, looking to expand the restaurant into an existing cottage behind the bistro.

The extension would allow the restaurant seating area to expand into what is now the kitchen and servery. A new bar would also be built in space currently used by a food store.

Ms Wieczak said the expansion was due to rising demand that previously made them enlarge their original deli.

She said: "It is going to seat 70, right now it is only 35. When we started it was a deli seven years ago. We served salads, sandwiches, things like that.

"People were asking for more tables so we added some and then some more. So we decided to be a bistro instead after three years. We are fully booked most nights so it will let us fit in much more people."

More dining space is not the only reason for the expansion. Ms Wieczak hopes the new kitchen will mean she can add new menu items.

"We are going to have a bigger kitchen because our kitchen now is tiny. It is a main thing for us to be able to do some different things in the kitchen.

"Right now it is frustrating. We have only one cake oven. We have limited space now to make what I really want," she added.

The building currently occupied by the bistro is Grade II listed but Ms Wieczak says they do not need to make any alterations to it.

She said: "We are lucky because we have a cottage just behind us and we will make a new kitchen there. This is listed but we are doing nothing to it. The cottage is not listed so we are only doing things there."

The restaurant will have to close for four weeks to complete the expansion subject to planning permission.