ONE of York’s best-loved food venues is planning to expand.

Café No8, in Gillygate, wants to build a conservatory extension in its garden, which backs on to the city’s Bar Walls.

The venue has won a number of awards in recent years.

But it has only seven indoor tables, and the owners say they need to increase capacity to remain viable.

Their previous expansion plans were rejected by City of York Council, which said the extension would be too intrusive, but the proposals have now been redrawn and resubmitted.

Martin Gore, one of the staff at the café, said the overall capacity of the restaurant would remain roughly the same, but more of the tables could be used all year round.

He said: “We have seven tables inside at the moment and nine in the garden.

“We are hoping to have a conservatory built, which would mean another six tables covered. There would still be some garden space but altogether we would have a similar number of tables, just some more undercover.”

Café No8 won the best restaurant award at the York Tourism Awards in 2006.

It has also won praise from several other organisations and media, including being named runner-up by The Observer newspaper in its 2009 awards.

Meanwhile, Mr Gore said the current closure of Gillygate had not yet had any noticeable impact on business for Café No8.

He said business often fluctuated between half-term and Easter.

“In the evenings, it has been busier than usual,” he said.