King Charles III to open York Minster Refectory restaurant

King Charles III and Queen Camilla are set to formally open the new York Minster Refectory restaurant when they visit the city on Thursday, April 6 as part of their visit to York for the Royal Maundy Service at York Minster.

The Royal couple will tour the new York Minster Refectory restaurant and its grounds with the King unveiling a plaque celebrating the visit and the opening of the new restaurant.

An artist's impression of the proposals for a new park and refectory cafe in the former Minster School (Image: Newsquest)

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"It is an absolutely unbelievable honour to have the King and the Queen Consort here to open the York Minster Refectory," said Mike Green, a lead partner in the new York Minster Refectory restaurant.

"You hope sometimes in your life that certain things happen - and this is one of them; what an honour.

"When we realised their majesties were visiting, we just knew that we had to pull out all the stops to make it happen and to ensure that we had the restaurant and our grounds ready for April 6."

The brasserie-style restaurant, will be run by Joshua Brimmel, executive head chef of The Star Inn The City, who with Andrew Pern, the restaurateur behind The Star at Harome and The Star Inn The City York, will also now oversee the development of the menu and all food and hospitality functions.

Since before Christmas, the partners in the multi-million pound construction project, led by GEM Construction, have been working 24/7 restoring the former York Minster school.

Mr Pern said: "Mike and I are passionate supporters of the Royal Family and having the York Minster Refectory opened by the King and the Queen Consort will undoubtedly go down as one of the highlights of my career."

Andrew Pern is behind York Minster Refectory (Image: Olivia Brabbs Photography)

The new accessible-to-all brasserie-style restaurant will have daytime and evening dining along with a mixture of smaller function, lounge and private dining options and a daytime takeaway element.

Back in November thousands of people turned out in York to catch a glimpse of the Charles and Camilla on their first visit to the city as King and Queen.

On that occasion the King was here to unveil a statue of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at the Minster.