Plans submitted to open new restaurant in Winchester city centre

Kokoro UK Limited has applied to Winchester City Council to transform the former Mooch shop, in St George’s Street.

The application asks for permission to fit out the shop, installing a new kitchen extraction system and putting up new signage.

The proposed design for Kokoro Winchester (Image: Kokoro UK Limited)

READ MORE: Winchester city centre stationery shop closes doors after less than a year

The design access statement, submitted to WCC as part of the application, says: “The purpose of this application is to gain consent for a kitchen extraction system, with the ducting terminating on the flat roof of the property utilising the existing duct opening but to facilitate a higher capacity of filtration for noise and smell for daily use as a food operator.

“The proposed cooking is all Electric (with no gas on site). The kitchen cook line is relatively small with main cooking via electric hobs & tabletop electric fryers. The cookline canopy system is 3.76m long with associated ducting circa 350 mm to 400m diameter. All the Cooking is done in the ground floor kitchen area as high- lighted in FIG. 3 and travels up through the Mech Room on the first floor and to the roof where it terminates.”

Founded in Kingston-Upon-Thames in 2010, Kokoro has more than 50 branches across the UK, including in Harrow, Bath, Portsmouth, Eastleigh and Canterbury.

The chain, founded by Rak-Kyu Park, sells a range of Korean-Japanese food, including sushi, katsu curry, udon and more.

Kokoro is hoping to occupy the shop which was formally operating as the stationary shop Mooch. As previously reported, Mooch, which was part of card and gift retailer Cardzone, closed its doors after less than a year on July 13.

The site was also previously home to Paperchase, which shut its doors in 2023 after the stationery company went into administration.

This is not the only city centre business which closed this that might see a new lease of life selling food.

As previously reported, Patisserie Valerie, in Winchester High Street, closed its doors on January 1, New Year's Day, when the company went through a “restructuring period”.

Mooch closed its doors in Winchester in July (Image: NQ)

SEE ALSO: Farmer details plans to transform Patisserie Valerie in time for Christmas

It has since been revealed that Westlands Farm is applying to WCC for permission to reopen the site as a farm shop. Owner Graham Collett said: “Our decision to expand into Winchester is driven by the overwhelming support and demand we’ve received from our customers in Wickham.

“We’ve seen a growing interest in high-quality, locally sourced food, and we believe the people of Winchester will appreciate the freshness and authenticity that Westlands Farm Shop brings.”

To find out more about Kokoro’s application, visit the Winchester City Council online planning portal and search using reference 24/01941/FUL.