Controversial restaurant operating again from suburban home

Now, the issue of whether a Japanese restaurant has been operating from a suburban home without the necessary planning permission has taken a new twist, after it started serving sushi to visitors.

Since 2019, Orlando Williams has been involved in a delicate debate with Norwich City Council over whether he has been running an illicit restaurant from his seven-bedroom property on Earlham Road.

Food served at Orlando's (Image: George Thompson, LDRS)

While Mr Williams has previously denied operating the eatery from the premises - which is adorned with signage for 'Orlando's' - diners have reported eating there, prompting the council to launch an inquiry.

The council closed its investigation in 2020 saying there was no "definitive evidence" of a restaurant being run at the site.

But Mr Williams updated his Facebook page earlier this month to say he had "just opened a sushi and Japanese restaurant" and has since served diners at the Earlham Road site.

Despite this, the council says it will not take any further action unless the business is "causing harm".

Controversial restaurant Orlando's in Earlham Road. (Image: Denise Bradley/Newsquest)

Mr Williams also runs a bed and breakfast from the property, which has the necessary planning permission from City Hall.

But under the terms of its operation, the business cannot serve food to people who are not staying at the premises. Non-guests have eaten there in recent days.

When contacted by a reporter, Mr Williams said he would "not be giving any information".

A council spokeswoman said serving food to people not staying at the B&B would be a breach of planning conditions.

However, she added: "But in order to successfully enforce against such a breach and serve a ‘breach of condition notice’, the council needs to establish that the level of use by people who are not staying at the B&B causes harm to the surrounding area.

"This harm could be measured in a number of ways, such as noise caused by people coming and going either on foot or by car or while dining in at the premises.

“While we are aware that Mr Williams is advertising on social media, we have not been able to establish that the level of use of the restaurant by non-residents is actually causing harm that would result in us being able to take successful enforcement action.”