A ONE-of-a-kind restaurant has opened in Workington, and its owners claim the concept has 'never been done before' in the UK.

Hedi’s bar and kitchen has opened on Finkle Street in the town, serving a whole host of pizza and pasta, as well as many other delicious treats.

Rez Ershadi has worked and lived in the town for the past 20 years and had positions owning Caspian Kebabs in Whitehaven as well working in the former Caspian Flame and Grill in Workington.

He and partner Hedi decided to open the venue they believe will help to ‘bring life’ back to the town.

Speaking about Hedi’s, Rez said: “I believe that no one else has done anything like this in the UK before.

“The idea came from abroad, I’ve used my experiences to try and come up with the idea. We try to make it as simple as possible.

“There are not many restaurants in Workington any more and we think it needs hospitality, like clubs, bars and restaurants to bring back life to Workington.”

The couple are delighted with the positive response the restaurant has had from people in the town.

Rez said: “It’s (the reception) been great to be honest, even before we opened it, it took me about nine months to set it up, to get it to where it is.

"Since three or four months ago, when people found out it was opening, people kept coming to the door. They kept asking when is it going to be open, then when it went on social media the comments were unbelievable.

“That was my main worry, opening [and] the reaction because it’s totally different. No one has ever done anything in the UK the way we are going to do it, but the reaction was brilliant. The support has been unbelievable.”

Asked what’s different about the restaurant, Rez said: “In a normal restaurant, customers are getting menus, they place the order and get the food from the kitchen, the job is done.

"Or, on the other hand, it’s a buffet, but the problem with a buffet is no matter what you do with a buffet the food is never fresh.

“So, in Hedi's what we decided to do is a buffet, making one kind of food at a time, send it out to people and once that’s done send more food out.

"They are having fresh food basically, freshly prepared.”

The restaurant opened on Wednesday, August 23 and is running a 50 per cent off ‘grand opening’ deal over the weekend.