Trendy Asian restaurant, dim sum bar and supermarket to open this weekend in city centre

The much-awaited Hello Oriental - which combines an Asian supermarket, bar, restaurant and bakery - will throw open its doors this weekend.

And the Manchester Evening News was given a sneak preview of the swish venue last night (Thursday).

Situated in a three-floor site on the newly minted 'Symphony Park' development on Circle Square, off Oxford Road (two floors of which are underground), the ambitious project has cost £2.5 million.

It’s been put together by property developer Azim Kourah and Ricky Yip, who have been friends since meeting at primary school in Oldham.

“We became best friends from my first day,” Kourah told the Manchester Evening News. “So we’ve been friends for 30 years now.”

Yip grew up in the hospitality and wholesale business, his parents running the Chi Yip cash and carry in Middleton and the Ocean Treasure restaurant above it.

He then went on to run the likes of the Sakana bar on Peter Street and the K2 karaoke bar in Chinatown.

“From the age of 10 or 11, we’d be at the cash and carry, helping stack shelves, playing hide and seek, and later helping out in the supermarket and in the restaurant,” Kourah went on.

“So I was always exposed to Oriental foods that I might not have been exposed to at such an early age through being such good friends with the family.”

The pair have devised all the menus themselves, with help from their executive chef team, and the venue itself is split into three parts.

Hello Bakery takes up the top floor, which will be run by a Hong Kong baker who goes by the name 'Man', and who has more than 30 years of experience.

You can then follow the striking bent plywood ceiling to the next floor down, where there’s a mezzanine restaurant called Rice Paper Pho, which serves