Hucknall tastebuds can look forward to new Mediterranean experience in the town

Vaadi, on Annesley Road, is on the site of the old Bella Mia Italian restaurant and is set to open for the first time on Friday, March 8.

The menu will be Mediterranean and specifically high-end Turkish cuisine – the name Vaadi is Turkish and means valley.

And diners will get more than just eating for their experience as the new feature of the venue will be the open charcoal grill – meaning diners can watch their order being prepared in front of their eyes.

Work has been going on inside and outside to refurbish the building, which has been shut for several months now.

The new signs are up on the outside and while inside, the new open grill is being installed and work continues to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere with a sense of style and luxury.

A spokesman for the restaurant’s new owners said: “We’ve got a lot of experience in this industry so we’re really confident about this.

"We’ve been doing a lot of renovation work inside and out, painting everything, installing the grill and making a lot of changes that needed to be done to get it ready.

"The menu is Mediterranean, 65 to 70 per cent Turkish but Italian as well.

"We’ll have wines from all over the world and cocktails with nice presentation.

"We’ve handpicked our chefs from London and Birmingham and all our food will be freshly cooked right in front of you.

"A lot of Turkish restaurants try to achieve that effect but it’s usually either too close or too far away for customers but here, you will be able to see the whole kitchen.

"We’ll also be doing homemade Turkish and Italian desserts too."

The business is also bringing around 30 new jobs to the area and is advertising now for bar staff, table staff, kitchen porters and more – for available vacancies visit bit.ly/4bQhvMh

The restaurant will also be using locally-sourced ingredients and suppliers and will be open from 11am to 10am weekdays and 11am to 11pm Fridays and Saturdays.

The spokesperson continued: “This is an amazing building, there is so much we knew we could do with this and we want this to be number one.”