East meets west at a new street food outlet set to open at intu Chapelfield's food court later this year.
Chi will open opposite Chopstix in late March and offers Asian street food with a modern twist, served on a base of a bao bun, which is a sweet and steamed dough, Banh-mi, a type of baguette, noodles or rice.
Fillings on the menu include beer braised pork, vegan panko sweet potato and beef short rib, with all their sauces made from scratch, and there is a range of sides such as chicken wings, spring rolls and prawn toast.
The first Chi opened at The Grafton Centre in Cambridge in March 2019, the second at intu Watford in December and the opening in Norwich will be their fourth branch, with the Basingstoke outlet set to open in a fortnight.
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The business is owned by Aidan Tjinakiet and his business partner Lamen Reddy, who came up with the idea for the business 18 months ago whilst working together in their previous job.
Mr Tjinakiet said: "My dad is from Hong Kong and has lived here for 30 years and he used to have his own restaurant so I've grown up in the industry.
"I am from Cambridge and I had lots of friends who went to university in Norwich so I used to come up to visit and I love it.
"We do dishes such as bao buns, which are soft and like eating a cloud, and big bowls of rice and noodles with toppings such as katsu chicken and barbecue beef short rib and use all our own recipes.
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"We have been surprised that our food has appealed to everyone as we thought it would just be the younger market, but the other day we had a 70-year-old who had come straight from an operation at the hospital to us as he had been recommended Chi by his friends."
Chi are currently recruiting for a general manager, assistant manager, supervisor and full and part-time team members for the branch.
They are also opening a franchise of Spanish bakery and coffee shop Granier next to Chi, which has 400 branches worldwide but only one UK branch at present in London.
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