The Trafford Centre has launched four Manchester-based food and beverage brands in a new Eastern Garden dining concept as it looks to capture a taste of the vibrant city centre food scene at the retail shopping destination.
The four brands are Nichi, Hello Oriental, Chit ‘n’ Chaat and Blanchflower Coffee and Bakery.
Nichi offers contemporary Japanese dining experience with a Peruvian twist. The brand was born in Manchester and opened its flagship 3,000sq ft restaurant in the city centre in late 2024. The restaurant offers a premium, immersive dining experience, specialising in sushi, live robata cooking and tableside flambé. It will also feature a mezzanine level for private omakase dining and live DJ performances on weekends.
Nichi is led by a seasoned team including head chef Kentaro Yanagisawa, from Sexyfish Manchester and Vanessa Mornet from Zuma. Halal certified, visitors can indulge in Japanese delicacies paired with an extensive selection of fine wines and sakes.
Renowned Mancunian street food hall, Hello Oriental, opened its first branch just off Oxford Road. Founded by Ricky Yip and Azim Koura, the menu boasts over 100 dishes including popular East Asian street food and traditional favourites, ranging from dim sum to noodles to Cantonese roast meats and also includes a full kids’ menu.
Born and bred in Greater Manchester, Chit ‘n’ Chaat occupies a 2,000sq ft unit in the centre, its fifth location in the region. Since its inception in 2020, Chit n Chaat has been passionate about delivering authentic, Indian street food.
Founded by Phil and Claire Howells, Blanchflower has sites in Sale and Altrincham catering for 80 and 50 covers respectively. The brand is well-known for brunch. It operates its own kitchens and produces its bread and pastry in-house. Opening in the coming weeks, the new Trafford Centre site will focus on bakery and coffee.
Trafford Centre director Simon Layton said the new brands celebrated home-grown Manchester talent and would help keep the ‘magic’ at the Centre, which was a unique space that had a synergy with grandeur and opulence.
Kitty Vaughan, head of F&B and leisure leasing at Trafford Centre asset manager, Pradera Lateral, said the introduction of smaller, independent Manchester brands was an opportunity to be different and introduced a taste of the Manchester city centre food scene. “We wanted to create a ‘streetscape’,” she said. “The cuisines are all gaps in the market.”
Vaughan said the new offer also filled in areas the Centre was missing such as late night DJ sets, which would help to bring in new audiences at the weekends, for example.
The new brands said the launch at a retail centre provided an opportunity for increased customer engagement.
Koura said people visited the Trafford Centre to spend money on shopping or food and drink. “You can guarantee that people are coming with a willingness to engage with the brands and you do not have to grab their attention as much as you would elsewhere,” he said.
Mornet agreed. “People come here for a day out so footfall is guaranteed,” she said.
For Chit ‘n’ Chaat co-founder, Sagar Modha, free parking was a big draw and would bring more people in for the food and beverage offers.
Howells suggested the new brands were part of a wider community that has helped to revolutionise the food and beverage scene over the last decade or so.
“Bringing that to the Trafford Centre is very exciting and is an opportunity to meet a lot of people we have not met,” he said.
Food and beverage is playing a stronger role at retail destinations, Howells added. F&B has helped to revive Altrincham, for example, and shopping missions have changed.
“It used to be shop and grab a coffee, now it’s coffee and grab a bit of shopping,” he said.
Modha agreed. “Food is coming first and shopping second,” he said.
The brands are also helping to shape dining trends, Mornet added.
“Traditional fine dining is dying out,” she maintained. Instead the trend is for smaller plates and sharing. “It’s giving control back to the customers,” she said.
Koura said there had been a massive surge in plant-based options with vegan choices jumping from 10-15 a few years ago to 45 today. “A wider offer makes us more nimble,” he explained.
Hello Oriental is also winning customer traction with Muslim customers – it has offered all-halal meat from day one and is now adding mocktails and bubble tea to the mix. “We have seen an increase in Muslim diners. They have an income they are looking to spend elsewhere – it’s thinking about the wider audience,” he said.
For Howells, authenticity is the key F&B trend. “People want the real deal,” he said.
All four brands believe there will be more synergy between retail and food and beverage in the next five years with increased alignment between brands. They also felt the Eastern Garden concept would impact the broader Manchester dining scene.
“It’s setting the precedent and will always be a point of reference,” said Mornet.
