A NEW burger-joint will be opening in Hexham with a big promise of being better than Mc Donald's.

The Smashing Burger on Priestpopple will be opening on April 17 and hopes to be a relaxed environment for families to come together.

The business will be owned and ran by three friends, Dewan Raja, Syful Islam and Kaled Abdul, who all have experience in the food and drink industry.

As well as it being something new for the town, it will bring back precious memories for one of Dewan, as his family used to run the Indian restaurant Diwan E Am on the same site but sadly closed in 2015 after three decades.

Dewan said: "We are very excited to be opening and hope to bring something new to Hexham.

"We will be making every fresh to order such as our fries and homemade milkshakes. 

"We even want to do fried chicken later down the line but that will be after we have opened for a few months and perfected our food.

"We decided on the name 'The Smashing Burger' as it is known for its results in a sear on the outside of the meat, which locks in all the juices and flavour.   

"Of course, the business must be named of a burger, as it is what we will mainly sell.

"Overall, we hope we will create what we think will be a relaxed environment and somewhere where you do not need to wear a suit and tie.

"We have a lot of experience in the restaurant industry for many years, so we know that Hexham does not need this, but it does need a food-to-go/ comfortable social environment.

"It is great to be back at the original site of The Diwan E Am restaurant and doing something new and fresh with it.

"We have owned the building for about seven months, and it has been a lot of hard work as it has been empty for five years.

"It has taken a lot of cleaning and sorting the electrics, but we are almost there.

"It is a great location, and we are not worried about Mc Donald's being our competition - as we believe ours will be tastier.

"We can't wait to welcome everyone through the doors for our big opening."