A NEW burger joint is set to open at the Leisure Exchange this Thursday, with its owner saying that its concept is like no other in Bradford.

Asif Haider explained the simplicity and quality of BITE Burger's "smashed burgers" and insisted the competition of other new restaurants in town, like Frankie's, would only help his business.

BITE's grand opening is at 1pm on Thursday, and Mr Haider gave us a sneak preview of what to expect.

He said: "We were supposed to open around March but there were delays and now we're finally ready.

"A smashed burger is based on American style cooking, in the old-fashioned diners.

"You take a fresh patty and smash it on to the grill, using steel equipment.

"It helps create a crust over it, which is all juicy and caramelised, helping the burger to stand out.

"For that to work, you do need to have good quality beef and ours is both grass fed and free range.

"We use Aberdeen Angus and our butcher makes our own blend using three different cuts. It's a secret combination, although I can tell you that brisket is one of those.

"It's all done with a certain ratio of the different cuts and with just the right amount of fat content too.

"It gets delivered in bulk and we make the beef into patties fresh on the day."

Mr Haider admitted that BITE Burger very much focused on quality over quantity, with a limited but carefully-crafted range of burgers.

He said: "We do have chicken and veg options but 99 per cent of our focus is on the high-quality of beef.

"I think our most popular burger might be the "Crunchy One", which has crunchy onions on top, which we batter and fry each morning. They're almost like onion rings, but onion strings instead.

"We also do an "Original Bite" which just has lettuce and tomato on top, and we use American-style cheese on our burgers.

"We're flexible though, and people can shape their own burgers. They can order extra vegetables and extra toppings as they please."

Asked about whether BITE was worried about the opening of the increasingly popular Frankie's nearby, or whether the Leisure Exchange location was an issue, given the closure of several units there over the last year, Mr Haider was bullish.

He said: "Our concept is more like Five Guys and Shake Shack than Frankie's, so I feel like these other burger places don't have what we have.

"There's nothing else like it in Bradford.

"It's good that there's places opening up nearby anyway as it brings more people into town and makes it more of a place to go.

"We're planning to open between 12-10pm on Sundays-Thursdays and 12pm-12am on Fridays and Saturdays.

"Our customer car park is free from 5pm until late and there's plenty of parking up by the Leisure Exchange too.

The new venture, based in the former Rakkaposhi Coffee and Desserts café in Ebenezer Street, by the Leisure Exchange, will be creating jobs with five or six new staff.

They are also seeking to take on two apprentices, through local training providers.

Although the business is a social enterprise set up with support from the Bradford-based QED Foundation, whose work supporting disadvantaged people to become economically active will benefit from any profits, the BITE team are thinking big.

"The first thing we want to do is get the name out there and then build a brand,” said Mr Haider.

"We think BITE is a nice, concise name and we have a nice logo. We want to keep it simple for potential future franchising as well.

"We’d like to open another branch within a couple of years and the dream is to be on every high street."