See inside new Sunderland fish and chip venture opened up in former Seaburn Chinese restaurant Paradise Garden

Under new owner Kevin Sloanes, the former Paradise Garden restaurant in Whitburn Bents Road has been reborn as The Bay Seaburn, a fish and chip restaurant and take away, following a major renovation.

Over the past six months, the old Chinese restaurant, which had been running for at least 30 years, has been completely gutted and transformed to create a contemporary chippie.

Kevin has been in the fish and chip industry for 25 years and had built up a firm following at his previous business, The Hut in Silksworth, where his curry sauce and fish and chips cooked in beef dripping were particularly popular.

The Bay is his biggest venture to date, but he’s hoping the 52-cover restaurant, which serves fish and chips, as well as seafood platters, patties, burgers and home-made desserts, will breathe new life into that end of the Coast Road.

Kevin, who named his business after the popular hotel which once stood nearby, said: “I saw the site as a great opportunity. I got the keys on January 1 and it took six months to do it all, everything you see is new and we’ve really opened up the site.

“This is a lovely part of the beach but you don’t really get as many people coming down this far. But we’re hoping once word gets about we’ll attract more people to this end.”

The new venture is the latest development in Seaburn which is also due to welcome Stack container village on the site of the former Seaburn Centre.

The Bay, which also has a licence to serve alcohol with food, as well as outdoor seating, has created nine new jobs for the area including general manager Darren Nutting.

He said: “We’ve had some great feedback so far and people seem really impressed with what’s been done to the place. We’re very much taking on board feedback from people so in the future we may look at changing the hours, doing Sunday lunches and guest chef nights, depending on what people want.”