A NEW fusion restaurant has opened for business and hopes to exploit a gap in the market.

Señor Buddha in Preston Road, Brighton, is bringing together the flavours of East Asian and Spanish food.

The tapas and wine bar is starting life as "an experiment in taste" and has evolved out of proprietor Lee Shipley’s love of creating new and innovative dishes centred on his two favourite cuisines.

Mr Shipley told The Argus: "I'm trying to go for the Spanish formula. In Spain they would rather have a tapas bar where it's cheap but busy into the early morning than have a high mark up and not sell as much."

He got the idea from Ibiza, where Asian flavours are well received.

He added: “I wanted to push the boundaries using some of the tried-and-tested Spanish classics but with East Asian flavours.

"These cuisines both rely heavily on fresh ingredients and big, contrasting flavours, meaning they effortlessly complement each other when fused together.”

Back in Brighton, his small 20-cover restaurant has an open-style kitchen.

He said: "It's quite nice to watch it all come out. You are literally in touching distance of a chef.

"Because our venue's quite small we can't over-prep and have to bring in fresh food every day. We're hoping that will bring people in."

Located in the Preston Circus area of Brighton, Mr Shipley said the market is on the up.

He said: "If you look around Preston Park and Fiveways and Seven Dials there's quite a bit of money there and students have more nowadays, too.

"We thought it was a big risk to be in the centre so on the outskirts we thought it was better."

Tapas dishes were traditionally made up of off-cuts but that has changed over time.

Mr Shipley wants to create some higher-end tapas dishes on one of two Fridays of a month.

"Ultimately, we'll have to go where the market is," he said, "Time will tell but I think people will enjoy it."

Señor Buddha boasts an "ever-changing menu of tapas-style dishes" but also Mr Shipley's signature mountain mutton stew along with confit duck leg with spring onion puree, sherry & hoisin poached plum, octopus tentacles with squid ink caviar and coriander aioli.

There will be a big focus on wine, too, with Spanish and Portuguese labels at the fore.