A COMFORT food restaurant serving deep fried 'chicken' burger, macaroni cheese, burritos and pizza is coming to Oxford.

But the restaurant opening in Cowley road in November comes with a twist - everything on the menu is vegan.

Happy Friday Kitchen is the brainchild of 24-year-old Lola Dixon, from Newbury. She said: “I wanted to open a restaurant where meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans could all come and enjoy their favourite comfort food. The menu is largely inspired by food I came across when on a road trip across California this summer.

"The name comes from my Dad texting me, my sister, and my Mum 'Happy Friday' every week and I want the restaurant to have a 'Friday feeling'."

As well as the comfort foods, the restaurant will also be serving buddha bowls – a colourful and artistic bowl of whole grains, vegetables, and proteins as a healthy alternative to the other Californian-inspired dishes.

The 'chicken' used in burgers is actually seitan, a meat alternative made from gluten.

The restaurant will also be serving up vegan coffee and hot chocolate as well as craft beer and cocktails.

Although Miss Dixon is from Berkshire, she decided to open the restaurant in Oxford, describing the city as the perfect location due to its lack of vegan restaurants yet large vegan community.

She also plans to have a small shop section in the restaurant for customers to purchase vegan products.

Miss Dixon said she had known since she was 16 that she wanted to open a restaurant.

After leaving school, she studied Professional Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management at Bournemouth University while working in pubs, restaurants and coffee shops as well as running her own cake-making business.

But in June 2015 she went vegan, and became even more motivated to open her own restaurant.

She said: “I went vegetarian for six months as I'd always considered myself an animal lover. It was only after seeing a video of animal abuse taking place at a dairy farm that I decided to try going vegan for 30 days.

"My sister and I took on the challenge together, and after spending those days extensively researching UK farming methods and discovering this video was the rule and not the exception, I decided to go completely vegan."

No exact date is set yet for the opening on the restaurant, but in the meantime vegans and comfort food lovers in Oxford can follow Happy Friday Kitchen on social media to stay updated via instagram.com/happyfridaykitchen/ and facebook.com/happyfridaykitchen/.