Two curry houses believed to have provided the takeaways for controversial political party meetings, have both been shortlisted for this year’s Asian Restaurant Awards, being held in Manchester on 27th June.
The Spice Lounge in Durham, which is thought to have provided the food for Labour leader Keir Starmer and other party members during the evening of the so called ‘Beer Gate’ meeting, has been nominated for Best Indian in the North East.
Dishoom, whose takeaway box is evident in a photo of Boris Johnson at a leaving event inside 10 Downing Street, is shortlisted in the Best Restaurant Group category. The Irani-café style restaurants have branches in Manchester, Edinburgh and London.
The shortlist was determined by over 100,000 votes from members of the public. A panel of judges for the Asian Catering Federation (ACF), which hosts the awards, are currently touring the country to determine the eventual victors. Winners will be revealed at a glittering awards ceremony.
The prestigious Fine Dining Category will be contested by Benares, Cinnamon Club, Grand Trunk Road, Heritage Dulwich, Indian Essence in Orpington, and Quilon in London, Ambrette in Canterbury, Indian Essence in Orpington, Mint Room in Bath Navadhanya in Cambridge and Prithvi in Cheltenham, The full list is online at www.asianrestaurantawards.org
Winner at the year’s event will be included in the ACF’s new ‘One Hundred Top Curry Restaurants’ guide, which is being published currently, region–by–region, at www.Top100curryRestaurants.co.uk, with a printed version being available next year.
Later this year the ACF will also host the 6th Asian Restaurant Awards (Scotland) in Edinburgh at the Sheraton Grand on 19th September and the 12th Asian Curry Awards at the Grosvenor House in London, on 20th November 2022.
These are the UK’s only restaurant awards open to all Asian cuisines, including: Bangladeshi, Burmese, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Middle Eastern, Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.
ACF’s chairman Yawar Khan says that many curry restaurants are facing an existential crisis: “Soaring food, energy and salary costs, combined with rising National Insurance and VAT rates, plus severe staff shortages, compounded by customers having less money to spend on restaurant visits and takeaways, is seeing record numbers closures,” he said.
Khan urged customers to support their favourite restaurants by nominating them for this year’s awards via www.asianrestaurantawards.org/scotland-nomination-form and www.asiancurryawards.com
