Hot stuff! Midlothian restaurant takes top curry title

Hot stuff! Midlothian restaurant takes top curry title
 
 
Itihaas in Dalkeith, opened just three years ago, has been named the top Bangladeshi restaurant in Scotland.
 
Director Matin Khan received the award at a presentation dinner in London organised by the Bangladeshi Caterers’ Association (BCA), the umbrella organisation for some 12,000 Bangladeshi restaurants across the UK. Awards were given on a regional basis and Itihaas (www.itihaasrestaurant.com) won the section for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
 
“We are extremely proud to have been given this honour. It is a tribute not only to our hard working and consistently professional team but also to our customers who have supported us throughout our culinary journey,” Mr Khan commented.
 
Mr Khan, who moved to the UK from Bangladesh at the age of 13 in 1984, added: “It is particularly encouraging to have the quality of our food praised by experts and such a prestigious trade association. We try all the time to create an atmosphere in which dining is a pleasurable and rewarding experience, using the finest herbs and spices, all backed up with first class customer service.”
 
The restaurant attracts up to 600 customers a week, employs 15 staff and is a major sponsor of many sports, social and other clubs in and around Midlothian.
 
The BCA was established in 1960 to represent restaurants run by ethnic Bangladeshis. The industry now employs more than 90,000 people, mostly of Bangladeshi origin, with an estimated yearly turnover of £3.5 billion.
 

The London event marked the 200th anniversary of the opening of the UK’s first curry house in Portman Square London in 1810, as well as the BCA’s 50th anniversary.