Akash wins Best Curry House in Hampshire

Video of nomination

Transcript

00:00Right, could you live without your curry house?

00:03When a group of Britons living in the south of France

00:05club together to charter a flight, travel 470 miles to Bordeaux-sur-Coeur airport

00:12where the Brits and their friends will pick up the meal and dine in one of the hangars.

00:18Hi, my name's Chef Faz Ahmed. We're at the Akash restaurant in Southsea, Portsmouth.

00:23So my dad opened it in the late 70s and we, after a while, we decided we want to take it

00:29over and carry on the Indian restaurant trade. We have an excellent relationship with our

00:36customers. We see them as family, not as customers. You know, there's been people

00:42that have been coming in from the first night open back in 1978 and they're still coming now.

00:48Like I said, it's a family. We've seen about four generations of people now eating who are in the

00:54same family. Like I said, it's a very communal place. Most people know each other. 80%, I'd say,

01:02of customers we know on first name terms. So we have such a special, excellent family

01:07relationship with our customers and I think that's what keeps them coming in.

01:12The food we serve is special because it has contemporary and classical dishes. So we have

01:19your masalas, your kormas and some really nice modern fish dishes. We also have a healthy menu,

01:26so it's catered for all. To be nominated is huge. So it means a lot to us to bring in an award.

01:33It's just not, it's not just a local award. It's actually a national award in a big city.

01:39So we would love to bring it back home to Portsmouth

01:43and show everybody, our local people, that look, this is what we can achieve.