THE owners of a Dudley Indian restaurant have celebrated picking up a national award at the English Curry Awards.

Dudley Spice was named Local Restaurant of the Year at an awards ceremony, held yesterday (Monday October 18) at the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport-NEC, hosted by DJ Tommy Sandhu.

Muhammed Ali, who runs the restaurant in New Street with his uncle Muhammed Mannan, was overjoyed at the win which comes just weeks after Mr Mannan survived a cardiac arrest after collapsing in Poundland in Dudley.

Mr Ali said: "We're delighted. My uncle was really happy to win the award. It means a lot to us. We're a small business in the local community and we're overwhelmed at the response we've had."

Dudley News:

The awards, now in their tenth year, celebrate top Asian curry professionals and businesses, with the shortlist determined by public vote.

Irfan Younis, CEO of Oceanic Consulting which hosted the awards, congratulated all the finalists and winners and said: “We were very happy to welcome the guests and celebrate with them."

Several of the awards were split into local regions to ensure smaller businesses across England were recognised - with Stourbridge's Bombay Pickles picking up the Restaurant of the Year West Midlands accolade.

Meanwhile, Little Bangla in Oldbury was named Bangladeshi Restaurant of The Year.

To celebrate their win, the team at Dudley Spice say they will offer half prices on takeaways for collection between October 25 and 27 to give something back to the community which has supported them.