The manager of a Wolverhampton Indian restaurant has spoken of his pride at the restaurant being shortlisted for the "Curry Oscars"

Abdul Basit said that the shortlisting for the Asian Curry Awards 2024 for Kaptin Korma, as the only restaurant in the Black Country, was a huge honour for him, his staff and his customers.

The restaurant on Trysull Road in Bradmore, Wolverhampton, will go up against restaurants from across the country, as well as far afield as Gibraltar, Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Stockholm in Sweden, for the honour of being named the best restaurant.

It's another acknowledgement of the work being done by the restaurant, having won Best Restaurant in the Wolverhampton area in Tommy Miah's International Indian Chef and Hospitality Awards.

Abdul Basit, who doubles as manager and chef, said it meant a lot to have the award nomination and spoke about the greater meaning of it.

He said: "It means a lot because it's our hard work and we've been doing this since 2013, so this award nomination is not just for us, but also for all our customers who have supported us since then.

"What makes us stand out is that we make our food to our customers demands and they can order whatever they like from the menu and tell us what they want and then we'll make it for them in a very specialist way.

"What we find as well is that customers like the food and they like the atmosphere of the place."

The Asian Curry Awards 2024, which are dubbed the ‘Curry Oscars’, are considered the biggest event in the Asian culinary calendar and celebrate a host of cuisines from Bangladeshi and Indian to Turkish, Filipino and Vietnamese.

The finalists were chosen from a shortlist of more than 200 restaurants and takeaways, and voted for by the public.

Judges from the Asian Catering Federation (ACF) will now determine this year’s overall winners and present the final awards at the awards ceremony on November 17 at the Grosvenor Hotel in London.

Mr Basit said that he and some of his staff would be going to the awards ceremony and were hopeful of being picked out as winners.

He said it was their hard work which had made this possible and also thanked his customers for voting for the restaurant.

He said: "We have staff who have been here since we opened in 2013 and they're all really good and without my staff, we wouldn't be able to do the things we've done.

"A big thank you to our customers as they voted for us and they made a huge difference as we got shortlisted for this award and they have supported us all the way from 2013 until now.

"This is the award everyone wants to win and there are restaurants in Europe competing for this award, but we are from Wolverhampton and we are representing Wolverhampton, so we would love to bring this award here."

To find out more about the Asian Curry Awards, go to the Asian Curry Awards website.