Food & Drink Awards 2018

Page 48 www.lux-review.com LUX 2018 Food & Drink Awards Nestled in the bustling and vibrant North Laines, Brighton, Manjus is a family- run restaurant committed to creating delicious and authentic meals that will make guests want to keep coming back for more. Naimesh Patel talks us through the eatery and the warm welcome guests can expect when they visit. Manjus Best Family-Run Indian Restaurant 2018 - East Sussex Manjus is a very small, family run vegetarian Indian restaurant in the North Laines area of Brighton. The restaurant serves food from the region of Gujarat, North West India where the family originates from. The state is very well known for its vegetarian cuisine, something that suits Brighton very well, with the current trend being a rise in plant-based lifestyles. Following this latest trend was never the intention of the team at Manjus, and Naimesh is proud that the firm has achieved a strong reputation thanks to its traditional values of quality, service and excellence, as he highlights in his opening comments. “Since inception, Manjus has built a reputation for fantastic food. We go to great lengths to make sure only the very best is served to our guests; our spices are ground and blended every day. Only the best vegetables are used. Our poppadums are made for us in our ancestral village in Gujarat and sent to us in small quantities to ensure quality and freshness. Our guests always comment on the freshness and quality of our food, something the whole Manjus team is proud of. One of the main reasons people come to us is because my mother, Manju, cooks in the restaurant. She is 81 years old, and always wanted a restaurant but could never do it. As such, we were proud to name Manjus after her, and these are her recipes, and she is inspirational. “My family have traditionally been in retail and never had a restaurant before. However, the principles are the same. Give customers what they want, exceed expectations and hopefully they will return. We opened our doors with no experience at all in the restaurant sector, which, on reflection, we would not recommend. Thankfully, people have really taken to our offering. Our guests rightly expect a lot from us now. We will keep on pushing and never stand still moving forward.” Quality has remained a key focus for Naimesh and his family since the beginning, and he is proud to discuss this focus in more detail. “At Manjus, quality is paramount. Quality of food, quality of service, ambience – it all makes for a memorable evening. Our family work hard at this. We have a 5-star hygiene rating, the highest you can get in the industry. We clean and scrub relentlessly and are proud of the cleanliness of our premises. Every member of the family undergoes health and safety training to ensure only the highest standards are observed. This focus on quality and excellence has helped us to achieve the incredible success we enjoy currently. “As part of our focus on quality, we always go the extra mile to ensure our guests have the best experience possible. The food is made to order, and is cooked, plated and sent straight to our guests. Our menu changes frequently to keep guests interested, we do not look at what the other restaurants are doing and only concentrate on our guests. If they are happy, we are happy, a mantra that has served us well over the past 18 months.” Overall, the future looks bright for Manjus, with the eatery set to continue offering its award-winning dining experience over the years to come, as Naimesh concludes. “Thanks to our hard work and determination, Manjus has attracted a lot of interested and we are proud of how far we have come. Over the coming years our aim is to continue to offer the same high-quality food and welcoming service that we have become renowned for.” Company: Manjus Contact: Naimesh Patel Address: 6 Trafalgar St, North Laine, North Laine, BN1 4EQ, UK Phone: 01273 231 870 Website: www.manjus.co.uk