Ealing based Indian restaurant, Haweli of Ealing, has won the best restaurant award in the 2022 Asian Food & Restaurant Awards. 

Haweli was given top spot for best restaurant in South-West London in the awards ceremony on 5th December, the restaurant's tenth prize since current owner Manik Miah took over in 2020. 

The restaurant is rated by TripAdvisor and Gastro Ranking as the best restaurant in Ealing of any kind, and Miah said that he feels like the restaurant has been able to represent the area with their success. 

Miah said: "We feel privileged to have won the award, because the restaurant has been there since 1985 and serving the community for 37 years, so to be the top restaurant in South West London is great. 

"We also went to the British Curry Award and went against some top Michelin Star restaurants in places like Mayfair and other place in London and the whole of the UK, unfortunately we didn't win, but it was great to be nominated. 

"For me it feels like I am representing Ealing and to come back with an award for Ealing, it shows a great achievement. 

"Even now we get customers coming with their grandchildren, and even their grandchildren bringing their children, so three generations of people from Ealing coming. 

"So, for me to bring an award back to Ealing makes me more proud to be honest. 

"After going through the nomination process, the interviews, the tasting, the judges panel, and the voting, it is like getting a degree and doing your coursework and your assignments, and then at the end you get your degree and it is an amazing feeling." 

Miah puts a lot of the success of the restaurant down to the unique way he gets his chefs to compete with each other to develop the best possible menu. 

He said: "The menu is key and so is my three chefs who come from different places in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India, and for me that is a blessing. 

"If you put those three chefs together, they have 70 years of experience, with one having been inside that kitchen for 30 years. 

"The competition that I usually have is for Sunday buffet and we change the buffet every week, in a typical Indian restaurant, for a buffet you will find the chicken, lamb, rice, and naan, for example, and it will usually be the same dishes. 

"But what I do, from the Tandoori chef, to the main chef, they create something different every week. 

"For example, we will have an egg curry, you will not find an egg curry anywhere in the UK, but it famous in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, or we might have a mincemeat curry. 

"We create a dish, we put it in the buffet, then get feedback from customers, and the strength of that is if there is something that the customers really like, then we can put it on the menu. 

"Or I will tell the chefs that I want something and they will go away and make it, and because I was a chef myself, I tell them exactly what I think, and they go away until we can make it perfect. 

"So, I am blessed to be able to work with different cultures under one roof, and everyone has their own way of doing things, but we can get them singing from the same hymn sheet."