Grantham Journal Big Interview: The secret of Everest Inn’s great food
With their winning mix of Nepalese and Indian cuisine, Everest Inn took home the Great Taste Award at the Journal Business Awards.
Fittingly, the accolade coincides with the Westgate restaurant’s 10th anniversary. The Journal spoke to Everest’s Raju Giri to find out more about their delicious food, as well as their plans to mark this milestone.
What’s the secret behind Everest Inn’s great tasting food?
Top quality chefs and dedicated kitchen staff. The chefs have many years of experience, gained in different parts of the world, cooking Nepalese and Indian cuisine. They continually experiment and develop new recipes, bringing out different flavours from the same set of spices so that the food is new and yet true to its origins. We use the finest and freshest of ingredients. We also focus a lot on our style of presentation. When we bring out our food and present it on the table, customers appreciate how it looks and know it’s going to taste good.
What can customers expect?
At Everest Inn, we’ve always held strong to our philosophy, ‘to provide Quality Food, Exceptional Service and Outstanding Value’. So customers can always enjoy great food and service in a modern, comfortable and relaxed surrounding. And for people who are apprehensive of the ‘curry’, I want to ask them to please give us a try. Not all of the food we do is spicy. We can recommend some pleasantly mild dishes they will enjoy. We’ve had lots of guests who said they regretted not trying Nepalese or Indian food before, who are now regular customers.
What is the history behind the restaurant?
It used to be Raja Tandoori, a Bengali restaurant and takeaway. When we heard it was for sale, our director approached the owner because he saw the potential for the business to grow if managed properly. There weren’t a lot of Nepalese restaurants around at that time, but the existing ones were getting really good reviews. So we bought the restaurant and fully renovated it. Straight away, we started getting a good response and sales increased. So much so that we had to redo and extend the back area to increase the capacity from 45 to the 60-seater restaurant that we have today.
It is your 10th anniversary – are you doing anything to celebrate?
Yes, which is why it was so special to have won the award this year. This September we are going to celebrate with a three-day long anniversary event (dates to be decided). We will send letters and invite our loyal customers to an evening of refreshments, canapes and entertainment. For the following two days, we’ll be doing a free bottle of wine for every table and also give £5 or 10 per cent off vouchers to be used through the month of September, October and November. We’ll advertise and keep all our customers informed.
Tell us more about Everest’s expansion.
After the grand success of the Everest Inn Grantham, we’ve opened a restaurant in Stamford, The 8848 on Broad Street, and a takeaway on Lincoln High Street, Everest Xpresson. Like their mother branch in Grantham, they are both very popular. And this week we opened our fourth branch, Everest Inn Newark, in the Castlegate Centre. We are all very excited and hope it’s as successful as well! Come and try the new Everest Inn and recommend us to family and friends in Newark – it will kick us off to a flying start.