TWO Barnard Castle eating places are celebrating national awards for their food and service.
Café Bowes at The Bowes Museum received a VisitEngland Quality Food & Drink Award while Indian restaurant, Babul’s was named best restaurant in the Curry Life Awards.
The museum’s cafe was praised for its comfortable dining experience and ambiance, offering an excellent range of food served in good time and to a high standard.
Shuhel Ahmed dedicated his award to his late father, Babul, who opened the curry house in 1995 and named it Spice Island.
The VisitEngland scheme celebrates excellence within the visitor attraction sector. It's the ninth year that the scheme has been running and Cafe Bowes is the only place in County Durham to receive the food anddrink accolade.
The assessor noted bespoke window seats adding an element of luxury which suited the grandeur of the building. Also mentioned were the hot flavoursome coffee, very fresh scones, delicious cottage pie with a generous portion of extremely tender beef, moist and tasty cakes.
David Nicholls, enterprises manager at the museum, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Café Bowes has been recognised by VisitEngland for its fantastic quality food and drink.
“We have a great catering team who are passionate about what they do and our chefs work with amazing quality produce from lots of local suppliers. The seasonality and provenance of the menu is very important to us.”
Mr Ahmed attended a glittering event in London last week to collect his award.
He said: “The restaurant and award is dedicated to my late father, who was so inspiring to me. Winning this award feels fantastic and I’m thankful to our amazing chef, our team and everyone who has supported us.”
Mr Ahmed and his brothers took over running the business in 2005 and transformed it into a modern dining experience with an upstairs bar offering casual drinking and cocktails.
They have since opened a second restaurant in Darlington.
Mr Ahmed thanked the restaurant’s many customers for their continued support.
He said: “It’s been a very difficult year for us, with the cost-of-living crisis ongoing, we’ve had to adapt and make several changes in order to survive.
“This award gives us the much-needed boost and drive to keep working hard and ensuring we are a success for many years to come.
“We want to thank you all for the continued support and understanding whil we adapt to the uncertain climate.”
