AN Indian restaurant in Oldbury has celebrated picking up a national title at the English Curry Awards.

Little Bangla was named Bangladeshi Restaurant of The Year at an awards ceremony held on Monday (October 18) at the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport-NEC, hosted by DJ Tommy Sandhu.

Manager Sheike Mohammad Zakaria said he was delighted.

He said: "We feel wonderful about winning this award.

"We have worked hard for it.

"We have won a lot of awards over the year and have many five star ratings on Trip Advisor."

The restaurant, on Langley High Street, has six staff, and regularly holds cooking workshops for children attending local schools including Hurst Green Primary.

Halesowen News:

Mr Zakaria said: "We invite the children in and teach them how to cook food. It's our way of supporting the local community."

The awards, now in their tenth year, celebrate top Asian curry professionals and businesses, with the shortlist determined by public vote.

Irfan Younis, CEO of Oceanic Consulting which hosted the awards, congratulated all the finalists and winners and said: “We were very happy to welcome the guests and celebrate with them."

Several of the awards were split into local regions to ensure smaller businesses across England were recognised - with Stourbridge's Bombay Pickles picking up the Restaurant of the Year West Midlands accolade.

Meanwhile, Dudley Spice in New Street, Dudley, was named Local Restaurant of the Year.