Is it true that all Indian restaurants in UK are owned by Bangladeshis?

[suresh1773]

So why are we complaining here. Both sides do it. I have noticed a restaurant in Muscat Oman that was Indian but had a Pakistani name.

There is no need to go to Muscat,I had already given u one example of the shop name after Karachi,the owner of the shop was a refugee from Karachi which was opened in 1948,

People remember the places they are originally from and create restaurants with such names.

Here u may be wrong
I don't think the current generation of Indians will never name their shops after the cities which their grandparents migrated from the other side of border bcoz they don't carry the 1947 baggage.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Any proof?

Yes, most restaurents away from the ethnic centres are Bangladeshi owned. Yes most also call them "Indian". However I think there has been a concerted effort made by Banglasdeshi to rebrand them as "Bangladshi". So I increasingly see them having the "B" tag hypenated with the "I" tag. Rarely you get just the "B" tag alone. However all in all most customers will probably realize that the establishment is Bangladeshi as the "B" tag will be found somewhere even it is included just in the menu.

Pakistani owned restaurents almost always go under the "India" tag. Examples like Aaagrah, Nawaabs, Akbars, Sher Khan etc are all tagged as Indian. Very, very few Pakistani restaurents go under the "P" tag. In fact they avoid the "P" tag like it is haram and the "I" tag is halal.

Only if 99% of their customers are Pakistani will they drop the "I" tag and then guess what they will fall back on? Yes, you got it, the "D" tag or dhesi. If they don't use the "D" tag then they will invariably will use the "A" tag. That is Apna. Then maybe when they have no options they decide to go haram and use the "P" tag which is damned rare.

My underatanding is that when they came here in 1950s and 1960s most English were oblivious of "P" so they used the fame from British India. However I always say you do that in 1,000 years nothing will change. If they had insisted in using their own names 50 years later, today they would be established.

This is the fault of Pakistani's even the media is at it. Go to Dawn and see the recipes. They will call them "Dhesi" Indian's will never use that term. The result is food that Indian's rarely eat has become asociated with Indians.

The "P" word has been orphan for long time. Mind you recently new use has been found for it. Terrorist? Pakistani bomber? Sex grooming gangs? Muslim Pakistani? So at least the "P" word has become widely known.

Money Exchange? Muslim Xchange.
Jewellery shop? Asian
Local shop? Apna Dukhan
Call a taxi driver? Asian
Want to eat Ghosht Balti? Indian
Want to eat Seek Kebab? Indian

So where is Pakistan - No worries.

Want a bomb to go off? Pakistan Muslim
Sex Grooming gangs? Pakistani Muslim
Terrorism to order? Pakistani Muslim

And this is our media moulding public opinion. Dawn brags about being linked to founder of Pakistan - Jinnah. Yet nearly 70 years later it thinks the "P" word is haram word. This don't forget is a premier or so called Pakistani newspaper.

The best desi food in Karachi? The choice is endless.

The ultimate guide to: The best desi food in Karachi - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

 

[Jaanbaz]

Yeah just walk into an Indian resutuarant you would see Bengalis running it.

Pakistani are in the middle. People from Karachi and Lahore are full of pride for their respective cities, rest of Pakistanis call their restaurants as ''Indian'', you would see many Pakistani restaurants such as Lahore spice, Karachi etc are run by professional chefs who actually been doing this business for decades, then you have small takeaways run by Pakistanis of mirpur origin and rural Punjab areas, who love to market their product as ''Indian''. No pride whatsoever.

Just to add few Pusthuns who also run their restaurants, they never use the name India or Indian when marketing. Respect for people who respect their own culture and traditions.

 

[mb444]

Most "Indian" restaurants in UK are Bangladeshi owned. The Indian reference is a historical one as the first of these restaurants was started by those of Bangladeshi origin from 1910's onward.

 

[waz]

Most of the UK owned curry houses are Bengali run, the Balti houses and heavy meat based restaurants are Pakistani. There are a few specialist Indian ones, but generally Indian folk don't go into the trade.
As for Pakistanis calling their food Indian, I'm sorry, here in the UK that is very rare indeed. The food is clearly labelled Pakistani, with distinctive Pakistani names e.g. Lahore house, Karachi Karahi, Kyber Pass etc. That's been the case for decades, ever since the Balti houses opened up in Birmingham and Bradford in the 50's and 60's, way before Bengali folks made their mark in food. Many English folks know the difference as well.

 

[Nilgiri]

Similarly most South Indian restaurants are run by Lankan Tamils, In highly ghettoized area's like Tooting and Wembley

Its true to a large extent here in Canada as well....even the Sri Lankan cuisine restaurants are mostly run by Lankan Tamils...i can recognize their version of Tamil in an instant....be it restaurants or corner shops etc. I have been maybe to one or two truly authentic Sinhalese restaurants.

I guess catering/restaurant business is a popular one for relatively recent arrivals/refugees to get into when they come in some major wave, since the capex is not that high and you can return profits quite quickly with minimum fuss....and put your business acumen to use without losing dignity etc.

This is probably the same situation in the UK and establishes why Pakistani based restaurants have their own core identity...compared to Bangladeshi ones like @waz explained. I have been to the UK a few times and I would have to agree there is a real difference between Pakistani and "Indian" restaurants.....the food is quite good on the whole in both no matter what some trolls were spouting earlier. But much of the authentic Indian cuisine is somewhat hard to find since everything is somewhat standardized by the Bangladeshi owners to the particular "curry" palate that has evolved in the UK. Similar to the way Chinese food has evolved to the local palate in North America I guess....I much prefer the authentic stuff back in China.

I am of course talking about proper more upscale restaurants, not cheap takeaways/street joints where India (the name) is used by a lot of the subcontinent's people for easy recognition etc....worldwide, not just in UK.

 

[waz]

Its true to a large extent here in Canada as well....even the Sri Lankan cuisine restaurants are mostly run by Lankan Tamils...i can recognize their version of Tamil in an instant....be it restaurants or corner shops etc. I have been maybe to one or two truly authentic Sinhalese restaurants.

I guess catering/restaurant business is a popular one for relatively recent arrivals/refugees to get into when they come in some major wave, since the capex is not that high and you can return profits quite quickly with minimum fuss....and put your business acumen to use without losing dignity etc.

This is probably the same situation in the UK and establishes why Pakistani based restaurants have their own core identity...compared to Bangladeshi ones like @waz explained. I have been to the UK a few times and I would have to agree there is a real difference between Pakistani and "Indian" restaurants.....the food is quite good on the whole in both no matter what some trolls were spouting earlier. But much of the authentic Indian cuisine is somewhat hard to find since everything is somewhat standardized by the Bangladeshi owners to the particular "curry" palate that has evolved in the UK. Similar to the way Chinese food has evolved to the local palate in North America I guess....I much prefer the authentic stuff back in China.

I am of course talking about proper more upscale restaurants, not cheap takeaways/street joints where India (the name) is used by a lot of the subcontinent's people for easy recognition etc....worldwide, not just in UK.

Great post. I remember once taking my Japanese colleague for some "Japanese food" to wagamama's and he screamed saying that rubbish is not Japanese food! . You're right about the whole evolutionary aspect of many of the South Asian dishes in the UK, with some being created in the British Isles!

 

[Nilgiri]

Great post. I remember once taking my Japanese colleague for some "Japanese food" to wagamama's and he screamed saying that rubbish is not Japanese food! .

Heh, its the same thing here as well for Japanese food. Being something of a japanophile myself, I can detect the clear differences between the regular Chinese/Korean owned Japanese style restaurants and authentic Japanese ones. The latter are quite rare and normally quite expensive. I'm not dissing the non-authentic ones....they are just not so accurate and more "mainstream" in their dishes....and there are often outright Chinese selections on the menu too.

Real japanese food for example is not meant to be dipped in tons of soy sauce and fake wasabi...which I see most people doing at the mainstream joints...esp the "all you can eat" ones. It's meant to be eaten cleanly, it should be of that quality to get the nuances of the ingredients. This is true even for more regular "Udon" style eateries. In Canada, the West coast has some really good more true Japanese restaurants, with places handed down through generations of Japanese immigrants.

But then if you dont want to break your budget and compromise, the mainstream ones offer the best value by far....you just have to have been to the authentic versions a few times at least to create something of a "reference" so you know which of the "riffraff" are closer to the real thing and which items are the best bet etc...I would imagine its tough in the UK since there is no real history of major Japanese immigration like West Coast North America. The one I want to try yet is the cuisine of the Japanese people in Brazil....to see what they have retained and what they have merged/fused/adapted etc.

@Nihonjin1051 can probably explain more and better. Actually going to Japan for the first time was quite an eye-opener to me to how the Japanese value their core cuisine....and what quality they expect.

This was also a really great watch to get a perspective on the subject: Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) - IMDb

 

[war&peace]

I was in Cambridge and after six months of boring English food (still far better than the Scottish food that is officially the worst food on planets Earth and Mars) served in Churchill college, I stepped out and a got accompanied by my classmate and after searching and re-search of 1 hour, we found Taj Tandoori (an Indian restaurant), asked the waiter and he told me he is from Bangladesh and even the owner all staff was from Bangladesh.
The same thing happened to me in my trip to northern Europe (Scandinavia). So I conclude that most of indian and even Pakistani restaurants are actually owned/operated by Bangladeshis.

 

[ArsalanKhan21]

When we went to Indian restaurant nearl Niargra Falls the Indian staff got nervous when they saw us. All the people eating there were Canandians. The food tasted different and was not authentic. But the Canadian did not know the difference.

 

[Maira La]

Could be, as Bangladeshis does not have an identity outside Bangladesh, westerners have no clue about Bangladesh, the other thing is Bangladesh really does not have any cuisine of their own, every single Bangladeshi dish has its origin in India especially WB, Assam and Orissa, all Bangladeshi foods are Indian foods too, nothing really unique about Bangladeshi culture, its an offshoot of Indian culture, so it makes perfect business sense to open Indian restaurants instead of Bangladeshi panta bhater hotel.

Jo dikhta hai wohi bikta hai aur Bangladesh to map mein dikhta hi nahi

There is nothing Desi/Dravidian about so-called "Indian cuisine".

Most Indian dish are of Middle Eastern origin brought by Muslim invaders.

 

[Riyad]

Its business, more Indians than Bangladeshis plus Indian food has name but not many people know about bangladeshi food.

Let me introduce delicious Bangladeshi foods.

Sweets

Fried decorated cakes

Kacchi Biryani (Dhakai Biryani)

Fish Pulao (Prepared with hilsa fish)

Bogurar Doi

Could be, as Bangladeshis does not have an identity outside Bangladesh, westerners have no clue about Bangladesh, the other thing is Bangladesh really does not have any cuisine of their own, every single Bangladeshi dish has its origin in India especially WB, Assam and Orissa, all Bangladeshi foods are Indian foods too, nothing really unique about Bangladeshi culture, its an offshoot of Indian culture, so it makes perfect business sense to open Indian restaurants instead of Bangladeshi panta bhater hotel.

Jo dikhta hai wohi bikta hai aur Bangladesh to map mein dikhta hi nahi

Bangladesh map mein nahin dikhta? LOL

Bangladesh itna bhi chota nahi ki dikhai nahi deta.

 

[Indika]

Didn't ask you about what identity you want to assume. You can behave like an Indian or Afghan or Arab, whatever, your choice.

or a like a camel with heads buried in sand.

 

[Trisonics]

Almost all Pakistani restaurants in the US will say "Pakistani and Indian Cuisine". I'm yet to see one that just says Pakistani Cuisine. Indian restaurants will only say INDIAN.. we never add any other country's cuisine in our restaurants. We don't need to use any country to make a living.

 

[24 Hours]

Pretty similar for the US too, though you can tell the difference because the Bangladeshi Indian restuarants are all better