Fakenham Racecourse has welcomed a brand new restaurant ahead of the upcoming season.
Situated in prime position in the course enclosure overlooking the parade ring, Punjabi Cuisine will be up and running ready for the first meeting of the season on Friday, October 18.
Operations will be overseen by Fakenham couple Rajan and Rita Verma, whose food business Currylicious was established back in 2017 after they spotted a gap in the market for unique, home-cooked Indian food.
Their new restaurant, offering the finest cuisine from the Punjab region of India, is set to replace Weston's Seafood Restaurant after long-serving owner Willie Weston opted to semi-retire.
Paying tribute to Mr Weston and looking ahead to the new season, racecourse chief executive David Hunter said: "Willie and his family have provided an outstanding seafood restaurant at Fakenham Races for many years, for which we are very grateful.
"On his retirement, we had the opportunity to work with an alternative local catering business and we felt that a change might be appreciated.
"Raj and Rita have an established food business which provides outstanding Indian food. It will be a joy to work with them and I know they will provide a local, friendly, seasonal and fun service producing the very best Punjab-flavoured food."
Until now, Mr and Mrs Verma's businesses has mainly focused on supplying the retail sector, cooking for private parties and events as well as providing mobile catering at farmers' markets.
Despite those in the Punjab region predominantly eating vegetarian dishes, Punjabi Cuisine will offer meat, vegetarian and vegan dishes to suit all tastes.
Mr Verma added: "We have worked closely with the racecourse to completely redesign and redecorate the restaurant and bar to give it fresh, upbeat feel, and we are thoroughly looking forward to welcoming diners.
"We pride ourselves on the ethos that all our food is home-cooked, locally sourced and the recipes have been handed down the generations. The result is an infusion of delicate spices to bring you the real taste of India without overbearing heat.
Further to this, we have focused on the healthy aspect of Indian cooking and all our curries are cooked in their natural juices without any added fat."
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