Lal Qila Restaurant first opened its doors on Rusholme’s famous ‘Curry Mile’, and has operated from its Wilmslow Road site for over twenty-five years. Recently, owner Naz Saleem made the decision to open a new branch in Bolton, which opened its doors in June.

Speaking about this decision, Naz said: “Me and my husband have always been based up in Bolton, and we were beginning to find travelling down to the Manchester restaurant difficult. We had the Chorley Old Road building, and decided to open up another branch of Lal Qila here.”

The building underwent a renovation over three-and-a-half months before Lal Qila held a grand opening ceremony recently.

Naz said: “We had the Mayor come down, as well as many of our old customers and people who run other restaurants and takeaways.”

Mayor of Bolton Cllr Andy Morgan said: “We had the opportunity to savour the great food prepared by [the Lal Qila] chefs and were reminded of the ability of food to transcend communities and bring us all closer together.”

The restaurant also boasts a function room, which can play host to up to eighty people.

Lal Qila recently hosted its first event, Naz added: “I have experience with wedding venues, and we did our best to make it special for our first event, providing table-service rather than a buffet.”

Speaking about the challenges that have faced the opening of the Bolton branch, Naz noted: “Bolton is a very different location to Wilmslow Road, which is a late-night hub.”

Naz adds that while the Rusholme branch offers a broad menu serving burgers and doner as well as classic Indian dishes, the tastes of Bolton diners have required a different specialisation.

“Over the last month, we’ve realised that customers are coming in and telling us: ‘we’ve come for a curry’," she said.

“So we decided that, rather than throwing everything into it, we’d specialise the menu to curries. It is a smaller menu than at our Rusholme location, but, here in Bolton, we’re focused on using fresh ingredients and making our own masalas where we can.”