I was recently researching Curry ‘Awards’ and there are a plethora of them. Notable ones are ‘National Curry Awards’, ‘British Curry Awards’, ‘Curry Life Awards’, ‘English Curry Awards’ and even a Leicestershire one … on the latter maybe Birmingham needs to take a leaf out of their book and do their own!

Either way, it’s likely that the vast majority are organised by the Bangladeshi community so the chances of a genuine Balti restaurant (normally Pakistani or Kashmiri) winning any accolades must be disappointingly slim.

Manzil is a stalwart of the Brummie curry scene beloved by many a night owl/clubber dating back to England’s one and only World Cup win in 1966. Set up by the current owner’s father, he was also owner of the Taj Mahal and that was a handy spot for clubbers to what used to be the adjacent Locarno 

His son, Zakirul Islam (Zak) took over in 1986 and this curry ikon is still going today. Just as important they cook and serve a proper Birmingham Balti amongst a wide range of dishes. Incidentally, they also served up possibly the best Chicken Pakora that I have ever had … my Meat Samosa wasn’t far behind either!

Footnote … a backcloth of eighties music from Tony Basil’s ‘Micki’ to Ultravox was a nice little music segway!