A.fine dining Turkish and Mediterranean restaurant in Royton, Oldham, has won big at this year’s British Kebab Awards.
Istanblue Royton took home the gong for the Best Fine Dining Restaurant at a glitzy awards ceremony held in London on Tuesday night.
Impressively, it was the only restaurant in the north to be acknowledged with a win at the London-dominated event.
Sharing the news to social media, the restaurant was flooded with congratulations from a host of loyal customers.
Image: Istanblue Royton
One customer wrote: “Well done, love your food you really do deserve it x”
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Another said: “Brilliant, so well deserved. Our favourite restaurant x
A third added: “Nice one well done love your food”
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The annual awards ceremony is the only one of its kind to recognise the British kebab industry, which supports 200,000 jobs up and down the country spanning restaurants, suppliers and the wider food industry.
The ceremony, now in its tenth year, celebrated the £2.8 billion contributions the kebab industry brings to the British economy every year.
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Every day, more than 1.5 million kebabs are sold across Britain.
Image: Istanblue Royton Image: Istanblue Royton
The British Kebab Awards, sponsored by Just Eat, were held in the ballroom at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel, with an audience of over 1,200 guests including more than 150 MPs and Lords.
Guests were treated to a cocktail reception with a three-course Anatolian-style meal.
Winners took to the stage triumphing in 18 categories, including Chef of the Year, Kebab Van of the Year, Just Eat Best Delivery and eight regional awards for recognising the best kebab restaurants across the UK.
Image: Istanblue Royton
Thousands of members of the public voted for the 180 finalists to face the judges who included Labour MP Carolyn Harris; Conservative MP David Warburton; James O’Brien of LBC, Adil Ray; and Cobra Beer aSales Director, Samson Sohail.
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Andrew Kenny, Managing Director of Just Eat UK, said: “It’s been an honour for Just Eat to support the British Kebab Awards for the past decade; the event is always a highlight of our year.
“After an undeniably difficult period for the hospitality sector, there’s never been a better time to recognise the resilient and hard-working individuals across the kebab industry, who are making an invaluable contribution to both their local community and the UK economy.
“Huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists on their incredible achievement.”
Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, speaker of the House of Commons, Nadhim Zahawi MP, Secretary of the State for Education, David Lammy MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lord Karan Bilimoria, President of CBI, Kate Nicholls, CEO of UK Hospitality, Andrew Kenny, Managing Director of Just Eat, Paul Scully, the Business minister attended and addressed the event.
Beloved plant-based independent street food business Herbivorous is set to close imminently
Danny Jones
We hate writing this, but we have news of yet another local hospitality closure as beloved Manchester-born and pioneering plant-based brand Herbivorous has confirmed they’ll soon be calling it a day.
If you can hear us sighing through the screen, apologies – we’re just getting really fed up of saying farewell to our favourites, so god knows how rubbish those involved feel.
As you can see, the team behind the multi-location vegan street food specialists began by writing: “It’s a long one so stay with me… It seems you can’t open social media at the moment without reading about another hospitality business closing down.
“Throughout 8 years of Herbivorous years we’ve come up against many challenges from Covid 5 years ago to watching all the big vegan brands from London and beyond come to Manchester and largely disappear again to the closure of Hatch our busiest site, but with continually increasing costs its becoming really difficult to maintain a thriving business.”
Herbivorous started out life back in 2016 as a cult hit at the old outdoor food, drink and entertainment hub centring around a ‘container village’, the first of its kind in the city and soon to reopen under new owners and a new name.
Since then, co-founders Robyn and Damian have gone on to expand not just to one permanent site over in Withington but with outposts in Sheffield and York, having gained a strong reputation with stalls and pop-ups all over.
Their hospitality story might not have the ending we personally would hope for, but it’s been a brilliant one for so many foodie fans – us lot included.
Nevertheless, they go on to add in the emotional statement that external pressures such as a recent bereavement and their own ever-growing family have also contributed to the decision which, despite being an understandably hard one, “feel like the right time.”
“We are so incredibly proud of how far we’ve come from spending long days slinging duck wraps from our green vintage horse box at festivals to three Herbi locations across the North of England”, they continue, “and with that we’ve also met so many fantastic people!”
“Whether you worked for us at a few festivals over [the] summer or for years at our restaurant, we just wanted to say and massive thank you! The memories will stay with us forever and, of course, how can we not mention our fabulous customers!
“Thank you all so much for choosing Herbivorous over the years. Those of you who had our food at Festivals and then found us at one of our permanent locations, those of you who came back week after week to Hatch, Spark, Withington and beyond.”
They signed off by detailing their final business days, with their Sheffield Kommune spot having already shut for refurbishment; meanwhile, their spot in SPARK York will be wrapping up on Saturday, 19 April.
As for their flagship brick-and-mortar venue here in Greater Manchester, Herbivorous Withington will be shutting on Friday, 25 April.
Once again, there’s nothing we can say other than thank you for years of delicious food, that we’re guttted to see you go, and that everyone at The Manc Group wishes you the best whatever comes next.
AJ Tracey is playing a VERY intimate gig in Manchester next month
Thomas Melia
London rapper and respected grime artist AJ Tracey is ‘live and direct’ once again, announcing a whole host of UK dates, one of which is a rather intimate gig right here in Manchester.
It’s official: one of UK rap’s leading gents is getting back on the road and he’s showing a ‘Little More Love’ to lots of cities, including Manchester.
In a post on the UK star’s socials, AJ Tracey trades his music persona for that of a sports pundit as he announces the dates for his upcoming tour while impersonating an F1 commentator.
Anyone looking to attend Tracey’s ‘Not Even A Tour’ can catch the star up and down the country on his over 20-date tour with a stop in Manchester as soon as this month.
The rapper has reached phenomenal heights since dropping the unforgettable ‘Ladbroke Grove’ in 2019 and is heading out across the nation to make sure everyone knows about it.
Get ready to spit bars left and right as this rapper’s discography is stacked with serious tunes like ‘Dinner Guest’, ‘West Ten’, ‘Thiago Silva’ and more.
More recently, he collaborated with Walsall’s finest Jorja Smith for a flirty garage beat also known as ‘Crush’ with the video being the two artists talking it out in a good old fashioned caff.
The latest collaboration with Smith marks the start of a new era for Mr. Live and direct as it fell in line with the announcement of his third studio album.
Titled Don’t Die Before You’re Dead, we’re sure he’ll be “building a vibe” wherever he goes and probably previewing a few exclusive tracks from his upcoming project too.
This gig may come as quite a surprise for any hardcore fans of the ‘Ladbroke Grove’ star as the venue in which he’s performing is definitely intimate only, holding just over 250 guests.
This rap giant is bringing his unbelievable beats to none other than the legendary small-cap city centre live music venue, The Deaf Institute, at the end of this month.
It’s safe to say you won’t get many more chances, if any, to see him in such a tight-knit space again.
AJ Tracey is bringing ‘Not Even A Tour’ to Deaf Institute in Manchester on 30 April, with tickets on sale Friday 4 April from 12 noon.
Georgina Pellant -
3rd March 2022 
