A former troublesome Swindon town centre restaurant has made huge improvements.

Jack Spice at 61 Fleet Street was taken over by Shah Nural Mostafa just over a year ago after being based in the town centre for over 10 years.

Shah Nural, who lives in London but is hoping to move to Swindon permanently with his family, has focused on offering customers a variety of high-quality Indian dishes at affordable prices.

He saw his hard work pay off when food hygiene inspectors rated Jack Spice a five out of five on November 5, with the food safety inspector deeming the hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of facilities and building and management of food safety good.

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Shah Nural said: “When we took over we were trying to focus on food hygiene and we did our homework to maintain the food hygiene according to their standards. We are showing people what we are capable of.

“It’s a pleasure for us to serve the Swindon community and definitely a pleasure for us to have the five stars. This is what we deserve and are trying to provide for our community.

“Swindon is a popular destination for the Indian curry business which encouraged me. Swindon town centre at the moment is kind of a dead town as so many shops are closed.

(Image: Dave Cox)

"After all these situations we are still doing well, but the council need to make better opportunities for people doing these types of small businesses so that we can manage them and grow other businesses in Swindon.

“We are very delighted to say that we cover the entirety of Swindon with our deliveries and a lot of restaurants don’t do that. People really love the food from the chicken tikka masala and korma to special dishes like lamb palak.”

Under the previous owner, Jack Spice held a three out of five rating in 2021, which soon increased to a four when Shah Nural took over last year.

In 2017, under manager Mohammed Hanifi, concerns were raised when licensing officers from Swindon Borough Council discovered four men working illegally as chefs in the kitchen - a year after finding illegal immigrants working at the establishment during their previous visit. 

A fifth man, working as a waiter, was registered as an asylum seeker and was not entitled to work in the UK.

All of the men were living upstairs above the restaurant and it was closed for some time.

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