Indian restaurant Spice Lounge in Mildenhall High Street celebrates 15-year anniversary

The manager of an Indian restaurant in a town's high street has said it is an ‘amazing feeling’ to celebrate its 15-year anniversary.

Spice Lounge, in Mildenhall High Street, opened on March 3, 2010, and has won a number of awards in the last decade.

The business was most recently presented with a Good Food Awards 2024 Blue Ribbon which it also had won the year before.

Manager Jay Ali, 41, said: “To reach this milestone of 15 years is an amazing feeling, especially after the pandemic which was a very tough time for us.

“When I first started Spice Lounge, I hoped it would go on for a long time and I’m very happy to have achieved this and I hope to have many more years of great food and moments.

“I am who I am today because of Spice Lounge. It is my legacy and I am very proud of it.”

Mr Ali, who lives in Bury St Edmunds, started working in a restaurant aged 16 and first opened a restaurant aged 22 in a village in north Wales, before launching Spice Lounge.

He also opened Little India in Lakenheath in 2012 but sold it in 2017 because of how busy he was running Spice Lounge.

“We’ve put a lot of hard work into this and the staff here are brilliant. We’ve even got one chef who has been here since the beginning,” Mr Ali said.

“Our customers and the community are the backbone of our business and they keep us going.

“We are so grateful to everyone who eats here and we couldn’t have done it without them.”