This week we bring you an interview with multi award-winning Canterbury restaurant, The Ambrette in Beer Cart Lane.
In Feb 2020 The Times newspaper included it in ‘Britain’s Best 30 Places for a Curry’ feature. Chef patron Dev Biswal has also been named Best Asian Chef in Britain at the Asian Restaurant Awards
Tell us a little bit about The Ambrette in Canterbury…
The Ambrette is in Beer Cart Lane just off the high street. We are a large family run restaurant with 120 seats. We specialise in Indian cuisine using locally grown and sustainable produce. The menu features vegetarian, vegan, seafood and local game dishes. We believe in investing into our team and have a long- standing team of staff. We also work closely with our local community in Canterbury.
How long has The Ambrette been in the city?
The Ambrette opened its doors in Canterbury in June 2013. We also have other branches in Margate and Rye.
What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?
We are planning to celebrate the reopening of the restaurant with food festivals and events. We are looking forward to meeting our regular customers. Personally, we cannot wait to eat out again and support other restaurants and cafes in the city and are looking forward to visiting the Marlowe Theatre to see a show.
How will you keep your customers safe on their return?
During the last year we have consistently received positive reviews from our customers regarding our covid compliance and we intend to continue all we have learnt when we reopen. We have gone over and above the published government guidelines for COVID-19 compliance to ensure our customers and staff feel as safe as possible.
During opening times (non-lockdown), we take temperatures of all our staff and customers on arrival. We reduce the number of customers arriving to one table every 15 minutes to avoid any queues at the door. Our seating capacity has been reduced to ensure as much distance as possible between tables and are fortunate to be able to make use of our secluded seating areas. We have closed our upstairs toilets to avoid crossing on the stairs. All our staff receive COVID-19 training, increased cleaning schedules and protective personal equipment. Our tables, fabrics and chairs are sanitized after each use. We only use our tables and chairs once each shift to allow for sanitisation to have maximum effect.
What has kept you busy over lockdown?
During lockdown we switched from a fine-dining restaurant to a home delivery & collection service. We changed our menu to adapt to a takeaway format. We invested into technology through our own APP to make it as easy as possible for customers to order.
We supported Porchlight and Catching Lives with hot meals and financial fundraising. We were also a part of meals for NHS where we provided thousands of hot meals to NHS staff working overtime during the pandemic.
How can customers support you right now?
Customers can support us by ordering a take away from us or purchasing a gift voucher for future use. You can also follow us on Facebook for updates.
