It’s the first restaurant of its kind in the north of England … and opens in Huddersfield this week.

Huddersfield Hub can today reveal the first glimpse inside the Gurparsad restaurant and takeaway on Lidget Street in Lindley which opens at 11am on Tuesday (June 4).

It’s run by two Sikh friends and only serves vegetarian or vegan food even though much of it will actually look like meat.

Palwinder Singh from Birkby and close friend Harjinder Singh from Fenay Bridge have set the restaurant up with their families and the restaurant name, Gurparsad, means God’s blessings.

The friends worship at the Sikh temple in Deighton called Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara and their religion means they don’t eat meat, fish or eggs and they don’t smoke or drink.

These culinary restrictions mean it can be tough finding somewhere to eat and the closest Sikh restaurants they know of are a two hours’ drive away in Birmingham.

Palwinder says: “Our religion means we can’t eat where meat products or alcohol are served and, when you think about it, there’s hardly anywhere that meets both those requirements.

“So we thought we’d use our experience cooking in the Sikh tradition but also open it out to all kinds of tastes.”

 

 

 

 

This means Gurparsad serves curries and other Sikh food alongside pizzas, kebabs and burgers – only everything is made from a meat substitute.

Palwinder said: “People eat our ‘chicken’ dishes and then can’t believe it’s actually not chicken, the taste is so authentic.

“We hope the restaurant means Sikhs can travel here from all across the north for a meal out but we also hope everyone else tries us too which may well open their minds and their taste buds to vegetarian and vegan food.”

Gurparsad will also feature a large range of Indian sweets and cakes … and none of them are made from eggs.

It’s taken the friends three months to fully kit the restaurant out which they’ve done themselves – Palwinder is a gas engineer by trade. The premises were formerly the Bubble and Squeak delicatessen.

It has 30 seats downstairs and a further 25 upstairs, but the upstairs has yet to be renovated.

Gurparsad is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting. 

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