Popular restaurant earns place in hall of fame

'I'm sure we've made some mistakes and some improvements but it's very hard to stay consistent for that long'.

RECOGNITION: Indian Mehfil restaurant has been awarded a TripAdvisor Hall of Fame Certificate of Excellence. Owner Rajesh Sharma with his wife Prianka. Picture: Rob Williams

THE owner of a heavyweight CBD eatery has credited the hard work of his staff during the most difficult period in its nine-year history after the establishment was awarded yet another accolade.

Indian Mehfil restaurant, which celebrated its ninth birthday earlier this year, was awarded the TripAdvisor Hall of Fame Certificate of Excellence.

The highly popular business has built up a loyal base of customers eager to regularly sample its mouth-watering menu but it has suffered from a lack of foot traffic due to the CBD redevelopment.

Owner Rajesh Sharma, who also runs two Indian restaurants in Brisbane, said Mehfil was always "striving for excellence" despite the difficulties it faces.

Establishments that have received a Certificate of Excellence for five years consecutively enter the travel and restaurant website's hall of fame.

The certificates are awarded for maintaining a customer review rating of four and a half stars or above and recipients only make up about 10 per cent of all listings on the site.

"(The award) doesn't belong to me, it belongs to my staff," he said.

"The staff are obviously quite proud and happy, particularly my head chef (Pitamber Dutt) and (restaurant manager) Jason Singh.

"The good thing is that the award is not be me to them, it's an award by the customers and the community to my staff.

"Over the past nine years or so, it shows we have been consistent. I'm sure we've made some mistakes and some improvements but it's very hard to stay consistent for that long."

Mr Sharma and wife Prianka also organise the annual local Diwali Fesitval, which will be celebrated for the 10th time on October 20.

Originally published as Popular restaurant earns place in hall of fame