Samir Desai likes to keep himself busy. He was a former bus and taxi driver working long hours before he decided to change industry – and probably increase his hours, by opening The Broadway Bar & Grill in Leicester in 2018. He was inspired to open a restaurant by his lifelong passion for food. Seven years on, he still loves preparing, cooking and tasting dishes.
Samir employs around 28 members of staff to ensure a smooth service at the 120-seat restaurant – when it’s fully booked, they serve around 300 covers. As a pub-restaurant, The Broadway Bar and Grill’s menu offers an extensive range of dishes. Food is prepared fresh every day with the team working shifts around the clock and nothing leaves the kitchen unless the quality has been checked and verified.
Spice of life
Not content with running one busy place, Samir also opened another restaurant, called Sam’s Spice @ Jungle Club, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. The jungle-themed venue also has a separate bar area, live Sky Sports, pool tables and a soft play area, so it’s fair to say that Samir certainly has his hands full. Luckily, family members are also involved in the business, including Samir’s wife, his son, his brother and his brother-in-law. Even his much younger son is keen to get involved in the future when he can and Samir says it’s been invaluable to get input and advice from the family, particularly when running two busy restaurants.
“I was looking for another good opportunity nearby my existing business, primarily because at The Broadway, we don’t have space to cater for all the people who want to dine there,” he explains. “We found another venue and I was really excited and happy to accept the challenge of building up another business. Our customers are even happier since we opened the second one, because we were turning down between 100 to 250 customers every week.”
This might become less of an issue in the near future, as Samir is currently looking at expanding the Broadway, adding an additional 60 seats that could also double as a party or big group dining space.
Home from home
As Samir outlines, his latest restaurant features a similar menu to the Broadway so customers can feel right at home, even in a different venue. As for Samir, he’s happy to keep on cooking and ensure that each and every customer enjoys their food.
The most popular dishes at The Broadway are King Prawn Tawa, Madras curry and the Tandoori Fish Sizzler, while the more healthy dishes are also in demand, alongside the wide range of vegetarian options. Other customer favourites include garlic chilli chicken, dhaba chicken and lamb chops curry.
“We minimise the usage of oil in our curries, which our customers really like – and our Tandoori grill items are also very popular, such as chicken, lamb chops and fish,” says Samir. “I like cooking – that’s the most important part and why I enjoy working in this industry. Our customers appreciate consistency and quality and I would not serve them anything that I wouldn’t be prepared to eat – I am just as passionate about the food I serve as I am about the people eating.”
He adds that it’s a big achievement to put a smile on customers’ faces – he loves it when customers tell him how much they’ve enjoyed their time at the restaurant and that they will come back, and he says they welcome many regulars week in and week out.
Originally from Gujarat, Samir regularly travels back to India for inspiration on cooking techniques and recipes – in April he returned to the UK having spent six weeks there.
“There’s so much diversity to enjoy over there,” he says. “I particularly like learning about spices. Food without garam masala is the best for everyone – we use a lot more green chillies for example and it brings out the best flavour and it’s healthier too. Keeping it simple and fresh are the best combinations for tasty cuisine.”
Timing and customer service are all important – particularly serving food at the right temperature with the right texture, which Samir acknowledges can be a particular challenge when serving takeaways.
Rising costs
Paying a hefty charge to online delivery platforms for the restaurant’s takeaways is just one of many costs that Samir is juggling with, but one he has to bear in return for the additional stream of business, and for acquiring new customers.
Staying on the subject of costs, they say a lot can change in a month and it’s a feeling that Samir is all too familiar with, and particularly so since April. That was the month when a raft of tax changes and other measures affecting hospitality businesses kicked in. These included increases to National Insurance Contributions and the National Living Wage and a reduction in business rates relief. As a direct consequence, Samir says he has faced higher bill after higher bill with his national insurance contributions having more than doubled. He is managing these alongside continued hikes in the price of raw materials and mounting working visa costs are also a worry.
While these changes have not put him off from running a business, he’s certainly thinking twice about starting another venture, and focusing for the present time on making the Broadway Bar and Grill bigger and better and establishing Sam’s Spice. Winning a Curry Life Award – the Broadway scooped the Curry Life Editor’s Choice Award in 2024, is recognised as a huge achievement and Samir says it’s provided a real motivation and sense of pride among staff.
“All of this legislation creates barriers to recruiting the right people,” says Samir. “For the present time we have to be as flexible as possible. I would be keen to look at opening another business for example, and that time might come if staffing laws are more relaxed. We try to survive with loans for the present time and we’ll see if the government can help us in the future – then we can focus on growing our businesses.”
Broadway Bar and Grill
263-265 Abbey Lane, Leicester LE4 5QH
