Ruposhi Indian Bar & Restaurant in Bury, Greater Manchester, doesn’t do traditional Christmas meals – but it didn’t stop a dad complaining on Facebook and Tripadvisor

An Indian restaurant owner has hit back after a dad complained that his children’s Christmas dinner was ruined after they were served chicken and chips.

The manager of Ruposhi Indian Bar & Restaurant in Bury, Greater Manchester, Shah Munim, has defended his establishment from the bad review.

Rick Arpino visited the venue with his partner and their four children on Christmas Day, Manchester Evening News reports.

He said he ordered two Indian dinners for the adults and traditional Christmas dinners for the children.

Instead, he claims the four children were served chicken, chips, and half a fried tomato.

“What an absolute farce of a restaurant – Xmas Dinner ruined for our children on the whim of this establishment,” Rick ranted on Tripadvisor, and in a Facebook post.

However, the Ruposhi Indian Restaurant has said that it rang up its customers in advance of Christmas Day to take their orders – and to explain that they were no longer serving a traditional Christmas dinner menu due to a lack of interest.

Since the complaint was published, hundreds of people have been leaving comments.

“I think Christmas dinner was ruined the second you decided to go for an Indian for a Christmas dinner,” said Peter Holden, responding to the post on the What’s on in Ramsbottom Facebook page.

And John Southworth said: “Ruposhi is a fabulous Indian restaurant serving wonderful Indian food, we love it there. However, it would probably be low down on my list of places to host a ‘traditional’ British Christmas lunch. Maybe try another establishment rather than giving it a bad review?”

Rachel Bowen went to the Ruposhi on Christmas Day – and said she was told they weren’t doing Christmas dinner when she booked.

She said: “We went yesterday couldn’t fault it we all had the curry amazing. After all it is an Indian curry house. If you wanted English food I would suggest you to go a pub or somewhere. They did come round asking if everything was ok so really you should have said something and not slag them off all over Facebook.”

The restaurant’s manager, Shah Munim, has said that he’s written to Tripadvisor to complain about the review.

He also explained the reason the restaurant did not serve traditional Christmas dinners.

He said that it was not worth ‘all the hard work’ to prepare a traditional British Christmas dinner when there had been so few customers ordering it.

“We want to please our customers. We gave them options. And they chose chicken and chips,” he said.

“I fully agree with them, they’re not happy. I did my best,” Mr Munim said.

“But unfortunately after leaving they wrote on Facebook and Tripadvisor. I don’t know why they’re doing that,” he said.

The Ruposhi served around 80 customers on Christmas Day on Saturday, December 25.

One of those customers left a five-star review.

“We came for Christmas day six of us excellent food yet again fantastic service and staff curries were spot on. Thank you for a lovely meal,” they said.

Mr Shah has been running the restaurant for 11 years and says that he has been struggling bringing all of his customers back into the restaurant post-lockdown.

“It’s a very hard time to run a business right now,” he said.

He said that negative reviews can impact his business.

“It’s easy for them to write a review on Tripadvisor but it’s hard to run a business and to keep customers happy,” he said.