Couple open Eastbourne restaurant following ‘holiday accident’

A couple has opened a Nepalese restaurant in Eastbourne after visiting the town and liking the area.

Deepak Panday, who is hoping to open Dolma Kitchen in Susans Road next week, said, “Our plan was to open in London. We searched in so many parts of the UK.

“We were here in Eastbourne just for holiday, not thinking about the restaurant. We were looking at Kent.

“We came here and we liked the place, we liked the people.

“I was looking around the outskirts and it was very nice, very quiet. The people looked very nice so we said, ‘This is a nice place.’

“One day my wife said, ‘Why don’t we open the restaurant here?’

“Suddenly this restaurant was on the market and we discussed it with these people.”

Mr Panday and his wife Rashmi Thapa’s plan to open a restaurant in the UK following Brexit originally had to be postponed due to lockdown.

Mr Panday, who was born in Nepal but has British citizenship, said, “This was a really big jump. First of all, we were planning this since before the lockdown. We were looking for restaurants before the lockdown.

“I travelled to the north, east, south, west, everywhere.”

Despite opening fully to the public next week, on a date that is yet to be confirmed, Mr Panday said things ‘clicked’ as he decided to move to the town.

Mr Panday, who was the head chef a restaurant in Iceland before moving to the UK, said, “It just clicked and we opened here. We never thought we were going to open here. At the last minute we were going to go to Canada.

“We were planning to go and at the same time we came on holiday here. That holiday made us stay here.”

He added, “It was a holiday accident. We were going to so many different parts of the UK. We looked at 20-25 different restaurants before opening this one.

“We believe in karma, maybe my place is here. Maybe our karma brought us here because there is some reason I am here. I am not sure.”

Mr Panday, who has also worked as a head chef in London, said he plans to offer free cooking lessons to residents once Dolma Kitchen is up and running.

He said, “I will be trying to get them to try and make some food for their family.

“I am hoping they will cook for their family and that it will make their own home happy.

“Girlfriends can cook for boyfriends, boyfriends can cook for girlfriends, mothers can cook for children, children can cook for mothers.

“Once a week if you cook for your family, gathering together, that will make your family happy. It will make you proud of yourself. That is why we were thinking of doing it.”

Dolma Kitchen is set to offer customers a range of Nepalese, Indian and Tibetan dishes.