ONE of Irvine’s favourite Indian restaurants is set to do the ‘battle of the balti’ at this year’s Scottish Curry Awards.

The Gulab Tandoori has been nominated for ‘Restaurant of the Year’ and ‘Team of the Year’ for the South-West region at the Scottish Curry Awards 2014.

The Gulab, located at Stanecastle roundabout, has been a popular destination for Irvine diners for the last three decades, but has never been nominated for an award like this.

Brothers Danny and Ronnie Singh swapped the boxing ring for the tandoor when their family purchased the business in 2012.

Since then, Danny, 23, has been managing the original Gulab at Stanecastle, while Ronnie, 24, has taken on the responsibility of the new restaurant at Bank Street. Danny told the Times he was “quietly confident” of success at the awards ceremony later this month. He said: “We’ve pretty much worked every day for the last two years. We haven’t boxed for two years, everything’s gone into running the restaurants.

“It’s been a lot of effort from the whole team and we think we stand a really good chance.” The seventh annual Scottish Curry Awards have already seen fierce competition with more than 9,000 nominations received. Over the next week, each of the shortlisted restaurants will receive visits from ‘secret diners’ to test the standard of food and help choose winners for each of the 11 categories.

Yasmin Mahmood, operations director for event organisers Oceanic Consulting said: “The awards have grown from strength to strength every year, as we see an increase of nominations for those hidden gems as well as the more well known curry houses.

“All the finalists are truly deserving.” The winners will be announced at an awards show on April 28 at the Thistle Hotel, Glasgow.