Pub restored to former glory as new Lala's Restaurant opens in Pudsey

The new Pudsey restaurant opened in early January and is the fifth Lala's site, with other established restaurants in Huddersfield, Bradford and Wakefield.

Owner Junior Rashid said it was important to him to restore the disused Bradford Road building into something "luxurious" for the local community.

Mr Rashid said: "The building is magnificent and it stands on it's own - it was just a building that really caught my eye.

"It used to be a well-loved pub but when it closed the building fell into disarray.

"We've spent a lot of time and a substantial amount of money transforming it back from nothing into something fantastic.

"Lots of hard work has gone into the design to make it luxurious. Customers have told us that when you step through the doors you could be in a five star hotel anywhere in the world.

"We have really restored it to it's former glory."

The entrepreneur, who started each of his five restaurants from scratch, was heavily involved in each aspect of building the new site.

He designed the restaurant himself, carefully curated the menu and works closely on a day-to-day basis with the chef.

The father-of-one said: "It was a real personal passion project of mine as I wanted to make sure customers felt like a million pounds as soon as they stepped through the door.

"Our personal service is what makes us so different to other restaurants in the area - we couldn't do more for them.

"We want people to come in as customers but leave as friends."

The new restaurant, which sits in between Bradford and Leeds, is fully licensed and seats 200 people.

Mr Rashid said that it has been busy since it opened and thanked the community for his support.

He said: "The response has been fantastic. We only opened a few weeks ago but it has been really busy.

"A lot of people were looking forward to it opening and the community have really got behind us.

"It's not just another run of the mill curry house - we offer luxury Indian dining.

"The whole standard is high quality and the waiting staff are very attentive.

"We've already had repeat customers. It has been phenomenal."