Ryan Reynolds’ endorsement of ‘best Indian food in Europe’ makes small restaurant famous; bookings ‘off the scale’

Ryan Reynolds’ simple endorsement of a small Indian restaurant has made bookings at the eatery go off the charts, in a surprise for the owners who had no clue about the actor’s identity when they served him. Ryan had praised the restaurant for serving ‘the best Indian food in Europe.’ Also Read| Johnny Depp had chicken tikka at UK’s Indian restaurant where he spent over ₹45 lakh

Ryan was recently in the United Kingdom as he took over the ownership of the National League football club Wrexham AFC. During the visit, he reviewed the Indian restaurant, named Light Of India, on his Instagram Stories on Saturday night. Sharing a flyer to the curry house, which is located in the Chesire town of Ellesmere port in the UK, the actor wrote, “Best Indian food in Europe.”

The bookings at the restaurant immediately shot up after Ryan’s simple but strong endorsement. It later emerged that owner Rajia Rahaman and her husband, who were on duty at the restaurant over the weekend, have no recollection of serving food to the actor and are not sure if the food was ordered to home. Their son Shaa Rahaman revealed that they found out about Ryan’s visit only when the actor posted the review on Instagram.

Shaa, whose family has been running the restaurant for three generations since 1980, told The Guardian, “The first we knew anything about it was when Ryan posted his review. We asked my parents if he had been in but they didn’t even know who he was. We showed them a picture and they couldn’t remember seeing him. So it may be that he or a member of his team ordered and collected a takeaway. It’s crazy. To think he says we’re the best in Europe – Europe is a pretty big place. We’re glad he enjoyed his meal. We’re pretty well known in the area. It may be that some of the Wrexham fans told him about us.”

Shaa also spoke about the increase in bookings since Ryan’s post and said they would even like to name a meal after the actor’s famous character Deadpool. He said, “We’ve been so busy since. The phone has been ringing off the hook. It’s amazing publicity for us. I want to try to get in touch with Ryan now to see if we can name a dish in honour of him – the Deadpool masala, perhaps.”