The owners of a family restaurant that Ryan Reynolds described as the ‘best Indian in Europe’ had no idea they were serving food to a Hollywood A-lister when he placed his order.
The Rahaman family have been running the Light of India restaurant in the Cheshire town of Ellesmere Port across three generations since 1980, so they’ve obviously done pretty well up until now.
However, this weekend things have gone stratospheric since Wrexham FC co-owner and movie star Ryan Reynolds tried their cuisine and then shared a picture of a flyer for the restaurant with the caption ‘best Indian food in Europe’.
Shah Rahaman, who helps run the business alongside his family, wasn’t at work on the night that Reynolds’ order came through, which means that no-one knows whether he ordered in or carried out or what he ordered.
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One thing that is for sure is that his mum and dad don’t watch a lot of Netflix.
He told LADbible: “We didn’t actually know that he came because my mum and dad were working at the time, but the next morning I woke up and I follow Ryan Reynolds on Instagram, so I looked at his post and I was like ‘eh, that’s our business?’
“My sister comes in and said ‘Ryan Reynolds has posted us’ and I ran into my mum and dad saying ‘did Ryan Reynolds come into the restaurant?’
“They said ‘who is Ryan Reynolds?’"
“They don’t know who he is, which is quite surprising.
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“Then, we went through the whole hustle and bustle of trying to find out if he ordered inside or if he got someone to order for him as a takeaway, but we don’t actually know if he came in or ordered a takeaway.
“The next morning he posted and it’s just really bizarre and overwhelming with both the positives and the kind words we’ve been getting from people.”
Along with the positives, there have also been a few small negatives from those online who wish to stir things up.
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Shah continued: “Since his comments came out there’s obviously been an increase in business, everyone is talking about us, we get some positive things being said but with every positive we gets some negatives too.
“The downside is that obviously people speculate things like that we paid him.
“We’re a very small business – we can’t afford to pay Ryan Reynolds!”
Still, all publicity is good publicity, particularly when you’re a small family business that has just come off the back of a pandemic.
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The Rahaman family are keen to entertain Reynolds’ custom again - so if you’re reading Ryan, get in touch as there might just be a free meal in it for you.
“We want to reach out to him and tell him to come down again and sit in, we’ll have a chat,” Shah added.
“We might even dedicate a dish to him – the Deadpool Masala.”
Featured Image Credit: Shah Rahaman/Abaca Press /Alamy Stock PhotoTopics: UK News, TV and Film, Ryan Reynolds, Celebrity, Food And Drink