The Shaheen Indian restaurant and takeaway in Dundee’s city centre has closed following a difficult year and a half for the hospitality industry.
The Commercial Street restaurant closed on Sunday August 1.
Owner Mr D Ghatak, with agent LJR+H Architects, applied to convert the council-owned building into an Indian takeaway and restaurant back in 2017.
The building formerly housed Dundee’s Registrars Office, where locals would mark weddings, deaths and births.
When the offices were moved to the city council’s offices in the City Square in June 2015, the category A listed building sat empty for two years.
The restaurant could host 74 customers, with a separate area for takeaways.
They had been trading for just over a year before the pandemic hit the nation.
Lockdown fears
As lockdown was announced in March 2020 and restaurants were forced to close, manager Sanat Ghatak said he feared for the business in the coming weeks.
He discussed the worrying situation leading up to the first lockdown in 2020, as customers stopped frequenting restaurants amid Covid fears.
Speaking to the Courier last year, Sanat said: “By Saturday our numbers were almost half of what we would normally expect.
“It’s also hard to find suppliers to keep our businesses operating.”
Another of Dundee’s Indian restaurants was put up for sale just weeks ago, after serving the city for more than four decades.