Sweet Centre Restaurant
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
Sweet Centre is one of the UK’s classic Asian food establishments, established in December 1964 at 110 Lumb Lane to supply Indian and Pakistani sweets to textile and engineering workers. The brainchild of brothers Abdul Rehman, Mohammed Bashir, and Abdul Aziz, Sweet Centre quickly became popular with students, local residents of all communities, and visiting Indian and Pakistani dignitaries from the worlds of politics, religion and cinema. There have been many branches and spinoffs since those days. The original Bradford location is now run by the third generation, Waqar Ali Mughal and his father Dr Z. Ali.
You’ll find the restaurant open for breakfast as well as regular evening sittings, and many drop in to pick up something tasty on the way to work. You’ll find the full range of savoury food – sheesh kebab with naan bread and pilau, chana and spinach curry, chicken tikka masala – but the main interest lies in the range of traditional sweets and desserts.
Plenty of cheesecakes, chocolate cakes and so on are also available – in other words, the full spread of traditional confectionary from all over the world
The mithai (small sweets to mix and match) includes all the classics such as gulab jamun, barfi, kalakand, and patisa. Gulab jamun are round balls which are prepped, cooked, and cooked again in sugary syrup. Barfi, from the Persian word for snow, is a milk based sweet flavoured with herbs. Kalakand is a mixture of milk, paneer and cardamom. Then there’s rasmali, a preparation of sweet thickened milk and curd cheese several hours in the making, and falooda, a mix of sabja seeds, vermicelli, sweetened milk, rose syrup and ice cream.
Guests can also sample a range of cupcakes, in bubblegum, strawberry and other flavours. Plenty of cheesecakes, chocolate cakes and so on are also available – in other words, the full spread of traditional confectionary from all over the world. Drinks include genuine kashmiri (‘pink tea’), prepared with cinnamon, mint and secret spices.
Sweet Centre can be reached from the station by the 622 and 680 buses. It makes a great special treat for families with children. Items may also be ordered online.
