A new Hamilton restaurant is hoping to curry favour with customers — with a range of Indian dishes blending the traditional and modern.

Ruby Murrys — the new arm of the Yellowfin chain of restaurants, which includes Pearl and Port o’ Call — has just opened up in the former Fresco’s wine bar in Hamilton’s Chancery Lane.

And manager Sam Bangera said the menu — a mix of traditional dishes and ones with a Bermuda twist — had proved a hit with customers.

Mr Bangera said: “Our main aim is guest satisfaction — give them something different from what other places are giving them — and the customers seem to like it very much.”

He explained: “It’s more of a fusion restaurant — but we have that as well as a more traditional element, so we cater for all tastes.”

Yellowfin pushed ahead with the new restaurant — named after a Belfast-born 1960s singer whose name is Cockney rhyming slang for curry — despite the recession, which has hit the restaurant business hard.

Mr Bangera, originally from Mumbai and with decades of experience in Bermuda and overseas, said: “It was a challenge — but that’s why we went for something different and it’s working very well.”

A spokesman for Yellowfin added: “It’s a good product. No matter what the economy does, people are still going to want to eat and drink.

“People know our reputation from running Port O’ Call, Pearl and Bistro J. The building came up for lease and at that time we didn’t know what we would do with it.

“But listening to our customers and what they wanted, it was unanimous that they were crying out for an Indian restaurant in central Hamilton. And we’ve had a full house day and night since we opened six weeks ago.”

The spokesman added that the firm had plans to expand outside and upstairs into the old Fresco bar and terrace area to increase the number of tables.

And he said that 95 percent of patrons at Ruby Murrys were local.

He added: “We’ve introduced modern Indian food like tandoori roasted salmon, a spiced, braised lamb shank and tandoori roasted lobster.

The spokesman said: “We are giving people what they’re used to, but trying to introduce new flavours and dishes. It’s traditional with a modern twist. It’s very authentic.

“And our prices aren’t as high as high-end restaurants — they are affordable.”

He added the decor — creams and oranges — was chosen to reflect the menu.

But the spokesman said: “The major renovations were in the kitchen area and we’re working on the upstairs bar now — we hope to re-open the bar in a couple of months and it will complement the restaurant.”

“The inside didn’t need much — we freshened up the paint and the colours reflect Indian spices.”