New Indian restaurant celebrates 'phenomenal' opening in Slough Trading Estate

The owners of a new Indian restaurant saw a ‘phenomenal’ turnout at their grand opening in Slough Trading Estate last week.

Maidenhead residents Dev Manchanda, 44, and his wife Rakhi, 38, opened The Indian Cart on Thursday (February 20), with Slough mayor Balwinder Singh Dhillon cutting a ribbon to inaugurate the eatery.

Specialising in rice and salad bowls and kathi rolls (paratha wraps), the new independent restaurant on Buckingham Avenue had to close early due to the unexpected number of visitors on opening day.

Dev told the Express the afternoon ‘went brilliantly’.

“We were completely booked, and there were queues outside the doors,” he added.

“We served more than 300 people for lunch and had to close at 3pm because we ran out of all our food.”

The restaurant had to turn away more than 60 customers for lunch service but reopened to another fully booked venue in the evening.

“It was fully packed on the weekend, so same story,” added Dev.

This is not the first venture for the couple, who have a background in hospitality and opened their ‘dream project’, Wrapsta, in Bedford Avenue in 2019.

The restaurant came to life after seven years of preparation by Dev and Rakhi, and it sells Italian-themed wraps, pasta, and salads in a fast-lunch service setting.

Wrapsta partnered with Slough Outreach and has donated 2,500 meals annually since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The couple opened their second location in Willow Parade, Langley, in March 2024, and just like Wrapsta, The Indian Cart has been many years in the making, said Dev.

“It was always on our mind to do it, but an Indian restaurant is always more intensive,” he said, citing the complexity of menus and staffing.

“Before taking this on, we wanted to make sure we could do it and to understand the market.

“That’s how we started with Wrapsta at first, and we’ve been doing that for six years.

“As we’re based in Slough Trading Estate, there’s not many food options there and [we] wanted to offer another option. That’s where The Indian Cart all started.

“It’s all freshly homecooked food served in a quick fashion. Everybody who comes in, we serve in about two or three minutes – eat in or takeaway.”

The Indian Cart offers two separate menus for lunch service between 11am and 4pm on weekdays and another dinner menu for 6pm to 10pm and on weekends.

At lunchtime, customers can ‘make your own lunch box’ by picking a rice, wrap or salad base and topping it with a ‘protein’ such as butter chicken, paneer tikka masala or lamb rogan josh.

An assortment of rice and bread, curries, thalis and chaats are also available on the evening menu.

“This is a totally new thing in Slough, so nobody else is doing anything like what we’re offering,” said Dev.

“There’s a lot of office people and workers around [the Trading Estate], so we mainly cater to them at lunchtime.

“We’re switching from quick service to a dining service in the evening where we’re targeting more families.

“The response has been phenomenal – we didn’t expect anything like that.”

Visit @indiancart2024 on Instagram for more details.