Express & Star's Indian Restaurant of the Year: The best curry houses across the Black Country and Staffordshire

Restaurants throughout the Black Country and Staffordshire were ranked through a mixture of reader votes and a mystery visit by judges.

Now today we can reveal the winners of our Indian Restaurant of the Year 2017 competition.

Wolverhampton - Wombourne Tandoori

The popular restaurant, on the village's High Street, fended off competition from Penn Tandoori, on the Penn Road, and Monsoon Restaurant, at Upper Green, to scoop this year's award for Wolverhampton.

Owner Rafique Miah, 54, has run Wombourne Tandoori for 28 years and says he is proud that its high standards continue to be maintained.

He said: "We are extremely proud to win this award. We were up against some of the best Indian restaurant in the area so it is a great achievement for ourselves.

"To come number one out of all of them - we have done very good.

"I'll say this award is a culmination of all the hard work and the effort that all the team have put in at the Wombourne Tandoori.

"We make sure that our customer have a great dining experience with us on every visit and always try to maintain a very high standard with the food and the service."

Dudley - Balti Dilshad

With so many popular Indian restaurants in Dudley to choose from it was difficult to pick for our readers and judges.

Ultimately Balti Dilshad, on the Hagley Road in Stourbridge, won the top prize, narrowly beating Robbys, in Townsend Place in Kingswinford, and Wall Heath's Alam International Restaurant.

The family-run Dilshad has put its success down to the community and making customers feel at home.

Manager Malik Miah, 26, said: "I think we've won because of the establishment we've got there and the community that know us and the service that we provide.

"It's mainly making customers welcome and feeling at home as well, it's very important.

"The people that we've got in our restaurant all know each other, it's like a little family kind of thing there.

"Most of the people that are with us, their mother and fathers have come, now their kids are coming, now their grand-kids are coming."

Staffordshire - Blue Ginger

The Cannock restaurant has been crowned Staffordshire's Indian Restaurant of the Year for the second year running.

The Huntington curry house, on Stafford Road, also won The Best Chef in Cannock and surrounding areas for 2017/2018 at the Midland Balti Association awards in April.

Second in the region was Eastern Memories in Cannock with Sanam Balti on the Cannock Road coming third.

Abdul Karim, from Blue Ginger, said: "I'm very happy we have won, we always believe in ourselves and I think that comes out to our customers.

"We want to make sure everything is the best every time and give 200 per cent to make that happen.

"We make sure we treat all our customers very specially and give them the best service –we look after everybody.

"We always have good comments and all our food is freshly prepared using the best ingredients.

"I think we were the first Indian restaurant to be awarded a five-star hygiene rating around here so you can imagine how good our food preparation is."

Sandwell - Journeys

The Oldbury restaurant edged out The Hen and Chickens to win this year's Sandwell category.

It was marked up as the best of the bunch for its ability to transport its customers to an authentic Indian experience, according to the judges.

Major Curry Affair in Tipton came third.

Business partners Gurbir Singh and Ranjit Singh-Kad only opened Journeys back in September.

Mr Singh, 33, said: "We're concentrating on giving an authentic taste of Indian food of all the regions - south Indian, north Indian, the central.

"We made three platforms in the restaurant, it's basically an Indian railway platform, when you are coming into the restaurant you will see all the features of an Indian railway station.

"When the guest's eat something they will get the experience of fine dining but it seems like they are sitting on a platform and the trains are just parking there."

Walsall - Regards

The restaurant which prides itself on knowing its clientèle – and describing them as family – has been crowned Walsall Indian Restaurant of the Year 2017.

Kirans Balti in Darlaston was runner-up to Aldridge's Regards, with Jewel Balti in Willenhall coming third.

Jay Hussain, from Regards, said: “It feels very good, we’re very happy we have won and our customers are very happy as well.

“This is the first award we have won – obviously the food is good and customers are very happy as long as the service is good.

“We have an offer on in the week so a lot of customers come for that. We have been here a long time and we pretty much know everybody.

“To be honest I enjoy working here. We get along with staff, it’s like a family – it’s a lovely clientèle.”