Ljubljana, July 4 (IANS): The only Indian-owned and operated restaurant in Slovenia -- the Taj Mahal in Ljubljana -- has received a Certificate of Excellence from Trip Advisor, with a rating of 4.5/5.00.

The restaurant, owned by Mandeep Singh, has been ranked at 35 out of 380 rated restaurants in Ljubljana, the highest among those serving Indian cuisine made by Indian chefs.

Trip Advisor is a widely popular website for travellers worldwide where people can check in few moments comments from other travellers.

Mandeep Singh said that he invested in and converted this restaurant in central Ljubljana from Chinese to Indian cuisine two years ago and has since added external catering, home delivery and takeaway services. The restaurant with nearly 70 covers has the capability of catering for large group tours.

"We opened Taj Mahal in September 2013 because we realised that in Ljubljana there were no authentic Indian restaurants. That time there were two Indian restaurants but for example the oldest Indian restaurant had a quite Europianised Indian food, adapted to the taste of Europeans," he said.

"Therefore, when we started to offer the authentic Indian food with a lot herbs, spices, wide choice of traditional Indian dishes, cooked by real Indian cooks from New Delhi, people noticed that. We are also the only ones in Ljubljana to have south Indian food, such as dosas, utthapams and idli," he said.

"Only a few restaurants get these certificates and we are proud to receive it," he added .