A Newtown restaurant is celebrating after being crowned the best in central Wales at the first Welsh Hospitality Awards.

Mirrens Restaurant on Parker’s Lane took home the prize at a glitzy ceremony in Cardiff in November, beating four others in the region.

Manager Mal Fuszara said: “We were really surprised to get an email one day inviting us to the awards and saying we were nominated.

“The night was great. Me and the deputy manager Sarah Gibbs went down to Cardiff to pick the award up.

“There were about 200 people there from all over Wales. We were quite surprised that we had won, we hadn’t really thought that we might win something!”

The restaurant, owned by John and Anna Cooperwhite, narrowly missed out on the overall Best Restaurant award, which went to Gemelli in Newport.

The awards, put on by marketing company Creative Oceanic, were born after the first Scottish Hospitality Awards earlier last year, with the first Irish awards set to take place in April.

Businesses were nominated online before being whittled down to a shortlist by area, and then the public could then vote online for their favourite restaurants, hotels, and attractions in Wales.

More than 100 shortlisted nominees were treated to a special gala evening at the Mercure Hotel in Cardiff, where the winners were announced.

A spokesperson for the awards said: “What an amazing evening. The team at Creative Oceanic would like to thank everyone who came along and made the first ever Welsh Hospitality Awards one to remember.

“Congratulations again to all of the fantastic finalists and also to the wonderful winners who scooped up one of the awards.”

The awards also supported Make a Wish Foundation UK, raising more than £1,000 on the night.