Naimas

The unique offering from a diner which opened in Nairn last summer is attracting people from surrounding towns.

Naimas which specialises in Filipino cuisine is now urging locals to give it a go as they begin to move from winter to spring/summer opening hours.

Naimas, which means ‘delicious’ or ‘tasty’ is a venture by Jake and Sheryl Most of Real Pizza and their business partners Marties and Eddie Belarmino.

Located at 10 High Street, it’s a casual place to dine or take away and celebrates the rich, diverse flavours of the Philippines and Thailand with dishes such as adobo, sisig, dinuguan, pad thai, Thai curries and much more with many of the dishes able to be made gluten free too.

Jake who has owned Real Pizza since 2019 said: “Sheryl is from the Philippines and has plenty of friends from there that all love to cook, so we just thought it was a great idea to bring this fabulous cuisine to the people of Nairn and the Highlands.

“It’s a joint venture between me and Sheryl and Marties and Eddie. Marties and Eddie who are from the Philippines are very much doing the day to day running of the bistro, whilst Sheryl and I step in, as and when we are needed. Between Real Pizza and Naimas, it can be a bit of a juggling act.”

Jake added: “We are really looking forward to kicking things off in the Spring. There will be a menu change and we will be open five days a week, which we hope to increase if we can get more staff.

“Our aim is to encourage more people to sit in. We are doing lots of takeaways, but we want to create a great vibe in Naimas, so more people sitting in is what we are striving for as we head into our second year. The bistro is small, but it has a cosy feel about it, plus we are licensed for people to bring their own wine, so it can be an affordable night out.”

What has been apparent is that Naimas is proving popular from across the Highlands and Moray as Jake explained: “We have regular visitors from Inverness, Elgin and Forres which is fabulous. Aberdeen would be the next nearest place you can find the type of cuisine that we are serving, so it’s not surprising that people are coming from outside of Nairn. It’s a great feeling, that people are willing to travel to visit us.”

Naimas is currently open Thursday to Sunday evenings, but by mid-March will be open from Wednesdays to Sundays from midday.

“From the middle of the month, people will be able to enjoy our cuisine from midday, five days a week,” said Jake. “We have a really strong team, but we are looking for more front of house staff and if we can make that happen, we would look at increasing our opening hours. There’s a lot of pressure on the hospitality industry what with ever increasing costs, utility bills and increasing staff salaries etc, but what keeps us ticking over is our passion to serve really great food to both locals and visitors alike.”