The Olive Grove

Aruvi Indian Restaurant and Bar took over the former Olive Grove pub on Half Moon Lane in central Spennymoor in 2022, converting the closed pub building into a 60-seat sit-down South Asian restaurant with a fully licensed bar and a complementary beer garden — a markedly different format from the takeaway-led Indian operations on the surrounding King Street and Cheapside parades. The kitchen is led by chef Shah Al Faysal, working from a fine-dining A La Carte menu built around Indian spices and charcoal tandoori preparation, with dishes drawing on recipes and techniques developed across years of chef experience. The format positions Aruvi as the central Spennymoor sit-down dining option for South Asian cuisine — a positioning distinct from the takeaway-focused Chilli Moor Tandoori on King Street and the lower-end takeaway-only Indian shops in the town. Online ordering also runs through the trading site at aruvirestaurant.co.uk for those preferring takeaway or collection rather than the sit-down option. The Half Moon Lane position — set back from the central High Street and Cheapside parades and on the residential edge of the town centre — gives the restaurant the off-strip calm that a fuller dining offer benefits from, with the on-site car park and beer garden setting Aruvi apart from the central-parade takeaways. Among Spennymoor's Indian-cuisine market, Aruvi has the only sit-down restaurant-format presence.