Top food critic delivers verdict on the massive Stockport Pyramid curry buffet

Yahoo

5 hours ago

Top food critic Jay Rayner has given his verdict on the Royal Nawaab Stockport.
After writing for the Observer for 25 years, he recently moved to the Financial Times, and has dined in some of the finest restaurants in the country.
And in his latest column for the broadsheet paper, published today (June 7), Rayner described his visit to Stockport's newest and flashiest curry buffet.
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The gargantuan restaurant and events space opened its doors to much fanfare in April of this year. The pyramid itself, formerly occupied by the Co-Op bank, underwent an enormous renovation to the tune of some £15 million, with an aesthetic Rayner describes as 'classy cruise ship'.
The M.E.N's Adam Maidment visited the restaurant on its soft opening and praised the food and decor - even if the enormous scale and bustling crowd of diners was a little 'chaotic'.
The space now encompasses three banqueting suites accommodating over 1,000 people and a buffet restaurant with over 400 covers that Rayner said was full when he visited - he had to rely on a local connection to get him a table.
Rayner wrote that he was immediately 'clocked' as a reviewer by the restaurant, after which the staff were especially assiduous: "It was a chorus of 'Let me bring you the lamb chops' and 'You must try our nihari' and 'You need three types of naan'".
He, too, raised his eyebrows at the scale of the operation which 'laughs in the face of the challenges facing hospitality', writing: "There are, on any given day, more than 100 dishes; a parade of pakoras and tikkas, birianis, masalas and the rest - a startling array.
But ultimately the critic heaped warm praise on the food. Setting out his stall as no big fan of buffets, he conceded: "That meagre word doesn't do justice to the gargantuan offering here."
"Perfect, bursting mouthfuls" of pani puri as a starter 'set the standard' for the evening, Rayner wrote, describing them as "delicate lentil flour globes filled with nutty chaat alongside jugs of a tamarind-based dressing".
"Lamb chops, cut thin, have a decent smoky char. Deep-fried masala-marinated fish is especially good.
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Then moving on from grilled items to the curries, he praised more familiar curry house favourites like the lamb nihari: "One of the great dark stews, heavy with green and black cardamom".
But he also praised the variety of the dishes on offer. "What's striking is that, while there are crowd-pleasers, the kormas and tikka masalas with broad appeal, it's not all obvious," he wrote.
"Lamb paya, a new dish to me, brings lamb trotters, cooked low and slow until chewy and lightly gelatinous, and served in an intensely restorative soup-like broth.
"They also have haleem, an extraordinary concoction of lamb in lentils flavoured with ginger, green chillies and lemon, cooked down for so long that it has turned into a paste-like soup.
"With this we have blistered Peshawari naan, the almond and pistachio filling dyed a disconcerting pink, alongside still-warm garlic and kulcha naan, crusted with sesame seeds."
Rayner noted that there were some non-Asian items on offer as well, including chicken nuggets and lasagne. "But generally, the turnover of fried items is so fast they don't get a chance to go soggy."
This was followed by a mouth-watering description of the desserts on offer: "deep-frying curls of cough-sweet-coloured jalebi" and "dinky globes of syrup-soaked gulab jamun, which are served still warm."
Concluding by describing it "a remarkable operation", he wrote: I've sneered at the idea of buffets in the past, called them the place where good taste goes to die, and many of them are.
"But the Royal Nawaab is a classy rebuttal."