One of Manchester’s biggest and most popular Indian restaurants is set to go on sale following a fallout between the owners.
Royal Nawaab – a buffet restaurant and banqueting hall on Stockport Road in Levenshulme – has been a hotspot for Asian cuisine, casual dining and pre-COVID large-scale events since it opened on the site of a former cinema back in 2003.
However, the restaurant has been at the centre of a legal dispute in recent weeks, according to a recently-published High Court document.
The High Court noted that the business has been “very profitable” during its run, but the founders, Tariq Mahmood Malik and Mahboob Hussain Junior, had fallen out within a few years of opening up.
Now, after years of bad blood between the founders, the judge has ruled that the property and 50% of the company must go on sale in a process bounded by terms set by the court.
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At the High Court hearing at Manchester Civil Justice Centre last month, Judge Stephen Davies explained that Tariq and Mahboob had begun as joint owners and shareholders in the business – but by 2007, Tariq stepped back from the business as his relationship with Mahboob soured. His son Asad – who is married to Mahboob’s daughter, Atikah – took the reins.
Over time, Tariq’s wife, Nusrat Tariq, and Mahboob’s wife, Mirza Begum, also became shareholders in the business. However, in 2016, Tariq fell out with members of his own family – including his wife Nusrat, with whom he was by then estranged, as well as his son Asad, and another, younger son, Usman, who by then were both shareholders in the business and were supportive of their mother.
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As a result of this fallout – which Judge Stephen Davies said “appeared to be irreversible” – Tariq was removed as a director.
A judge has ruled that the property and 50% of the company must go on sale / Credit: Royal Nawaab
With the future of the business left hanging in the balance, the judge stated that the “most sensible way forward” was to have an expert valuation on the restaurant premises so that Tariq’s interests and partnership assets could be sold – but Tariq then said that he wanted the Stockport Road property sold on the open market.
Then, in an unexpected turn of events, Tariq offered to buy out Mahboob for £2.2 million back in March, but this was rejected by Mahboob’s lawyers who said said it was “unacceptable” for any third party to acquire Mahboob’s share.
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The lawyers also said that they didn’t think it was a genuine offer “since Tariq had no obvious means of funding the purchase”.
With Tariq pressing for the business to be sold off, and Mahboob still wanting to buy Tariq out, Judge Stephen Davies decided on the compromise that the property should be sold according to the court’s terms, and that if no sale proceeds Mahboob should buy out Tariq.
Judge Davies ordered a “full and fair” valuation of the property and the business so that Tariq, Mahboob and any of the other defendants can make bids “as should any third party who wishes to do so”, adding however that any “independent” selling agent or solicitor charged with the “conduct of the sale” should be under “no obligation to publicise” it.
In order to “prevent injustice”, the judge set terms that mean Mahboob can acquire the property and the shares at the court’s valuation if others drop out after making bids above that price.
The buffet restaurant has been a hotspot for Asian cuisine since it opened back in 2003 / Credit: Royal Nawaab
“The court has a discretion not only as to whether or not to order a sale, but also the manner in which any sale should be conducted,” Judge Davies said.
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“That is particularly important in this case, since in my judgement there is a very real likelihood that Tariq’s true motive in pressing for an order for sale is to attempt to increase the price by engineering a bidding war, and I am satisfied that it is necessary to ensure that the provisions in relation to any sale should be tailored so far as reasonable to prevent him from doing so with impunity.”
Featured Image – Royal Nawaab
UK News
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Tesco are introducing ‘VAR-style’ self-checkouts in the UK
Danny Jones
Many people think VAR has already gone too far and want it gone from football full stop, and we’re here to tell you that you’re a fool; your hopes are in vain, and the technology is only going to become more common as time goes on. Sorry.
So much so, in fact, that Tesco look are bringing in their own virtual referee into self-checkout systems in shops. You could say the ‘game’s gone…’
Of course, we’re being a bit flippant here, but if you have seen ‘VAR’ and ‘Tesco‘, you’re not seeing things: this is genuinely a thing that is being rolled out here in the UK, with video footage of the supermarket chain’s next self-checkout technology going viral online.
Thought you’d got away with sneaking an extra little something in the bag without paying? Think again.
— UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) May 28, 2025
We’ll admit, this was the first time we’d come across the technology, but as it turns out, the updated self-checkout service has been in place for a while.
Similar VAR checkouts have already been installed at other retailers, Sainsbury’s and ASDA, although some reports claim that while stores capture footage of shoppers to check if they’ve scanned all of their items, it is thought that not all of these self-service tills show a playback when an error is detected.
Although this particular speculation has sparked some uproar and debate online, many have quite rightly pointed out that CCTV records your movement in any given shop.
Regardless, it’s fair to say that aside from the obvious memes and people poking fun at the new system, many on social media have shared some pretty strong opinions on the matter.
Not that it matters much – it’s likely this will soon become increasingly the norm, with the likes of Sainsbury’s having already introduced barriers which require customers to scan their receipt in order to leave at branches such as the site on Regent Road Retail Park over in Salford.
As yet, it’s unclear how many of these new self-service tills are in operation and whether they are limited to larger supermarket locations of their Express convenience stores, but don’t be surprised if you come across one.
Put simply, if a barcode isn’t registered before being put on the scale and/or set aside to be packed away, the Tesco till will read: “The last item wasn’t scanned properly. Remove from bagging area and try again.”
Addressing these new VAR-style checkouts in an official statement, a company spokesperson said: “We are always looking at technology to make life easier for our customers.
“We have recently installed a new system at some stores which helps customers using self-service checkouts identify if an item has not been scanned properly, making the checkout process quicker and easier.”
What do you make of the new Tesco and their new VAR self-checkout technology?
The Manc -
7th June 2021 
