Eats

‘A little overwhelming’ – top restaurant critic visits Royal Nawaab in the Stockport Pyramid

'A remarkable operation'

Daisy Jackson - 11th June 2025

Restaurant critic Jay Rayner has paid a visit to the Stockport Pyramid, now transformed into the Royal Nawaab Indian restaurant – and he LOVED it.

The acclaimed writer dined at the huge new opening for his weekly column in the Financial Times, deeming it ‘a little overwhelming’ but a ‘classy rebuttal’ of the much-maligned buffet.

The transformation of the landmark Stockport Pyramid into a multi-million-pound, multi-storey restaurant has been one of the most talked-about openings in Greater Manchester history.

Inside now, this bizarre spectacle is home to an all-you-can-eat, 400-capacity Indian buffet as well as several lavish banquet halls.

And despite being so vast, and having such a wide array of curries and grills to choose from, Royal Nawaab has been fully booked for weeks in advance.

The city has, quite possibly, never seen anything like it.

So it was only a matter of time before it caught the attention of the national press, starting with Jay Rayner, who featured Royal Nawaab in his most recent restaurant review.

Of the Stockport Pyramid itself, he said: “The Stockport Pyramid is another former temple to mammon, with its own restaurant-friendly grandeur.

“If you live in Greater Manchester or have ever joined the M60 at Junction 1, you will know it: a steel-blue glass cathedral, which squats in the light industrial landscape like some cartoon version of an alien spaceship.”

Rayner added that he was ‘fully clocked’ by the manager inside, so it wasn’t exactly a completely anonymous or authentic review experience – but even so, he was impressed by the £29.99 per person offering inside, which gets you access to more than 100 dishes and a ‘startling array’ of curries.

Jay Rayner raved particularly about the panipuri (‘a perfect, bursting mouthful’), the deep-fried masala fish (‘especially good’) and the lamb and lentil haleem (‘extraordinary’).

“It’s a little overwhelming,” he wrote of the experience at Royal Nawaab, adding: “One solution is to seek out dishes you know and like.”

He then said: “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….

“It really is a remarkable operation. The risk of waste is subtly managed by a gentle request not to take more than you can eat, and it’s nudged along by the use of small plates. Return as often as you like. Just have some self-respect.”

You can read Jay Rayner’s full review of Royal Nawaab HERE.

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Featured image: The Manc Group