It captured public imagination quite like no other in 2025 with its transformation of the iconic Stockport Pyramid – and the number of diners who have visited The Royal Nawaab is staggering.

The Royal Nawaab buffet restaurant has been a huge success inside the Stockport Pyramid since opening at the end of April last year(Image: Manchester Evening News)

It was the most eagerly-anticipated, and talked about, restaurant opening of last year – the transformation of the iconic Stockport Pyramid building into a grand buffet. The Royal Nawaab captured public imagination quite unlike any other restaurant launch in 2025 with its multi-million pound takeover of the imposing blue pyramid.

As a local landmark that millions have been driving past by the M60 for almost 40 years, the chance to have a walk around the beguiling building for many for the first time was a tantalising prospect. Thrown in a full-on limitless buffet inside, well it led to bookings going into meltdown when they were announced last April.

By December, the restaurant hit capacity every day – with bosses having to turn away HUNDREDS who arrived without bookings at the door every night, such was demand. They put out pleas on social media urging people not to turn up in December as walk-ins were simply unavailable.

It’s a restaurant that has caught national attention too – featuring on BBC’s The One Show, getting national food critics through the doors and film crews too. Indeed, a documentary series following life inside England’s biggest buffet kitchen is set to hit our TV screens at some point in 2026.

Across the eight full months of opening in 2025, bosses have told the MEN they welcomed a staggering 192,000 diners to the Royal Nawaab restaurant. Among the diners have been famous faces too, like Tyson Fury and Paddy McGuinness eager to get their fill at the massive buffet.

But for owner and head chef Mahboob Hussain, what has been most pleasing is the number of return bookers. He says they’re getting a 62 per cent return rate, “If you get even 30 per cent return custom as a restaurant you think you’re doing well,” he beams.

He says: “I always tell my staff, there will be people who only come once to see the pyramid, what we’ve done, ‘oo it looks nice’; but they are only going to come back if we give them good service and good quality of food, that’s the thing.

“We’re getting a lot of repeat customers, even some people who have come TEN times in six months – it’s amazing really.”

Mahboob Hussain with the huge buffet area at the Royal Nawaab(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

Also fairly incredible is that despite this being an alcohol-free restaurant, they are appealing to a wide demographic – they say 60 per cent of their customer base over the past year is from a non-Asian background. Mr Mahboob says that is partly down to the investment into the soft drinks they offer there – a whole array of fruity non-alcoholic mocktails, milkshakes and traditional Indian Lassi.

At each sitting (you pay £16.95 for adults and £8 for kids), diners can expect a jaw-dropping array of dishes in the 400-cover restaurant. Not only the Indian cuisine it is famous for, but English and Chinese takeaway classics are catered for with their own buffet stations along the dazzling full wall buffet in the main ground floor restaurant space.

There’s also a dedicated dessert area where the ice cream parlour has become so popular they’ve increased its capacity in recent months.

Essentially you can eat as much as you like during your 90 minute sitting, while the team of chefs gently encourage customers to try dishes out of their comfort zones too.

The huge buffet serves up dozens of curries(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

Bosses spend tens of thousands of pounds every day on the groceries needed to create the mammoth spread of buffet dishes here.

Mr Mahboob spent his Christmas Day and Boxing Day at the Stockport restaurant – where they were fully booked with 1260 diners each day serving up 180 different dishes and where he carved up turkey too – in what sounds like the festive buffet of dreams.

And reflecting on the first year of operations now, he says: “I’m very pleased, its more than exceeded my expectations. But I knew that every place I’ve opened, God willing, has turned out so well. We have tried our best.”

Currently only three floors are in operation inside the vast pyramid, the huge ground floor restaurant and then two banqueting floors as you head up in the elevator on 1 and 2 where everything is set up for grand weddings and events with capacity for 1,000.

One of the huge banqueting floors at the Royal Nawaab, dressed for a wedding(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

Mr Mahboob takes me on a walk around the other empty upper floors which boast spectacular views out across Stockport.

They’ve still not decided what to do with all that space – there is some talk about a fine dining restaurant on the fourth floor. But for now it remains extra storage space for the business.

There will also be a new concept on the ground floor to be announced early in 2026 which is set to cater to some of their higher end customers and VIP clients.

The iconic building was first constructed in the late 1980s as part of the ambitious ‘Valley of the Kings’ project in Stockport, which had aimed to see five pyramids erected along the River Mersey. But developers went bankrupt in 1992, and so the blue pyramid we see today was the only one ever built, becoming home to the Co-operative Bank for 26 years.

It’s one of Greater Manchester’s most iconic buildings(Image: )

When the bank announced plans to up sticks to the city centre, the pyramid was left collecting dust and filled with hundreds of outdated computers, until Royal Nawaab got the green light to transform it into a restaurant. Mr Mahboob admits people thought it was some kind of joke when those plans were first made.

He said: “There were people who criticised me and said I was being silly to turn the pyramid into a restaurant. They couldn’t see that it would be a success, but I always believed in it and I knew I would bring it back to life.”

There’s a big team involved in a buffet of this size – around 30-40 waiting staff each night, around 25 chefs in the front kitchen, and another 15 chefs in the back kitchen. If events are on in the upstairs levels, they all have their own kitchen spaces, with flexibility for another 25-30 staff depending on the size of the event.

(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

Mr Mahboob is now 70, but still works 12-15 hours a day, racking up an average of 20,000 steps a day he says. “I love working here, you know. My family say come on chill, cool down, chill dad. But I think this is what’s keeping me fit.

“If i sit down and have a retirement life then I won’t be comfortable. I’m 70. This is retirement life for me. I’m a workaholic, I enjoy working,” he says. He splits his time between his homes in Disley and London, the capital being home to the other big Royal Nawaab restaurant.

In the past year he won the title of Leading Chef of the Year at the This is Manchester Awards, as well as Debut of the Year for the restaurant at the national Asian Restaurant Awards.

Mahboob Hussain in the atrium at the Royal Nawaab(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

How did it feel to get that recognition? He smiles: “I’m very proud and very pleased. At the Manchester awards I was up against restaurants like San Carlo, so it gave me a lot of pleasure for people appreciating what I’ve done for the customers you know?

“That variety and quality, maintaining it to that standard and people appreciating it – it was a great achievement. There has been such a good response from the Manchester and Stockport area.”

While his family famously ran a restaurant in Levenshulme for many years, he believes the Royal Nawaab is now “his legacy”.

He says “I’ve gone far beyond what we did in Levenshulme, I’ve made it more exclusive, changed my dishes, this is my legacy. In London I’m busy, but this is more than even London. People come in and say wow, it’s a destination, an experience..”

Mr Mahboob putting the finishing touches to a butter chicken(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

What does Mr Mahboob say is his most popular dish? He laughs: “I stand at the kitchen at the front when we’re very busy, there’s so many dishes, so much variety, it’s very hard to say which one they’re coming back for. I tell the staff to recommend to the customers, try this try that, we are here giving things to people, try this.

“One of our popular dishes is chicken liver, you would not think it, but when people try it they love it. There’s so many dishes some times people get confused, so we say why not try this if you don’t like it don’t worry about it. We try to make them a bit more aware they can have this have that.”

He adds: “I get pleasure out of seeing customers appreciate and go happy from this door, it gives me some sort of satisfaction. People come from 30 mile, 50 mile from here, and we’ve made them happy. That’s all I want, to give happiness to the people.”