Kushoom Koly - Stockport

T 0161 432 9841

A 4 - 6 Shaw Road, Heaton Moor, Stockport, SK4 4AE
W www.pr-creative.com/kushoomkoly

It’s now been seven and a half years since the currycouncil last visited the Kushoom Koly in Heaton Moor (Stockport).

They say that a lot of things can change in 7 years. In 2002, Las Ketchup were riding high in the pop charts with the aptly titled “The Ketchup Song (Asarejé)” and Manchester City were signing the likes of the unprolific Mathias Vuoso. Back then - even Woody had some hair!

The council were seated at a spacious and well placed dark wooden table in the new conservatory area at the front of the refurbished restaurant.

The council gazed out of the window and noticed that the area had really transformed since our previous visit. There are many new trendy bars and "gastro" type bistro’s populating the vibrant Shaw Road area of Heaton Moor.

The Kush has followed the recent trend of transforming from an "old school" curry house to a bright, spacious and modern eatery.

The restaurant, established back in 1971, has a long and traditional history. This family run business prides itself on recipes dating back to the 1960’s. Would a refurbished interior and a new menu be enough to satisfy the ever increasing needs of the currycouncil?

It took the currycouncil approximately 17.2582 seconds to spot the 5 Course Banquet which is available each and every Wednesday evening. The set menu was available for a bargaintastic £8.90 and quickly got the green light ahead of the pricier a-la-carte menu. Draught pints of ice cold Cobra were served all round and instantly hit the spot.

Poppodoms were quickly served with a nice variety of dips. The most interesting to note was a home made fresh yoghurt dip and this was extremely tasty. Red onions, a firm currycouncil favourite, were plentiful and the pops were very fresh & still hot.

The waiter took our order, including a variety of main courses and side dishes.

Paul Day, a notable absentee from many of our curries in the past 24 months, made a rare appearance. Mr Day, much to the amusement of the council, was disappointed to find out that he couldn’t order some "curly fries", the favourite accompaniment of his usual Wednesday night tea of fish fingers & baked beans.

The starters ("Sami’s Platter Starter") quickly arrived for us all to share. The platter contained chicken tikka pieces in a "medium" curry sauce, meat samosas, onion bhaji’s and some salad. The portion sizes were good and the food very fresh. The meat samosas were particularly flavoursome, with just the right amount of kick and spice.

Winfield noticed a sports car reversing into the parking spot just outside the front window of the Kush. Andrew Hagger, who was embarrassingly exiled from the CurryCouncil in January 2005, emerged from the car and gave the council a quick wave before quickly disappearing up Shaw Road.

He foolishly broke a major courrycouncil rule (rule VIII - bringing an uninvited guest without pre CC approval) and was immediately banished from all future currycouncil activities. Hagger has not been seen since again, until this day.

The main courses arrived with the council sampling a variety of traditional dishes and some “appna style” dishes. For the first time in currycouncil history, not one single portion of madras was ordered!

The chicken shashlic (above) was given the currycouncil seal of approval by Noble and Chris MS. The dish traditionally is a little bit drier at other restaurants but the Kush delivered the dish with a slightly runnier texture which was perfect for “mopping up” with a side serving of naan.

A lamb "appna style" main course was also sampled. This was recommended by the head waiter and was particularly flavoursome.

One of the restaurant owners, Faruk Uddin (instantly recognisable from his photo on our website), greeted the currycouncil half way through our meal to check if the meal was to our satisfaction and flew round the table to check if we all had enough food (daft question!).

Faruk has lost a little hair since 2002 and was now bearing a similar resemblance to Watto from the epic Star Wars film The Phantom Menace. His chit chaat was a welcome distraction from our usual curry conversations.

A variety of different naan breads were selected and included plain, peshwari and keema naan's. The Keema naan had just the right amount of minced lamb and spices, without being too overbearing. The Pilau rice portions were of a good size.

The currycouncil were now bursting from the large amount of food that was on offer. Faruk kindly informed us that we also had a peach melba & ice cream dessert still yet to come. Our belts were loosened and the side girths opened. We then squeezed in some more food. The cooling ice cream was a fine finish to this perfect meal.

The meal represented great value for money at £8.90 and the final bill did not break the bank in these economically challenging times. The low price did not compromise either the food quality or the great service that was on offer.

The only minor complaint of the evening was that the toilets were upstairs. The temporarily disabled member of our group, Chris Marchbank-Smith, struggled to spend a penny. Faruk stated however that disabled toilets were being installed downstairs in the restaurant in the coming year. Chris sensibly declined the offer of coffee as he couldn't wait that long!

Whilst sipping our fresh coffee (also included in the deal), we decided that "The Kush" would be the first restaurant on our website to get the CurryCouncil ‘Value For Money' Seal Of Approval for its midweek special.

Their excellent credit crunching offer included poppodoms with dips, platter starter, any main course, pilau rice or naan, dessert and coffee with chocolate mints for a very reasonable £8.90.

The currycouncil will certainly be revisiting the Kush in the near future and feel that this restaurant offers great food at a great price!

CurryCouncil Rating

Food 8.5/10
Service 8/10
Atmosphere 7.5/10
Value for money 10/10
Originality 7/10

Overall 8.2/10

Other Kushoom Koly Articles

Review Coming Soon here
November 2002 Review here