The Pearl - Audenshaw - Review

T 0161 301 5680
A 119 Manchester Road, Manchester, Lancashire M34 5PY
W www.thepearlrestaurant.co.uk

Our September curry was a visit to the Pearl in Audenshaw, as we had heard good reports about this restaurant and we were keen to sample their food. The first impression you get on arrival is the sheer size of the place, having over 300 covers this is surely the largest place we have ever eaten in.

The Pearl used to be a pub but has been used as an Indian restaurant since 2005 and recently has had a full refurbishment. Bizarrely there is also a separate lounge area and disco room with a resident DJ at weekends. We visited on a wet Monday night and were the only people in the place which did feel a little odd in such a huge restaurant but we were assured it is very busy at weekends.

After ordering a drink at the bar, we were shown to our table. Much school boy giggling followed upon being seated. Every time anybody moved against the leather chairs they produced a noise which can only be described as a “farting chair” and with Bean’s history this caused much amusement throughout the night.

Plain or spicy poppodums were on offer with six of each ordered these were fresh warm and crispy but sadly lacking the now expected fifth dip in the chutney tray. However, an extra large mango chutney was provided without request which made up for the lack of the fifth dip.

Two chicken platters starters were ordered along with one tandoori platter, these were both very well received by everyone with the meat tasting fresh off the coals and well cooked. The lamb chops were juicy with lots of meat. The chicken tikka platter consisted of tikka, laziz kebab, murgh malai, and chandiani murgh which were all delicious.

The restaurant is still tied into the pub brewery so there are no Indian lagers on draft but this was not a problem to us as they had an extensive selection on draft including, Becks, Stella, John Smiths, Guiness and Hoegarden, combined with a quality selection of bottled beers including Cobra and Tiger beer. This was probably the largest drinks menu we have come across.

The mains got a mixed response with the chicken madras being rated highly but the Chicken Handi being a disappointment as it was too mild for it’s two chilli rating and lacked somewhat in taste. Macca did his usual trick of eating everybody else’s food apart from his own, having ordered a garlic naan he proceeded to eat all the plain naan, claiming it was too garlicky !!!!

Conversation during the night flitted from the poor taste of (piano) music in the restaurant and then to Bean’s claim that he had got down to the last 50 applicants to appear on the BBC TV show “The Apprentice”. His lies were soon exposed when he showed us the email to confirm his story but in fact it turned out to be a standard email stating that they may be interested in speaking to him in the future (along with the other 30,000 applicants !).

There is ample parking with 200 plus spaces and the option of continuing your night out after the meal in the lounge/disco area.

If you are like us, the only thing that we want to do after a curry is lie down in bed and moan at how full we are while our food slowly digests. However, if you do still have the energy to dance the disco is only a few steps away. With Christmas fast approaching we believe the Pearl would make an excellent venue for a work Christmas party.