Purple Pakora - Marple Bridge - Review

T 0161 427 7748
A 10 Brabyns Brow, Marple Bridge, SK6 7DA
W www.purplepakoradisley.co.uk/

On the back of winning the currycouncil restaurant of the year for 2009 (Purple Pakora - Poynton) , I was expecting similar great things during our visit to Purple Pakora -  Marple.  This is the third Purple Pakora, following the opening of the Disley site.

The restaurant is located in the rather picturesque Marple Bridge village across from Brabyns park. The Purple Pakora chain has transformed the former Basmati Restaurant. The owners have installed new timber cladding and circular windows which dramatically improve the look of the existing site situated on Brabyns Brow.

The car parking facilties are excellent with a large open private car park available at the rear. As we approached the entrance to the restaurant we were greeted with externally piped music, which I secretly enjoyed.

The Marple site appears to be more compact than the Poyton branch. As a result I felt our table was slightly overlooked by other diners and the waiters at certain moments, struggled to pass with the serving table. The interior was contemporary and slick and of course included the infamous “bubble wall" at the rear.

As I enjoyed my Lal Toofan, which always goes down well. My menu selection was a breeze as the menu, quite rightly was instantly recognisable from my previous visits to the Poynton restraint. Due to child care arrangements Jedi Woodman was running late. Little did he realise that his delay resulted in a 30 minute delay for our popodoms. The staff informed us that the pops could not be provided until we placed our full order, for our entire party. This seemed rather petty. Surely this wasn’t to unreasonable a request?The mixed starter, shared very fairly, by a now hungry Steve Winfield bridged the gap between the pops and the main course. On reflection the starter was hot in temperature and arrived on a sizzling platter. Unfortunately the kebab was rather bland and tasteless. The chicken and lamb faired slightly better.

Selection of six quality dips

The mains duly arrived and I opted for a lamb pudina, with plain naan and keema rice. The rice and naan were great, fresh light and really tasty. Sadly the curry was a real let down. Chicken/lamb pudina has recently become a real favourite of mine. On this occasion the curry was rather stodgy/gloopy in texture and the lamb extremely fatty and chewy. Several chunks of meat were very cheap cuts of meat.

I have always been a big supporter of the Pakora chain, but on this occasion I felt disappointed with the overall experience. In order to maintain the fantastic reputation the Poynton restaraunt has built and established I do feel that the other sister sites must live upto the same high level.

This was a late November trip to the Purple Pakora in Marple. It had been quite a while since our last visit to the original Purple Pakora in Poynton (Restaurant of the year 2009) and we knew it would have to be of a high standard if it was to match its sister restaurant. The place was easily located on Brabyns Brow in Marple Bridge and there was plenty of parking in the large public car park round the back.

The actual exterior of the premises reminded me of a Fat Willy's surf shack in Newquay, but once entered the interior was extremely well done, albeit, it is quite a bit smaller than its associated restaurant. However, for a midweek night it was packed with customers which is always a good sign and the place had a nice feeling to it.

Pints of Lal Toofan (my favourite Indian lager) were soon being quenched and I was soon tucking into my traditional pizza-like papadums. They were really nice with plenty of chutneys available too. Myself, Chris and Jord then shared a mixed starter (seek kebab, chicken tikka, onion baji & fried garlic mushrooms) which was booootiful. It was made all the better due to Chris's bizarre hatred of mushrooms which meant I had to polish most of them off myself.

Flaming Grill Mixed Starter

For mains, I went for an old favourite of Chicken Tikka Chom Chom - £9.90 (Strips of chicken tikka in a thick masala sauce using green and red fried peppers), accompanied with some Vegetable Pilau rice and Peshwari Naan. There was plenty of it to get through. It tasted really fresh and there was a good thick tomato based sauce(which ideally would have been a bit spicier) left to mop up with the Naan. I was equally impressed with the veggie rice too which complimented the good portions of meat within the curry.

There were no midweek offers available that I could see and the bill came to £23 a head which I thought was pretty good value considering the quantity and quality of the food, surroundings and atmosphere, combined with excellent service. If I lived in Marple or the surrounding areas, I could definitely see me making a monthly visit here.

I was very surprised at the size of the restaurant - it is deceptively smaller than it looks. I imagine on a busy weekend booking is vital. A very typical modern restaurant very similar theme to the sister restaurants with the identical menu.

I was expecting the same flavours and service but was a little let down on both. The service was efficient but seemed to lack any friendliness, the waiters did not seem very personable and the food was nice but nothing special!

The mixed starter was nice with a few too many mushrooms for my likening (equivalent amount of mushrooms as there was meat, not mush room left on the plate excuse the pun).

My main meal the Silsila was again nice but did not compare to the same on I had in Poynton, I did enjoy the vegetable rice made a nice change to the normal pilau.

Overall a nice meal in a nice setting just would not rush back there when I have had better at Poynton.

This isn’t as good as the restaurant in Poynton in my opinion, although ample parking and nice exterior the reception and bar area are quite small. The seating we were assigned wasn’t really ideal as I kept getting bashed with the serving trolley as my chair always seemed in the way.

The menu is the same as the other PP’s, so I was expecting something good from past experience.  What seemed a little strange though was the fact we were told we cannot order pop’s as we might get sauce on the menus and ruin them!  This was a little disappointing as we were waiting for latecomers and wanted a nibble whist having a pint, this strange behavior resonated throughout the evening with my only way to describe the waiters as a bit unfriendly.

I had the joint meat starter with Dave which was quite tasty and reasonable. I then opted for what I thought would be a tasty Madras, I was a little somewhat disappointed when I got what I could only describe as a mild tomato sauce curry, This was also offered to the other members of the CC to taste and the same consensus of opinion was given.

All in all not a bad curry but I think the restaurant in Poynton would give for a better environment , curry and experience.

The Purple Pakora has grown from strength to strength since opening in Poynton at the end of 2008 and has opened a further two restaurants, located in Disley and Marple Bridge. The Poynton restaurant was the well deserved winner of our inaugural currycouncil.com restaurant of the year award in 2009. 

A review of one of their new restaurants was well overdue and I chose the Marple Bridge venue for our November get together.  The restaurant itself was stunning, with the now customary bubble wall and a sleek interior which includes bright velour padded seats.  The restaurant architecture and interior design was superbly put together by DV8 designs.

A few of the lads were running late and we made a simple request to order some poppodums whilst waiting for the remainder of our party.  The waiter strangely refused our request and we were told that we had to order the poppodums at the same time as our meal.

We politely asked him to reconsider as one of our party was running quite late but the waiter continued to refuse our request.  He stated that some of their menu’s have previously been ruined by chutney stains.  The attractive looking menus were plastic covered, looked quite durable and were certainly wipeable - so this made his strong stance seem even more unreasonable.

We continued our chat and eventually all six of us had arrived.  We could now get down to business.  The waiter took our order and finally the poppodums arrived, which were fresh and came with a good selection of six dips.  The lime pickle was a highlight for me and the standard of accompaniments excelled.

I opted for the mixed starter.  The dish was tasty and came presented on a sizzling metallic platter.  Although the sheek kebab could have done with a little bit more spice.

I am a regular visitor of the PP in Poynton and often order my takeouts from there.  I favour their Lamb Pudina and this is now my favourite Indian dish.  I thought that I couldn’t go wrong by ordering the trusted Pudina (£9.90) here but sadly my dish arrived with its curry sauce almost at boiling point.  This heat, not of the spiced variety, killed any taste of fresh mint and my sauce was left quite dry and gloopy.

I was disappointed with my main course and totally understand that the dish cannot be an exact replica of the dish offered at their Poynton restaurant.  However, the taste was not of the high standards that their sister restaurant consistently delivers.  I couldn’t fault the keema rice and plain naan (presented on a naan tree), which both tasted very good and fresh.

My meal, washed down with a delicious pint of Lal Toofan, came superbly presented on the Purple Pakora’s now customary personalised plates and cutlery.

The bill came in at £23 per head, which included a 10% discount for dining in the restaurant between Monday and Thursday (offer).  If you are a fan of the Purple Pakora, you can also take advantage of their 20% discount for take aways.

I left the new Marple Bridge restaurant feeling slightly disappointed with my dining experience and hope that this was just a blip.  The PP are set to open a fourth restaurant next year in Congleton and I hope that these teething problems can be ironed out.

Nobin - Hazel Grove - Review

T 0161 483 9991
A 310 London Rd, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire,SK7 4RF

The Nobin is a stones throw away from the numerous pubs and bars that are dotted along the busy London Road (A6).  The restaurant does not offer any parking facilities but you do cheekily have the option of parking across the road behind the Blue Nile Indian restaurant, the Nobin’s main competitor!

The Nobin recently went through an extensive renovation, including some slate effect cladding on the front exterior of the building.  The restaurant now carries a bright red, black and white theme throughout its interior.  It still regains the character and charm of an old style Indian restaurant and has mixed the old with the new quite effectively.

The restaurant is quite spacious with plenty of room in between tables – not that we needed it.  Our attendance hit an all time low this month and we recorded our lowest turnout of just three currycouncil members.  The three members present (Jordan, Noble and Marchbank-Smith Senior) heavily debated whether the cause was one of, or a combination of….

• Jord’s poor organisation skills (the October curry ended up on the 1st November)
• Winfield’s eagerness to regularly change curry dates without actually attending
• A general apathy towards regular attendance
• Dayo being unavailable every midweek night of the calendar month

This poor turnout didn’t dampen our spirits and the three musketeers carried on our curry eating duties valiantly.

I decided to go traditional for my meal and shunned the speciality dishes that I now usually opt for.   Onion bhajis were delicious for my starter.  They were a good size and tasted fresh.

I went for a Chicken Tikka Madras for my main.  It was a classic madras with the perfect amount of spice and came with a good base sauce.  The madras's thick texture complimented the naan bread perfectly.

The value for money aspect was good and came in at £21 per head including a couple of beers each.  The Nobin is a true British Indian Restaurant (BIR) and reminds me of how traditional Indian restaurants used to be.  Give it a go – you may be pleasantly surprised. 

Having spent most of my younger years frequenting the numerous hostelries in Hazel Grove, this was surprisingly my first ever visit to the Nobin. 

The restaurant has enjoyed a recent make-over however it still feels traditional and reminded me of how Indian restaurants were back in the 1980’s. Situated directly opposite the very popular Blue Nile, the Nobin clearly has a very happy, loyal and contented customer base to have survived so long.The turnout it has to be said; was pathetic, with only three members of the council present. The less said about this the better.

To kick things off I opted to share a mixed starter. This usually gives you a good indication of things to come.  There was plenty of food on offer but more importantly it tasted very fresh. For my main course I went for my old favourite Chicken Madras.  Like most Madras curries, the spice level was hot so this is certainly not a curry for mild curry lovers – there was a nice after burn/tingle on my lips after I’d finished. Lovely. I’m sure this place has a good atmosphere on a weekend night and would be an excellent choice after a beer or two “on the Grove”.

For those curry fans who often reminisce about the curry houses of yesteryear, make sure you pay the Nobin a visit.




After sampling a few sherbets in the stylish Zuri bar across the road, we ventured into the Nobin Indian Restaurant, a well known local establishment that has recently had a refurbishment.

The restaurant had an old fashioned feel to it, yet this was no bad thing with the Curry Council favourite seating booths available.
The pops were warm, fresh and crisp and were demolished with great urgency, two mixed starters quickly arrived for me and Dave.  I found these to be excellent, full of flavour and cooked to perfection.

It was difficult to give a fair opinion on the main course, as by this time 3 more Cobras had been quaffed and anything would have tasted good, but indeed it did and was demolished in record time.

There were no special offers on when we visited but the prices are very good value and worked out one of the cheapest meals we have been for in recent times. All in all I would recommend the Nobin for anyone after a good value meal with delicious food.