February 27, 2018
Royal Nawaab’s Halal open-dining restaurants in Manchester and London have been serving up some of the finest Asian cuisine since 2002. But who is the man behind the magic?
Mahboob Hussain is the founder of the Nawaab name, with a long history of successful Asian/Indian restaurants. After moving to the UK in 1969 at the age of 15, Mahboob Hussain worked up through the ranks at a Textile factory in Yorkshire, from an apprentice, to supervisor, to the General Manager in charge of 1,400 members of staff.
After the textile factory moved to South Korea in 1985, Mahboob decided to follow his love for cooking. In 1987 he went into business with his two cousins, opening his first ever Nawaab restaurant in Bradford a year later. The restaurant was so popular it was awarded for its excellence in 1990, winning best restaurant of the year. Mahboob was central to the business’ success, working alongside his chefs to create award winning dishes, such as the Nirali special.
The success of the Bradford restaurant lead Mahboob to open a second Nawaab restaurant in Huddersfield. Soon after that, Nawaab opened their first restaurant in Manchester. Nawaab was so popular that soon, branches were popping up everywhere: 5 restaurants were opened in Spain in an attempt to break into different markets.
All the success couldn’t slow Mahboob Hussain down. In 1999 he had the vision for a new way of eating: a live Asian cooking buffet and banqueting suite on a grand scale, which opened its doors to the public in 2003 and the likes of which was unheard of at the time in the UK. Mahboob sold the rights to the name ‘Nawaab’ to his previous business partners who were still operating restaurants in Bradford and Huddersfield under the Nawaab name. Mahboob rebranded his two existing restaurants in Manchester and London as ‘Royal Nawaab’ in 2017.
Since April 2017, businesses operating under the name Royal Nawaab are not associated with or connected to businesses operated under the name Nawaab. Royal Nawaab has only two locations; Manchester and London, where Mahboob is still involved heavily in both restaurants. He doesn’t do as much cooking as he used to, but he is still involved at every level to ensure Royal Nawaab maintains the quality that has made it famous around the UK.
