The bar at the reception area

The Shampan vision

29th September 2011, 10:48am

Despite Shampan at The Spinning Wheel in Kent taking longer to launch than expected, joint business partner Sufian Miah believes “it was a blessing in disguise”. Maria Bracken paid the new establishment a visit and met the restaurateurs involved in the process.

The family run restaurant group dates back to 1989 when the first Shampan restaurant opened in Bromley, Kent. Following on in 2006, the next venture opened its doors in Welling, also in Kent.

Since then, Miah and joint partner Abdul Malik wanted a new challenge. In October 2009 the restaurateurs put an offer on a property in Westerham, Kent, and a year later, they acquired the keys. Nine months on in July 2011, the restaurant finally opened its doors to the public.

Miah says there are no regrets with the time it took to get the business up and running. "I actually think this worked in our favour. It gave us the time to actually plan and work out exactly what we want, research the area, acquire the staff and décor.

"When we were looking around for our next venture we knew we wanted to stay in Kent," explains Miah, who oversees all three restaurants along with Malik. "We weren't interested in opening in central London because we know the market in Kent so well. We are established here in Kent and have a great reputation.

"The first two weeks of opening was organised chaos. We were all running around like headless chickens, but slowly we are getting there. The staff here is very hard working and very passionate about what they are doing. But our challenge now is to improve them as a team."

The restaurant seats a total 330 people and has five different sections, along with a lounge area.

The Caraway room

Miah says the new concept differs to their other eateries in so many ways. "This venture differs in every aspect. As soon as you drive into this property you think wow! It's a massive venue. It seats 330 diners but in fact we could make it a 400 seat restaurant if we included the function area.

The team is "over the moon" with the new site but admits the décor was hard work. Miah says: "The overall concept of the design was ours but the designers enhanced and developed it. But for months we argued over the colour contrasts. But eventually we got there.

"I think the lounge is fantastic, it really strikes you when you walk in. You could almost pick this concept up and put it in Dubai and it wouldn't be out of place."

"In terms of service, we are also taking this venue to another level," he says. "We have internal training programmes for our staff which we are making sure we keep on top of. It is crucial that our staff understands the concept of what we are trying to achieve. They have to understand the vision and what we are trying to develop."

The food is also at a different level, he says. "The food here is completely different to what we have at our other venues. But we have got a section on the menu with traditional dishes that you will also find at the other branches. We get a lot of customers who come from the other Shampan venues to here, and what we don't want is to have a completely different menu. We don't want to frighten our customers off.

"Everything is cooked to order, it's not mass production. Everything is freshly prepared. The beauty of the whole concept is that we are not rushing people out. When diners book their table, it is for the entire evening."

Starters on the menu include mushroom cocktail; stuffed savoury minced lamb and cooked with eggs and bread crumbs, peri peri crab; peri peri spiced crab meat tossed together with pepper juliennes, and Aloo chat massala; potatoes lightly spiced with chat massala.

Main dishes include Shampan special massala; specially baked whole baby chicken to shampan's own special recipe, spiced with thick gravy, served with salad, and Tandoori king prawn korahi; king prawns marinated and spiced, cooked with tomatoes, capsicum, onions served in authentic style.

Other dishes include Balti lamb, Tandoori fish sizzling, prawn massala, Mughal lamb chops and duck biryani. Price per head including drinks is £35, which Miah believes "in a restaurant of this calibre, is great value for money".

Miah says that he didn't have any influence when it came to the menu and that he left all of the decisions to the chefs. "Let's not do their job for them," he jokes. "It's their expertise. We gave them the concept of the restaurant and how we wanted it to look. We gave them the vision and told them where we wanted to be. The challenge was the wow factor. If you get that wow factor when you first walk into the restaurant, the food has to match this.

"And the chefs thrived on this challenge. It gave them the opportunity to prove what they can do."

The restaurateurs also plan to introduce a tapas menu. "The menu is ready to go for it, but as a restaurant I don't think we're quite ready for it. I think we need a few more weeks just to get the logistics of front of house perfect."

"Next summer we are also looking at introducing live cooking outside on the main patio area. We are also looking at in-house cooking lessons as a package for our customers."

But one of the biggest ambitions for the group is to go out and win this year's British Curry Awards.

"Last year we were competing with our other two Shampan restaurants in the same category in the awards," he adds. "Our Bromley branch ended up coming third in the region. This was a massive achievement for us.

"Our other two restaurants have been nominated again this year and this place has been nominated in the newcomers category. This is the best opportunity to go out and win it this year. This is a very upbeat restaurant. It isn't what you would class as your typical curry house."

Shampan Lounge

Is further expansion on the cards? "As a business I think we have to take one step at a time. We have to keep people fascinated and intrigued in what we are doing. But we will see", he adds. 

The British Curry Awards are taking place on Monday 28 November at Battersea's Evolution venue in Battersea park.