Indian Rose opened two years ago and has rapidly made its mark in Plymouth and beyond.
Mohamed Abu Ubayda, the owner of Indian Rose in Plymouth, Cornwall has been a chef for more than 30 years, having honed his craft with cooking lessons at school, on the job and by taking inspiration from different cooking techniques and ingredients.
His dishes have often blended Indian recipes with English and Chinese ones.
Having originally studied law in the UK, he quickly went back to his first love of cooking, and enjoys creating dishes that push the boundaries and which use a range of ingredients.
“In this industry, many of the older generation chefs haven’t adapted well to modern, new ways of cooking and preparing food,” he says.
“I’ve always been keen to learn and take things forward. I have trained chefs and they have sometimes struggled to replicate my dishes as so many things go in them that it’s hard to remember. So I’ve written them down as they combine a lot of spices and other ingredients – for example in some spicier dishes I’ve used raw cane sugar.”
Indian Rose in demand
Indian Rose, which seats around 100 people and which opened in June 2022 is Ubayda’s eighth restaurant to date (along with Indian Rose, he still owns another, located around 20 miles away).
Two years on, the restaurant has quickly grown in popularity, which the team puts down to its unique creations with flavour combinations not often seen at other restaurants, an aspect Ubayda feels makes his restaurant stand out.
“When I started Indian Rose, it was the first time in 19 years that I had opened a restaurant – and the reason behind it is simple. Mutley, where the restaurant is located, has been crying out for an Indian restaurant – the last one was here maybe 15-20 years ago,” he says. “And while 2022 was a very challenging time to open any business, friends and family had confidence in me because of the different vision I brought to the restaurant.”
Opening the restaurant proved to be a popular move, with customers telling Ubayda that it’s the best thing he could have done for the area. And it’s not just the food that has caught customers’ attention. Much time and thought has also been invested in the restaurant’s interior design, which is distinctly pink, It’s a homage to roses, all done under the watchful eye of Ubayda’s wife, Fatima.
“I designed the kitchen, the rest of the decor was all planned by my wife, who has never previously worked in this industry, but her love of roses inspired the name,” says Ubayda. “When people walk in, they see a wall full of roses, which we ordered from Germany. It took three and a half months in total to set it all up but it really gives the restaurant a wow factor.”
Changing times
Some of the restaurant’s most popular dishes include its crispy corolla starter – a tiger prawn with a sweet red and spicy sauce, its aromatic Suhana with mango and Adari tikka delight, featuring tomato sauce and a wide variety of spices.
Other dishes with a twist include Chicken Tikka Malawi, featuring a sweet and sour sauce, and shashlik Nerala, with chicken or lamb cooked with red and green peppers/onions in a Tandoori oven and Adari Tikka Delight. Ubayda is also always keen to try new dishes with both his staff and customers .
“Indian food has changed a lot over the last five years – people are bored of chicken curry, of the madras and the korma dishes,” says Ubayda. “The younger generation aren’t so keen on this old-style curry – since I’ve opened Indian Rose I’ve realised people want change.”
Presentation is all-important too, another area Indian Rose prides itself on. Ubayda recalls advice from many years ago: “If it looks good, it’s edible. And if you can eat it, serve it to your customers. And if you can’t, throw it in the bin.”
Creative output
Indian cuisine needs an injection of creativity – as Ubayda notes, other cuisines have moved onwards and upwards whereas Indian food has remained largely the same, with many older generation chefs seemingly stuck in time.
“I’d love younger people to come into the industry and improve the food and be creative – that is the biggest problem we have – a lack of youngsters in the industry,” he says.
“We need to bring in youngsters who can create and visualise a lot of different dishes.But it’s the long hours that put them off – they don’t want to work till midnight – they want a 9-to-5 job or one with more sociable hours.”
Ubayda believes that the best way forward is to attract people from abroad, and one solution could be a government-backed training scheme, with a commitment to provide training for those coming from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Like others in hospitality, Indian Rose is not immune from macro trends, with price hikes across food and energy and the rising cost of wages continuing to impact on margins. The business is doing well for itself, but Ubayda says it is hard because when everybody else is quiet or busy, so too is Indian Rose.
“With regards to our prices, we’ve kept them reasonable and as low as possible – I want to help people out because I understand how hard things are,” he says. “I wish I could put my prices up, but I would end up losing too many customers.”
Ever creative, Ubayda has some grand plans for the future. The vision for the coming years is to open a franchise based on the concept of Indian Rose but only if things improve with regards to the economy. Hopefully he won’t have to wait too long to spread his creativity and flair.
