Put the fact that it’s lamb’s brains out of your mind, and the ‘maghaz’ at Al-Madina on Wilmslow Road is among the richest and most delicious curries on the menu at this Curry Mile institution.
As Usman, second generation owner of this curry spot opened in 1999, will tell you, the texture lands somewhere between scrambled eggs and chicken. Often, he says, if people are ordering it, they won’t mention what it is to anyone on the table not already familiar.
They might not try it otherwise, and – unless, of course, they’re vegetarian, that’s another conversation – that would be a sad thing indeed.
Al-Madina was opened by Usman’s father Mohammad, and he grew up here, running between the cafe-style plastic tables, and then when he was old enough, serving behind the counter.
One lunch time, he returned to the family spot during his lunch break at Xaverian college, just over the road, grabbed a drink from the fridge and left. A group of fellow students he barely knew saw him and presumed he’d stolen it. They reported him and he was hauled up in front of the headmaster. He had to bring the furious teacher in and explain that in fact, this place was like his second home.
Quite rightly, apologies followed.
Back in those days, and even right up to lockdown, Al-Madina would regularly close at 6 or 7am, a haunt for cabbies, those finishing night shifts at the Manchester Royal Infirmary up the road and assorted night owls, hungry for warming spice and a warmer welcome.
It’s a bit different now. It closes a bit earlier, and it’s had a smart refurb in the past few years. But the menu has not changed one bit. Other than the addition of chicken wings.
As well as the maghaz, people come here for the nihari, the renowned Pakistani lamb dish, cooked overnight and usually served for breakfast on Sunday morning, along with other traditional Sunday dishes like paya – lamb’s foot.
But while some places only serve this iconic dish on a Sunday, Al-Madina serves it all day, every day.
Order a plate of it with the flaky cheese naan, one of nearly a dozen different breads on the menu, and guttural groans of contentment will inevitably follow as you mop up the final smears of sauce, made thick and unctuous from lamb shank bones. It’s the type of sauce that sticks your lips together.
Whether it’s the ‘traditional lamb’, served on the bone, chops, the chana masala, tarka daal, fried masala fish (you’d struggle to put a foot wrong here), everyone comes to Al-Madina for a reason.
“We don’t cook for trends,” says Usman. “We just do it the way we always have. People come back because they can taste the difference.”
