WHEN Sabuji Rocky heard that his friend had travelled to London to pick up some authentic Kerala cuisine to satisfy his pregnant wife’s cravings, he knew Wirral was missing a trick.
He spotted a gap in the market for traditional south Indian cookery and Kerala Kitchen was born – first in Prenton and then in Upton.
The popular place has just won our final Best of 2024 award – Wirral’s Best Restaurant – for the third time, making it a hat-trick of honours.
In April, we launched our Best of 2024 competition and we’ve given out 22 awards.
- Best for Hair – LA Hair
- Best for Pies – Pies4u
- Best for Nails - By Taylor Jade
- Best for Roast Dinner - The 21st Amendment Hoylake
- Best for Cocktails – Cow Shed Bar & Grill
- Best for Breakfast – At Gilly Gem’s
- Best for Fish and Chips - SelFish
- Best Beer Garden - The Red Fox
- Best for Fitness – Clubbercise and Chill
- Best for Tattoos – Speakeasy Tattoo Studio
- Best Independent Shop or Business – Snips Movies
- Best for Dessert – The Cookery Nook
- Best for Kids – The Corner House CIO
- Best for Pets – Dogs Go
- Best for Beauty – Ivy Lash Studio
- Best for Pizza – Nickel City Kitchen
- Best for Afternoon Tea – Fleur Ashley Tea Room
- Best for Burgers – The Good Hood
- Best Gym – Dream Body
- Best for Curry - No1 Masala
- Best Café or Coffee Shop – Aroma
- Best Pub or Bar – The Sportsman’s Arms
Ten of Wirral’s most popular restaurants made the shortlist in our final Best of 2024 category and Kerala Kitchen came out on top for the third year in a row.
Sabuji Rocky opened Kerala Kitchen on Arrowe Park Road in Upton in 2006 and Robin Paul Varghese is the restaurant manager.
Kerala Kitchen moved from Prenton to Upton 13 years ago.
Sabuji and his wife Jisha Sabuji were born and raised in Kerala, a southern part of India, which gives the restaurant its name.
They moved to Wirral as part of Jisha’s nursing job at Arrowe Park Hospital in 2001 and the couple live with family in Bidston.
Kerala Kitchen offers south Indian home cooked food
Sabuji, who is 50, said: “Spending so many years of our life in Wirral and having our kids born and brought up here, has helped us become part of the community and we love Wirral and its people.
“We are a 64-seat fully licensed restaurant and takeaway.
“Kerala food is naturally very healthy and we have a wide range of vegan and vegetarian options on our menu along with non-vegetarian and seafood.
“The restaurant is decorated to give an authentic Kerala feel and has a coconut palm with coconuts and two large trees inside.
“Our customers like to take photographs under the trees and next to the murals on the walls.
“Our menu is carefully designed to satisfy a wide range of customers’ tastes and appetites.
“We have north Indian dishes like tikka masala and korma along with south Indian food like masala dosa and Malabar chicken, beef fry and Kerala porota.
“Street food lovers enjoy pothichoru, which is Kerala matta rice and varieties of curries all wrapped in banana leaves, and chattichoru, which is Kerala matta rice with more than 15 varieties of curries all served in a mud pot.”
The hard-working team at Kerala Kitchen
Sabuji identified a market for south Indian, home cooked food when he arrived in the UK and he spotted a craving for authentic food.
He said: “I heard from many of our friends who are from India, who had tried the Indian food available, and they said it just wasn’t the same as they were used to.
“I met with a friend who had travelled all the way to London with his pregnant wife to satisfy her cravings for masala dosa!
“He said he wished that there somewhere closer to home.”
Sabuji has a postgraduate degree in business administration and has experience running businesses in India.
Sabuji said: “My interest in business combined with my wife’s cooking passion sparked the idea of starting a food business.
“We longed for authentic Kerala food when we arrived in the UK but we were unable to find any Kerala restaurants.
“The only place used to serve south Indian food was London and friends encouraged me to open a restaurant.
“Unlike other Indian restaurants, you can see Kerala / Indian customers happily dining at Kerala Kitchen along with our regular customers who are already part of the Kerala Kitchen family.
“Our customers have been a huge part of our family for so many years.
“We celebrate all traditional festivals of Kerala in our restaurant and we have recently celebrated Onam - Kerala Harvest Festival – a 28-item vegetarian/vegan mega feast served on banana leaves.
“It was a great success.”
Kerala Kitchen appeared on Channel 4's Come Dine with Me The Professionals in 2022
Kerala Kitchen has grown over the past 18 years through word of mouth from happy and satisfied customers.
Sabuji and Jisha have sustained a five-star hygiene rating, which has just been renewed in the past few days, meaning customers can trust the quality of food and service, knowing the couple are “committed to serving the best”.
Sabuji said: “We use only fresh and natural ingredients for our cooking and we promote healthy eating for our customers, in the same way how we would cook for our family at home.
“This is a family-run business; we treat our staff as part of our family and we find enjoyment even in stressful situations.”
Manager Robin is a huge part of the Kerala Kitchen business and he goes above and beyond to meet the requirements of customers.
Sabuji’s wife Jisha, son Pranav and daughter Athira are also involved in the business in between their work and university studies.
Head chef Jino Joseph specialises in Kerala food and has several years’ experience in top hotels in Kerala.
What do customers think about Kerala Kitchen? Why did they want the venue to win our final Best of 2024 award?
One happy customer said: “This is the place to go for authentic south Indian flavours.”
Another said: “The only south Indian restaurant in our region.
“Absolutely wonderful.”
There's a wide range of vegan and vegetarian options on the menu along with non-vegetarian and seafood dishes
Kerala Kitchen appeared on Channel 4’s Come Dine with Me: The Professionals in 2022 and has topped the table in the Best Restaurant category of the Best of awards for the past three years.
Sabuji said: “We are deeply honoured to win Wirral Globe’s best restaurant award for three consecutive years.
“Even the news that we had been shortlisted was a reward and winning the competition gives us more energy and enthusiasm to serve our growing customer base.
“It is a great honour for us to receive this special award.
“We would like to thank all our customers, all our well-wishers and Wirral Globe for joining us in this challenging journey!
“We thank all our customers who took their time to vote - from the bottom of our hearts we thank you for your continued support and love.
“It was great to see how passionate our customers were for us to win this competition.”
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