After his restaurant emerged in one piece after the lockdowns, Sami Rahman embarked on a mission: to be #1 in Cardiff on TripAdvisor. The 31-year-old owner of Empire in Roath had dreamed of the accolade for years. The restaurant had yo-yoed up and down the website's coveted ranks - sometimes in 5th place, other times in 10th - out of the 816 businesses in the city listed on the website.
It wasn't until two months ago that Sami and the team finally succeeded. It had been hard work, but entirely worth it. "I didn't notice it, until a customer came in and said: 'Oh, you're number one!'" Sami laughs. "I felt like shutting the restaurant for a week just to celebrate. It was a good feeling."
I'm sitting with Sami and his father, Mohammed Mujib, 55, in the restaurant, which has stood on Albany Road since 1992. Though Empire's ranking on the list has fluctuated between #1 and #2 recently it's still the best-rated Indian restaurant in the city and at time of publication holds the top spot.
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They also believe it's the longest-established. Over the years, the curry house - which specialises in north Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine and provides a fine dining experience - has been regularly recognised in many awards. This includes the Asian Restaurant and Takeaway Awards for Wales Regional Chef of the Year, which it won in 2018, and the Bangladesh Caterers Association's Restaurant of the Year awards, which it won in 2016.
Around five years ago, Sami took over the running of the restaurant from Mohammed, who worked tirelessly to build up the business to what it is today. The father-of-five came over from Bangladesh in 1985 with his family - including his two brothers and two sisters - aged 19. He took up learning English in a centre on The Parade and then enrolled in Barry College. Meanwhile, within just two weeks of arriving, he had to start work to help provide for his family. "My father's health wasn't good and I helped him with paying bills," says Mohammed.
As he was a student, Mohammed's father recommended he take up work in restaurants so he could study in the daytime and work at night. "He put me in one of his friend's places in Barry and I was a helper in the kitchen," he recalls. He later opened a business in Penarth called Oriental Tandoori Takeaway with his cousin, who was a businessman. "I learned from him and he was showing me everything," says the father of five.
But after two years, he wanted more knowledge and experience. He went to work in the Himalaya on Wellfield Road, which he says was one of the busiest restaurants in south Wales at the time. In 1988, he opened another business with a friend in Abergavenny. His family were still were still living in Cardiff at the time and he used to come and visit twice a week.
Four years later, he launched the restaurant on Albany Road, which was initially called Emperor. Getting the business off the ground was a hard slog, especially as he was up against lots of competition from many other established Indian restaurants in the vicinity.
"It took a long time. For the first maybe about six months, I can't remember I took a day off... maybe after two years I took a regular day off." He recalls that if there were more than six customers in the restaurant, he would come in from home to help his staff serve them.
But the popularity of the restaurant improved day by day. "We used to be the official restaurant for Cardiff County Council for about 15 years and we did lots of charity events and food festivals," says Mohammed, adding such fixtures attracted thousands of people. Sami's involvement has a long history. When he was just three, Mohammed used to bring him to sit in the restaurant for a couple of hours at lunchtime as preparation was underway for the evening service.
When he was around 17, the youngster would come at weekends to help out in the restaurant, starting off by serving poppadums. He was at college by this point, studying business, which heightened his interest in the workings of his father's restaurant. He rose through the management ranks, and Mohammed "slowly, slowly" passed the reins into his hands. "In the last few years, I just stepped back. Still, I offer support if something goes wrong. But thank God, he's okay and he's managed nicely," says Mohammed.
Sami took over when he was around 26. In awe of the accomplishments of his father - who is a big name in Cardiff's restaurant scene - he knew he had big boots to fill. But under his aegis, Empire has continued to thrive as strongly as ever. The loyalty of regular guests - who make up the majority of the restaurant's customer base - has not wavered. Mutiple generations of the same families have flocked through the doors, and even Sami's old school teachers are returning customers.
"All the customers have watched me grow up," says Sami. "We've got clientele who have been coming here for 30 years. And their kids are now coming in. some customers are coming in with their children's children." Asked what has kept the business in people's hearts for so long, the pair point to several qualities.
Mohammed believes humility has kept them going. "You need to make sure you can take [criticism] and change the dish, make guests satisfied or not charge them as well - be humble," he says. He adds that showing care for his staff is a priority, so they can in turn show care for guests, as well as loyalty to local suppliers: "The day I started the business, we're using the same suppliers even now."
The food itself is timeless. During my visit, I'm seated at a table topped with white linen and they serve me heaps of delicious mushroom rice and boiled rice, a tender lamb shank in curry sauce, a chicken jalfrezi and saag aloo. "We've just improved our food always day by day, but we've maintained our traditional food," says Mohammed, adding that only about 30% of the menu has changed since he started the restaurant.
I'm given a hot towel at the end of my meal, a testament to the quality of service at Empire, which the pair believe been another big factor in the restaurant's longevity. It's something Sami paid very close attention to when he worked hard to rank #1 on TripAdvisor.
"Customer service is the main thing. My dad always said that to me when you come in, it's like an experience. A lot of other restaurants always want to take our staff because they get trained up properly," he says. "You have to make it perfect. A lot of people say 'We've seen the reviews, so we came in', so I have to make sure I make it perfect for them. I worked hard to get number one on TripAdvisor. It was like a mission. I wanted to prove it to everyone."
Meanwhile, Mohammed is thankful for his son keeping an eye on online reviews, which the pair acknowledge are crucial for the success of restaurants nowadays. "I'm not a computer person," Mohammed admits. "This is a new world for me - [Sami] has loads of knowledge about social media. When I started it was only paper media and through word of mouth."
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