Christmas Feasting @ Mowgli
Mowgli has been on my radar to visit for a while, the twinkling lights through the windows have been calling me for years, but somehow, I have never gotten around to visiting until now…
The Nottingham site is intimate and cosy- the signature lights and swings at the window tables really make this restaurant unique and a pleasure to dine in and the origin story behind Mowgli makes it all the more special; born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, the daughter of Indian immigrant doctors, Nisha Katona is the founder, CEO, executive and development chef of Mowgli Street Food restaurants. Working tirelessly as a Child Protection Barrister for 20 years, she gave it all up in 2014 to build Mowgli, which is now a thriving empire with restaurants scattered across the UK.
My visit was focused on sampling the newly launched Christmas Feasting Menu and what a delight of Indian street market dishes we enjoyed delivered to our table by the ever so lovely server, as and when they were ready.
Due to its nature of being street food style, the way in which it is prepared and presented reflects this, so crockery is replaced with small metal serving trays and the curry dishes and rice are all served in stacked metal tiffin boxes– a first for me.
The well priced Feasting menu consists of a glass of Prosecco, beer or soft drink on arrival (we went for the fizz!), followed by a tin of their famous Yogurt Chat Bombs, which are apparently one of their most popular items. These delightful crisp bread puffs are filled with chickpeas , spiced yogurt, tamarind and coriander served cold in a tin times five, which you may ask why five if they are to share between two, however five is a significant number in Indian culture.
In their words, In the Indian home, food is always served in odd numbers. Five is a number revered by Indians- Every village has five elders to a village, the universe has five elements (earth, fire, water, wind and space) and the body has five senses. Mowgli offering five chat bombs suddenly seems like a small detail but relevant all the same.
Nevertheless, these magic little bombs were quite literally a taste sensation, best eaten all in one due to the nature of the ‘bomb’ explosion that can and did occur when I made the mistake of not taking our servers advice and biting into one!
Next course was a choice from three starters including Gunpowder Chicken, Fenugreek Kissed Fries (which we went with) and were more like fried cubed potatoes topped with fenugreek and Mowgli Masala, though our favourite starter dish was the Himalayan Cheese Toast made with cheddar and served with a red onion and chilli dressing and Indian pickle- yum!
The main course consisted of a selection of curries served with rice in two tier tiffin boxes and as we are both vegetarian, our table was filled with an array of colourful and fragrant curry dishes chosen by the chef that day, all made with fresh ingredients.
We enjoyed a potato based curry, a lentil dhal, one with soya mince and our most favourite -paneer and with the addition of rice, no naan or roti was needed.
I haven’t finished yet, as dessert is also included in the Feasting menu, so we went with one of each options, the Mowgli chocolate brownie served warm with ice cream and the Mango Sorbet Cone – a lovely way to finish off what was an incredible meal, served in the most unique way.
The Mowgli Christmas Feasting menu is now available to book and at £35 per head is genuinely fantastic value for money – go check it out!
The Mowgli Christmas Feasting Menu- https://www.mowglistreetfood.com/menus/christmas-feasting/
Fiona Duncan-Steer/The Sleepy Vegetarian
