Mowgli Street Food Birmingham — Restaurant in Birmingham

17/7/23 So our first dining experience here at Mowgli, as a keen viewer of the owners YouTube channel I had really high hopes for the authentic punjabi/Indian dishes Mowgli serves. We were very disappointed, we ordered the house lamb and also aunty Geetas prawn curry with 4 roti and a portion of 'fries' with the house seasoning. First off the fries were not fries they were diced fried potatoes covered in a slight sauce, not really what the menu portrayed, although the taste wasn't bad, it wasn't what we expected. Next the Prawn curry and House lamb (dads special) was utterly disappointing, it felt like we were going to get 2 authentic curries every so slightly different in taste due to the regions they come from but they were both bland, they may aswell have been called stews, they were not curries, not sure why the flavours were missing. They felt like hardly any masala was used and the Lamb dish tasted like it had no tomato base to it with very little whole spices used and certainly zero spice. Honestly was so disappointed, this place has all the makings of a slightly up market authentic Indian dining experience but the food really let it down.

The decor in the restaurant was lovely. certainly out of the box type thinking when this was designed, the staff were friendly enough, however it felt like they were used to a script in telling people the best way to order from the menu, 'order 3 courses and share', nice to have their thoughts but I think what most people would want to know is how big are the portion sizes, do we need to order additional items and what do you recommend. The rotis were another disappointment, not the usual fluffy puffy flat breads that I'm used to and also what you'd get in India from street food vendors freshly made these seemed pre prepared, very dense and flat.

The restaurant was out of masala tea, again disappointing, not as disappointed as I was when another table ordered masala tea and they were told by the staff that the tea was from a tea bag not whole spices boiled the traditional way, at this point I was quite disheartened, something so simple like masala tea should not be from a tea bag, especially when it's not cheap.

Staff were friendly enough and the decor was really nice, if you're after a drink and a light bite to eat then perhaps give it a go if you're after proper traditional Indian food with bold flavours, then find somewhere else as you'll be as disappointed as me.

PS the staff did ask how our meal was but we felt we couldn't critique the food as above as the restaurant clearly has a way of doing things, whether that's prepreparing food or using pre packaged base sauces etc to deal with a high volume of diners, so we felt it would probably not be best directed...

It's funny when you go to an Indian restaurant expecting food that reminds you of your motherland but instead find them serving you an absolute violation of what seems to be a random mix of unbalanced flavours. THE ORDER -Mango lassi was a good representation of what it should be. Well balanced and Yum. -Chat bombs were just a shell filled with a tonne of yoghurt. Nothing like what one should be and DEFINITELY not a representation of street food. I would recommend that they just rename this option ‘munch bunch’ or ‘pettis filous’ because that would be an accurate descriptive match. (may I also point out that it is 'chaat' not chat. Language is important. Don’t butcher a culture. Do your research. ) -Fenugreek kissed fries just potato junks drizzled in what seems to be a weird bbq and tomato sauce combination. An extremely over-powering starter. -House chicken curry - This was probably the best item on the menu. Resembled a chicken korma to some extent but it was still an off-balanced mixture of seasoning. -Aunty Geeta's prawn curry. This was hands down the worst thing we ordered. Seemed like they marinated the prawns in pasta sauce (fyi not even good pasta sauce. Tesco value or something, i'd say) Regardless it wasn't what a prawn curry should be (btw, Does aunty Geeta even exist? and IS SHE EVEN INDIAN?) House lamb curry. Horrible. Im.Just.Speechless -Roti/Puri. Roti AGAIN seemed like Tesco's whitewashed version of tesco value 5 pack roti. The Puri was undercooked. Like c'mon YOU HAD ONE JOB - ONE JOB! I like to think of the roti/puri as a simile. The roti/puri being the foundation and the curry/starters being the rest. If the foundation is bad then everything else is a shambles also. RED FLAGS EVERYWHERE -The decor of this place was absolutely stunning. It was just drop dead gorgeous! There is a very good eye for detail here, especially with the tiffin boxes. Also I found it quite artistic how Ghee pots were used for cutlery, a very creative touch. The staff were very friendly and had very goos knowledge on the food. They were are very helpful when it came to answering questions. To conclude, I would say Indian food is one of the hardest cuisines to imitate. Mowgli’s imitation looked more like comedy sketch if anything. The intricacy needed to balance spices is a delicate art and requires a lot of practice. And practice is what this place needs! Throwing in random powders and herbs does not automatically make it Indian street food. Over 85 years of British colonisation and yet seasoning correctly still seems so alien. Overall the food was atrocious and frankly a little offensive to me and my heritage. What a complete butchery “Indian street food, more like a gentrified version” -...

The only good thing about this place was the interior design. The service and food was appalling. On arrival, the waiter walked off without any type of greet took us to our table and then walked off. We waited 30 minutes before any member of staff came to our table. We ordered drinks and food. Three members of the table ordered fries but beware they are not fries! They are small potatoes with mint sauce on which are not tasty at all. I ordered the sticky chicken and was then told this wasn’t available, I asked for three more things but all three weren’t available and was put on the spot and had no time to re-look through the menu so had to choose the wrap. This came out ten minutes later than my fries and later than the rest of the tables food. The wrap was flat on a plate with a few pieces of chicken, salad and mint sauce and was not tasty at all. The waitress we had was extremely rude and as she walked past us she gave my table continuous dirty looks alongside the rest of the staff there. We ordered dessert, and due to an allergy of strawberries, my partner asked if any strawberries was present in the pudding, to which the waiter replied ‘what? It’s pomegranate’ and slid the brownie across the table, frowned and walked off. When asking for the cocktail menu, the waitress was extremely rude and kept laughing. After showing our ID she continued to frown and stare at us. We asked for the bill early as we couldn’t stay in that atmosphere. The bill came to £178 but they added a £20 tip bringing the total to £200. We asked for the tip to be removed as we was not happy with the service we received. Everybody payed individually. We all rounded our totals up so that we could pay the £1 donation. This meant we definitely had payed over the final bill. As we left, two members of my group walked behind. The waitress stopped them and said they were 20p short despite them paying over. My friend gave them 50p in cash to which the waitress smirked and turned around not offering to give her the 30p back. This isn’t a massive issue but considering they made a massive deal of a 20p under payment they should surely appreciate they need to give back their customer their 30p overpayment. The staffs atmosphere and attitude to work was absolutely disgusting. I will never be eating here or attending here again and will make sure to let peers know to avoid this restaurant...