Mowgli Street Food Leicester — Restaurant in England

Decided to go out to eat at Mogli Leicester branch with my Mrs for an authentic Indian Street Food meal. This is our comprehensive review. Welcome: Greeted by a lovely waitress who offered us the swing seats in the window which was nice. Ambiance: Decorated with white fairy lights everywhere. Décor is not conducive to traditional Indian Street food or Indian culture in any case. Tables had fake plastic wood wrap which is just tack for such a place. Attention to detail is lacking such as tree display sitting on top of the table rather than sitting on the ground. It's the small things that make a difference. Menu: Very well presented and some good names chosen by the family of Nisha Katona who clearly are passionate about their brand. Unfortunately Katona sold a majority stake in the business to private equity firm TriSpan. This has had an impact on the business. Presentation: Mostly served in cheap tiffin metal tubs which are used in India by the workers to carry food to work to eat at lunch. This then limits the portion size but it may also be a profit making get out clause to give small portions. Serving in a tiffin also takes away any chance for you to try to do any sort of presentation when its basically served in a re-usable metal lunch box. Cheap and cheerful but branded as authentic. Great marketing tool used here. Also very Indian trait, being tight!!. Taste: Unfortunately the taste was 5/10 as it lacked substance of originality, colour and the lamb and chicken was playing hide & seek. I know times are hard but if the Indian on the High Street can offer you so much meat that you pass out but being street food it really needs a few more morsels of goodness to make you feel you have got value for money. If the private equity company is struggling, maybe add an extra few pounds for some more meat in the curry. The overall taste was bland and very Englishyfied if I can use such word. The reality is the British palette is far more sophisticated these days than ever before due to international travel and cultural integration. Costs: The price point is actually good and affordable as your local or somewhere to go out as a special treat. Around £25-£30 per plate exclusive of drinks. Drinks: Good selection of wines and cocktails/mocktails which we had but I've had better in our local shisha bar. Room for improvement. Service: Serving staff were attentive and polite and food came out fast but tiffin's were cold and food was not piping hot as it should be. Did not like charity donation pre added to bill as teh diner should have the option to simply leave it at the counter or a box displaying Mogli's local charity. I should NOT feel compelled to request that is be removed and feel like scrooge. The service charge was also pre added to bill. This is Britain and NOT USA where tips are almost compulsory. There is no tipping culture in India just in case Mogli management are now all staff from Trispan and have no concept of British etiquette. Please allow diners to tip as they see fit. Once you implement this then staff will simply not care to impress the diners as they know they have a guaranteed tip as 95% of diners simply won't argue to have it removed. Not a family business trait Nisha!!! Recommendation: Nice clean chain of an attempt of authentic Indian Food but with no real substance by way of taste or experience. Most customers are non Asian so it is marketed to those customers who have little or no idea of what true Indian food is. Anything presented in shiny tin and a few twinkle lights for Instagram is all you need these days. In that sense they have a captive market. For those who want real food please go elsewhere. Thank you...

This is definitely a place where all the money went into making the venue look beautiful for aesthetic reasons and none went into the quality of the food or the service. The food is not authentic south-asian food at all, you can tell it’s been centred for people who do not know what real south-asian food tastes like at all. The one dish I can compliment was the mowgli sticky chicken. It was delicious. The curries tasted like school food and it’s so disappointing when the portions are incredibly small (served in tiffin dabbas) for the steep prices and then the flavour wasn't even there. The service was not great at all, especially if you intend to add on a service charge, in an entirely empty restaurant we were pretty much ignored and not attended to or serviced in any way that would have required a service charge. I’ve not felt this disappointed leaving a restaurant in a long time. Sorry Mowgli, I will not be returning. 1x Puri 1x (small) lamb curry 1x mowgli sticky chicken 1x (small) basmati rice 1x kids menu butter chicken & rice = £41.40 + £1 charity donation they discreetly add to your bill telling you its optional but don't withdraw it when you tell them no. Would have been £46+ with the service charge but we refused. Edited to add: the food came out within minutes of ordering - meaning nothing was freshly cooked and the curries were most likely defrosted and served. We all have upset...

Received lamb chops that were about 80% fat and only 20% actual lamb meat so the quality of the food wasn't the best, however, the flavour was excellent. The service received when we had finished our food and were waiting for the bill felt rude and disrespectful. Being the only customers in the restaurant at the time, we were left to wait whilst the 3 staff members available chatted and laughed away closeby despite us waiting for a long time and signalling that we were ready for the bill. We were held back on leaving the restaurant due to this and eventually left the restaurant feeling annoyed with the terrible unconsistent customer service.

Edit: After being in contact with the customer service team via email I was offered complimentary dessert and drinks for 2 to give mowgli Leicester another chance. I decided to give mowgli another chance and I left even more disappointed than after my previous visit. The service was terrible mostly down to the waiting time and horrible unapologetic dismissive staff. We entered the restaurant for the reservation at 3pm sharp as booked, and left at 5.10 pm. It took over 2 hours for the staff to serve us the drinks, main course, dessert, and to give us the bill. We were ignored once again and not given any check ins. This is the worst service we have ever experienced in any restaurant. I guess I've learnt never to give mowgli Leicester...