Mowgli Street Food Norwich — Restaurant in Norwich

I was so excited for this place, the reviews looked so good, the restaurant looked so good from the outside, now on to the actual experience….

I’ll start off with the service. When we arrived, there were plenty of beautiful places by the window and to be honest it was fairly empty inside, however for some odd reason, we were seated in the corner of the restaurant, by the front desk where they keep their cash and pay machines.

Anyway, we ordered a Lasi, Water and the £25 PP sharer platter.

The Lasi was urm, really gross. It was my first time trying it, maybe it isn’t for me, but it was very salty, there was no way I could have drank that. Salty drink? Maybe balance it with sweetness… well that’s why they used mango… but there was no sweetness to it, it felt like I was drinking thick ocean water with mango puree in it.

The curries, as the server called it “urm one is lamb, one is chicken and this one I don’t know”. Amazing. Thank you for the insight. I was baffled, I had no idea what I was about to eat. I am not one to be mean about the reviews but the amount of money spent here left me with a sour taste in my mouth(probably from the Lasi).

The curries were okay at best. You didn’t know what the spice levels were on any of the curries, so if you want to play spice roulette be my guest. The lamb, was okay, a lot of cumin, it was very earthy, it tasted better when eaten with the pomegranate but there wasn’t much pomegranate.

Like I said earlier I don’t actually know their names as the server was not able to tell me they’re named. The tomato chicken was the worse out of the three, it had so much coriander that’s all you could taste. The green chicken curry, I think it might have been some sort of korma? Was decent, I enjoyed it.

The chat puff pastries were so cold it felt they were kept in the fridge before served. The rice was decent, nothing special, but it was decent. The roti? Actually really good, I enjoyed the roti, it was just warm enough, not too hot but not cold at all.

The ice cream? Well funnily, ice cream should have come alongside my £25 PP platter. The waiter, who was now a different one, was trying to sell me desert and I had to stop him from trying to sell us which are the best deserts to tell him that we had desert for the table. The waiter was nice, I really like him, it was not his fault, there was just no communication between him and previous waiter.

Anyway, ice cream, mango sorbet was really good!!! I highly recommend it!!! But the salted caramel ice cream, wow, I couldn’t believe that something could be saltier than the Lasi. I know it’s in its name “salted” but it felt like I was chewing on salt crystals.

When it got to payment… discretionary service charge… not so discreet or optional, it should be asked if you’re happy with it before bringing your receipt. I had the receipt brought out the first time with the surcharge added on to it and £2(£1 per person) to a not named charity. I like paying money to charity but not like this, not forced, I want to know where and why my money is going.

Recommendations: Better communication between staff(training) More variety of curries(you can’t choose so bigger variety) Lower the prices of the curries(ridiculous for the portions) or increase the portions I know you can’t change recipe so avoid Lasi and salted caramel ice cream unless you’re...

This visit was saved by the food, which was absolutely amazing. Even dishes I was 100% sure I wouldn’t like, those chat bombs….. could have eaten 20! Portion sizes were good and the food was the perfect temperature however, the service…… I appreciate this was only day two from launch but you must do better, I’d consider getting a takeaway in future (if that’s possible) but I won’t eat in for a while. The restaurant was more or less dead when we arrived (4pm Sunday), we got sat in the far corner on a swing (nice thought but not comfy and a little restrictive for eating), we watched lots of people get turned away which did look daft as there were probably only three tables seated. We ordered water as soon as we were seated, we waited and waited, there was one waitress covering the whole bottom floor, I believe the other was having a break outside the restaurant, with another waitress who seemed to be having some kind of breakdown…. Head in her knees on her lap, didn’t look great. The one waitress was being pulled here and there, she was being given every table that sat down - would suggest a new table every few minutes. There was one other woman making cocktails, she didn’t leave her station and two guys who just seemed to be mooching round, sitting the odd table down, taking drinks orders but not delivering them, talking people they’d move tables but then doing Jeff all about it. After about 25 minutes (about 30 seconds before I was going to walk out) the waitress came over with our water, she was hot and flustered and you could see she was exhausted. We ordered our food and watched as the two guys (assume managers) rusted cutlery, checked their phones, popped outside - doing anything but help the poor waitress out! Our food arrived but we didn’t have cutlery so had to go ask, no one had cleared out empty drink cans so the table was cramped. When another waitress came back she looked at our empty plates several times over 10 minutes and then decided to clear them, she asked if we wanted pudding but we’d ordered the set menu so she hadn’t checked our order….. We finally got to ask for the bill but had to ask for that twice before it arrived. All felt quite amateur, felt like most of the staff were not experienced and didn’t have a clue about customer service, they weren’t acknowledging people staring at the door or those sitting around clearly looking for assistance. I have worked in restaurants so know what’s expected and appreciate the pressures. The managers clearly thought they were above serving tables and delivering drinks but they should be the ones mucking in the most….. Very...

Mowgli Norwich There are a few teething problems with this new restaurant which will inevitably sort themselves out in time. I got the feeling they were really short staffed and everyone is finding their way. My overall impression is that this place has lots of potential.

We arrived around 5 mins early for our 7.30pm booking and was advised to wait outside (luckily not raining). However, we noticed lots of other people that arrived after us were being seated. Eventually we were seated at 7.45pm. A lovely lady came to take drinks and share knowledge on the menu choices. We placed the order for drinks and food at the same time. It was very busy in the restaurant, as a result we had quite a wait for our food and we didn’t get our drinks until 8:15pm (the food actually arrived just before that) as we chased the drinks up with the gentleman that brought the food. We had been sat for half an hour at this point.

The food was ok. I expected more from it all I suppose. I chose 4 dishes, the paneer dish wasn’t very nice. Loads and loads of thick very hot sauce (I didn’t realise it was going to be so spicy as it’s not described that way on the menu). Didn’t really have a tomatoey vibe at all. The Mowgli sticky chicken was really excellent. I could have eaten a main large dish of that on its own. The prawn curry again very spicy but was tasty though. My friend had butter chicken (amongst other dishes) and she said it didn’t taste very nice (like the spices hadn’t been cooked out properly) and also that there wasn’t much chicken in her portion.

A free mango lassi was a nice touch. This is by no means a negative review, and I think maybe I wasn’t expecting the dishes to be as hot as they were. I’m also a little old fashioned in that I like the food to be served in a more simple way. The food comes in a tiffin container so the staff have to juggle unclipping it all and skilfully avoid sticking their fingers in the roasting hot food as each layer is removed.

The atmosphere is really nice with lots of lights in jars and the interior dotted around. The interior feels fresh and new. We were seated downstairs so I’m not sure of the decor upstairs (but more than likely follows the interior theme).

I am a little annoyed with myself that I forgot to scan my Mowgli app to gain a reward stamp (collect 6 and you receive £25 off your order). Perhaps if I am passing I could take my receipt in and see if they would give me a stamp retrospectively?

Anyhoooo … Give Mowgli a try. I’m sure you’ll be pleased with your experience. I will return, perhaps in 6...