Mowgli Street Food Nottingham — Restaurant in Nottingham

A group of us went yesterday evening. It was my first visit. In terms of positives – very attractive decor in the restaurant and a general nice vibe and feeling to being there. The food was enjoyed by all of us to varying degrees. Portions were generous also. Though, for me, I would prefer to eat Indian type dishes in a more traditional environment and way of presentation. The flavours were good enough, but they just lacked the intense and varied ones I have enjoyed in other restaurants offering this style of food in Nottingham over the years. I don’t know if the kitchen staff at Mowgli Street Food Nottingham preparing the food are of Asian heritage, but front of house, I didn’t see any, and decor wise (however pleasantly done) there was no connection for me that I was in a place that sets out to serve south Asian type cuisine. Call me old-fashioned, but a visual style relevant to the geographical origins of the food is what I prefer.

The real disappointment, initially at least, was the very poor service we received after being seated. Greetings were fine but then we were left basically to our own devices for a considerable amount of time (possibly 15 to 20 minutes). Nobody came over to offer us a drink or to check if we were ready to order. It was left to a member of our party to go and find a member of staff to take our order. I find that incredibly disappointing in a place that appears at least to be offering attentive service, but in our case wasn’t.

A further positive for the restaurant was the price of the meal which I thought was very reasonable when you take into account two bottles of wine were included in a total of around £160 for four people.

On leaving, I didn’t notice any staff thanking us, or saying goodbye, and we walked past several, both where we had been seated upstairs, and then on our way out of the restaurant downstairs. Another negative touch that probably gives some connection to the very long wait we had to be served finally. It is both a nice and expected touch to have somebody front of house working to connect with you on leaving, and thank you for your time and your custom. And that didn’t happen here in my hearing at least.

Would I recommend Mowgli Street Food Nottingham to others? Depending on what you are looking for, yes, on balance? But I wouldn’t do so to people of a similar mindset to myself, who are expecting the kind of intense flavours of cooking that you are used to encountering in a good south Asian restaurant. The food was just too generic for my liking, and I doubt I would return – particularly bearing in mind the disappointing level of service we also encountered there.

Thanks for the reply, but I don’t think there is anything to investigate other than poor service from some of the staff we encountered. If it was worth considering a return, yes, possibly, but on balance, best left with the original...

The decor of this place is lovely and the staff were nice on our visit but the quality of the food for its cost lost points. We ordered the temple dhal, the lamb chops with fenugreek fries, the bunny chow, goan fish curry and some basmati rice. I expected the temple dahl to be mild and healthy from the name since temple food leans in that direction but I still don't think it means it should be under seasoned like it was. I always want to try dahl from an Indian place I've never been to as I think it represents a lot and this didn't impress either of us. The lamb chops were not my choice but I did try them and they seemed quite dry and tough. I'll admit maybe people like chops that way but again we were not really impressed. The bunny chow was probably the nicest dish we ordered and I don't want to try to find things wrong with it just because the overall review is negative. I wished I had ordered it but unfortunately I chose the goan fish curry. The fish was delicate and at first I was fond of the curry but by the end my mouth felt oversaturated with sweet fruity flavour. I've been to India and heard locals argue about the role of sweetness in curry and I questioned my own judgement but I noticed some other reviewers felt similarly. The dish was just too sweet. It described itself as fruity and fiery etc but I could only taste the overpowering sweet fruit. The rice was somehow boring too. It claimed it was toasted with cardamom and cumin seeds but I could not see any cumin seeds nor taste either spice. To top all of this off, the portions here are mostly quite small. They did tell us about this but it just felt like a quirky way to make you spend more when you need 2-3 mains per person to satisfy. I don't normally write reviews but we paid £30 per person and felt too uncomfortable to say anything in person about how unsatisfying that was. A mandatory service charge plus 20% vat not included on the menu prices. Considering I spent less than £10 to eat a large bowl of braised beef noodle soup nearby that satisfied everyone at the table just a few days before, I wouldn't go to mowgli again. Lots of flash but at those prices I wished it had...

I visited Mowgli Nottingham having been to the Leicester and Liverpool franchises before and had an enjoyable experience.

Mowgli Nottingham was extremely disappointing and unfortunately I would not want to go back out of my own choice. If I was attending with a group of friends or colleagues okay enough, but would not go out of my way to suggest or go again.

Let's start with the drink, great menu and options with lovely cocktails and mocktails to choose from but not prepared or with ingredients to the standard of Leicester or Liverpool so arrived and so was disappointed. Also ordered a masala chai, thinking in an 'authentic' Indian restaurant I would be served chai, again the price point would suggest this. What arrived was a herbal tea bag in luke warm water and a little bottle of milk on the side. When the waitress returned I let her know this was not what I expected rather than ask if I would like something else or offer to change my drink she simply said yes no that's not what they do here.

Whilst the menu is the same as the other restaurant locations, the food and drink at Nottingham was memorable for all the wrong reasons. The quality of the ingredients was terrible given the price point, I would have expected fresh ingredients prepared in house, served hot. This was far from the experience I had. Curries were bland, watery, frozen and microwaved would be my guess. Curries: house chicken - probably the most flavourful or what we ordered but not enjoyable, not served hot, and quality of chicken was extremely cheap and again not as expected, paneer was undercooked and lazy, no flavour or texture. Prawn curry was like a can of tomatoes blended with four to six frozen prawns added with a little seasoning, flavour of heinz tomato and basil soup.

Had significantly better food from takeaways, which is shame given the price, location, and atmosphere.

That being said while the food was terrible, the atmosphere is lovely and the manager was extremely amicable and took time to listen to why I did not have an...