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Mowgli Street Food

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Address: Unit 16, 37 Corn Exchange, City Centre

Phone number: 0161 832 0566

Rating: 4/5

Visited by the Curry Night on: Thursday 29th February 2024 ♦ Wednesday 24th February 2016 (2)

Website: mowglistreetfood.com

General comments: Just when we thought we had covered everywhere curry-flavoured in Manchester, up pops Mowgli Street Food in the Corn Exchange, formerly the Triangle, which has very much experienced somewhat of a rebirth and is now home to a number of independent eateries.  It featured a more tapas-style menu, which initially suggested some logistical challenges, but this was countered by the adherence to the set menu, which spaceman was informed was a tried-and-tested approach to trying a broad selection whilst keeping everyone happy.  Normally we avoid such path-following, but in this case it made a lot of sense, particularly since we'd probably end up having half the menu anyway.  The general consensus was that it was a good thing, featuring a wide selection of sometimes innovative concoctions at a reasonable price, but with the flipside being that we perhaps could have a bit more of the "mains".  Nevertheless, since we often leave such restaurants with a feeling of having overeaten, this was perhaps a welcome change in its own way.

"Chic surrounds, though glad not to be seated on a swing.  Started with a bonus box of lamb chops [nearby diners had had it boxed up but could not face taking it with them].  Then actual starters, and for main I chose the tiffin box - which was a delicious feast."

"The 29 February 2024 Leap Day Curry Night at Mowgli was a cosy and enjoyable evening with great company.  Fairly disorganised - original cancellation of the booking and took a while to get seated.  This was more than made up for by the good selection of freebies: spaceman subsidised the bill with his prepayment of curry night bills [having messed up the maths at the previous Curry Night], Ratty chipped in a tenner (but didn't turn up to the night [it had been found on the floor]), and Rae accepted the free lamb chops from the table next door, which added to the fun and variety of the meal. Overall, it was a good night and I would give it 4 out of 5 stars."

"My feedback on Mowgli would be as follows:

- ambiance very chain restaurant, and a bit too busy for my liking.

- menu a bit confusing and tapas introduces potential stress and disgruntlement (e.g. insufficient chat bombs [there were five between eight but we could have ordered more]).

- however the food was very nice, good flavours.  Not particularly spicy (the things I tried) which works well for me.

- also felt very healthy.  I came away feeling that I'd had quite a bit of veg and not as bloated as a curry would normally leave me.

So overall: tasty, pleasant but not a traditional curry."

"After a serviceable but culinarily unimpressive street food experience last time out (a lamb in gravy isn’t a curry) I had my reservations when I saw that the Power That Be had selected another street food place. (Everywhere is “street food“ these days, despite all being indoors, meaning it is just “food”. Which in turns means its ubiquity shouldn’t actually be noteworthy, so ignore all of this bit in the brackets, ok?)  Pre starter (a random box of potato and minty lamb passed over a little wall by a departing diner) was very nice indeed, but a little bit impractical to split 8 ways. This was representative of starters to come.

I would actually say this was the best food I’ve ever had at Curry Night.  Several starter tapases were absolutely fantastic.  But overall they would really benefit from an Ashoka-style scissor-wielder to split them into manageable units.  Wraps and meat chunks and odd numbers made them logistically challenging to divvy up [but hey we managed and there were no tears].  Mains were similarly delicious but teeny tiny (smaller than each starter tapas).  Again, I was worried when I saw they didn’t do naans AT ALL but the roti etc were all delicious too.  Food earns 5 stars but those stars need to be split 3.7 ways. Which still means there are five of them, but with some faff.  Would definitely go again, especially if someone randomly finds (robs?) a tenner in the office again to give us a discount [definitely finds, although spaceman wasn't actually witness to the discovery]. "

"Not enough food with the set menu.  [Is that your review?  Interesting, though.  Spaceman felt that there were lots and lots of "starters" then the "mains" were probably a bit light, but by that time we were more or less satiated.  There were a few light eaters seemingly on our table so spaceman probably got an above average amount of food, so that might have helped."

"Thought it was really good - the set menu worked given the variety of food even though I was sceptical about it.  Good value too.  The waiter was friendly but said some weird things like "its got all sorts of things in it" when asked what was in a dish.  [Another favourite, when asked the difference between two of the lagers, was the helpful "it's the same but similar" which, whilst slightly contradictory perhaps sums up lagers for some - Ozzy later confirmed in chat with spaceman that he was half-Czech and half-Swedish].  Not that helpful if you are a veggie like Likesa.  Contrary to spaceman's and SonofJacob's beliefs, creamy/milky lager does exist on draught (typically Becks and Stella are prone to it) and I'd be grateful if someone could explain why.  [spaceman checked this with Eddie, featured on this website here, who confirmed that "lots of things can cause the issue however not very common with those big brands as they have systems in place to stop it"]   Don't want to say more in case I'm accused of writing a "Tripadvisor" review!  Thanks as ever for organising.  [Always a pleasure.]"

"Mowgli had been recommended to me as something a little bit different to your normal Indian restaurant and so I was keen to try it (although admittedly something a little bit different has become more and more common, see also Scene, Ziya…). Pleased to say it didn’t disappoint. The restaurant itself has a really nice feel to it; its setting within the Triangle [Corn Exchange] itself I can’t make up my mind if it has a bit of a Vegas casino holiday feel (having lots of restaurants inside) or a bit of a cold and artificial feel, though we were tucked away downstairs so this was only on my mind arriving and leaving (and also when going to the toilet, if you must know [must we? S'pose we must]).

I love the way the food was done, bringing out lots of little dishes over the evening; as well as this being quite nice and exciting to try lots of different things and spacing out eating, it also avoids the long waits sometimes seen at curry places with a big group. The first items were the Chat Bombs which I really enjoyed, nice and different and a great appetiser. Then the Bhel Puri, which I thought was a bit like hot Bombay mix (and after it was pointed out also a bit like a breakfast curry!) was also good. Then came along the Himalayan Cheese Toast and Fenugreek Kissed Fries, again very nice although a little less interesting than the first dishes. Finally ending with the tiffin boxes (little boxes of various curries, rice and bread shared amongst the table): after the initial disappointment of thinking that the only veggie ones were little potatoes and ‘Indian greens’, Spaceman sourced some more curry-like dishes. These were nice enough but I feel like they were my least favourite part of the meal, not particularly exciting and also not hot (temperature) enough.

Funny that my first ever non-drinking curry night seemed to be the first one where there wasn’t a non-drinking discount, but I think this is fair punishment for driving in the first place [this was mainly because spaceman wasn't involved in the bill settling otherwise a two-tiered structure would have been used; also the tip might have been closer to 10% than the 5% rumoured to have been paid]. And a lesson learnt.. curry doesn’t feel the same without beer [amen]. Although I think my abstinence helped with the otherwise inevitable disruption caused by the move to Wednesday (else today I would feel like it’s Friday and be utterly disappointed when my mind cleared up later to reveal it isn’t!).  [A once reluctant reviewer is now the most dependable contributor.]"

"Mowgli's "tapas" style curry was a nice change to the usual one curry and one rice per person. It offered good variety, although perhaps on reflection there wasn't an awful lot of food for the price, but then again it was still pretty reasonable. Overall, I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for something different!  Norwegian Blue [essentially our fourth choice post-meal drinking hole] ...it's certainly no Oast House or Alchemist is it?  [It is not.]"