As soon as I found out Mowgli was opening, I booked a table for my meetup group to go along – this was because I had heard so much about the Mowgli group but never actually been and I am an avid Great British Menu fan and founder of Mowgli, Nisha Katona, is also a judge on that!
Mowgli Edinburgh opened in late April 23 on Hanover Street. From the outside you really can’t appreciate the beauty of the restaurant, especially the building itself. Mowgli is set in an old bank and the Mowgli team have ensured all the original features are still proudly on show – old wooden doors, beautiful cornicing and the most spectacular domed roof. The décor features lots of fairy lights and cleverly arranged seating complete with a few swing seats!!
The Food
The menu is a collection of small plates which arrived at the table when ready (however most of ours did come around the same time which was great) – there are no starters, mains etc and you are free to order as much as you would like. Ordering around 2 -3 dishes seemed enough for us but as always it depends what you ordered. As we had never been before our waitress was excellent at recommending dishes and you could really tell she was excited about the dishes she recommended.
As there were 6 of us, we ordered quite a selection – this is some of what we ordered:
Street Chat: Yogurt Chat bombs / Treacle tamarind fries / Mowgli chip butty
Street Meats: Angry Bird / Monkey wrap / Maa’s lamb chops
The Hindu Kitchen: Tea steeped Chickpeas / Mowgli Paneer
The House Kitchen: Mowgli House Keema / Agra Ginger Chicken / Mother Butter Chicken
Curry Companions: Calcutta Tangled Greens / Roti Breads
Desserts: Homemade Ice Cream Cones / The Mowgli Chocolate Brownie
A few of the standouts (actually they were all standouts) so a few of the ones I had were:
Angry Bird – beautifully cooked boneless chicken thighs covered in a delicious marinated of tandoor spices, ginger and garlic which came with a side of the Mowgli slaw which was equally good and the perfect accompaniment
Treacle tamarind fries – sweet, sticky fries which you had to keep eating. AMAZING!!
Mowgli Chip Butty – In Scotland we love a chip butty and this was one of the best – be aware though its big so take that into account when ordering!
Calcutta Tangled Greens – so firstly these are green but a vibrant yellow dish with drumhead cabbage which accompanied everything beautifully
Homemade Ice Cones – I love ice cream! There were 3 flavours – salted caramel, coconut and mango sorbet. We tried them all! Ice cream was tasty and the cone was filled all the way to the bottom which is a massive plus!
I have picked out a few of the dishes I had or saw others really enjoying but honestly there was no bad dish – the beautiful setting is secondary to the beautiful food and I thoroughly recommend trying it out. There are so many dishes I still need to try I know I will be back!
The AF Alternatives
I had booked Mowgli for the food but I was so pleased to see Lucky Saint alcohol free lager on the menu and a mocktail list – of which I can confirm the Mango Tonic mocktail and the Mowgli Twister mocktail as delicious – and there is also mango lassi to try!
Final Thoughts