Indian street food chain Mowgli has been on the list to go to for quite a while, having had some good recommendations from friends. (If you’ve ever been past, you’ll know it as the place with swings in the window.)

We managed to get there in half term as one of our staycation treats and the boys insisted on the swing seat tables, of course. Although we were there for an early tea and it was fairly quiet, the abundance of fairy lights and trees created a great atmosphere. Full marks for the styling – even the water bottles have their trademark monkeys on.

We started with a cocktail while we perused the menu – mine was a Lychee rose martini, his a Chilli mango margarita. Definitely getting into the holiday vibe!

Top marks, as always, for a clear gluten free menu with plenty of choice (well… “gluten friendly” with the usual disclaimers, but the staff were pretty clued up). We ordered a variety of sharing dishes – from top left in the pictures below: Sticky chicken, Maa’s lamb chops and turmeric chips, Tea steeped chickpeas and House keema (lamb), and on the second row, Treacle tamarind fries, then House Keralan chicken curry, Mowgli paneer and Mother butter chicken in the middle pic.

That sounds like stacks! But they aren’t massive portions so two dishes per person was probably about right, with some rice. Everything came served in stacked tiffin boxes that were unpacked at the table, and we ate from hammered steel plates, so it all looked great.

The boys’ absolute favourites hands down were the two sweetest dishes – the sticky chicken and the treacle tamarind chips. They got polished off very quickly. My favourite was probably the fragrant house Keralan chicken curry and I loved the turmeric chips that came with the lamb. I also really enjoyed the paneer and the chickpeas – I love Indian vegetarian food. Each dish had a totally different flavour and colour and I’d happily have any of them again. (The main course dishes ranged in price from £5 to £9.95.)

We didn’t really need any pudding after all of that! But we had spotted that the gluten free menu contained a very rare offering indeed – a home made gluten free ice cream cone! Whaaat?! So there was no way we were leaving without trying that, and I’m assured it was brilliant, although I wasn’t offered any…

I have a soft spot for mango lassi so I had that instead of a pudding, and it rounded off the meal nicely.

Overall, we had a briliant experience at Mowgli and will definitely be back as there’s so much more to try! Next time, I’ll be leaving room for an ice cream cone, but we might just sit at a regular table.

Mowgli
631 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield S11 8PT