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Acclaimed Indian restaurant chain Mowgli to open in Bristol
“An Indian home kitchen” in a historic former bank on Corn Street will be the latest opening from a growing chain of acclaimed restaurants.
Former barrister Nisha Katona opened the first Mowgli in her home city of Liverpool in 2014. The brand has since expanded and now has restaurants in Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford, Nottingham and Sheffield.
Mowgli’s first restaurant in Bristol is due to open in October in what is currently Pizza Express, just a few hundred yards from another new Indian restaurant, Dhamaka on Clare Street, and well-established Old India on St Nicholas Street.
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35 Corn Street is a Grade II*-listed building with a 14th or 15th Century vault beneath the 1811 bank. It is described in An Architectural History: Bristol as “an exceptionally fine and complete example of an early C19 bank, which has also retained a very rare and notable example of a late medieval vaulted undercroft”.
On Twitter, Katona wrote: “It took us ages to find the right corner of this incredible city but you asked for a Mowgli in Bristol and we trawled long and hard ever since. I love this stunning high ceilinged old building on Corn Street. It is very very (sic) indeed.”
Katona, who is also a food writer and cookery teacher, says that Mowgli “is all about how Indians eat at home and on their streets”.
One of the features of its menu is tiffin boxes made famous in Bristol by the Thali Cafe. At Mowgli, tiffins are ordered not knowing what is inside, with four tiers of meat, veg and carbs, with gluten-free and vegan options available.
Elsewhere, dishes come out of the kitchen when they are ready, including roti wraps, sticky wings, paneer, potato curry, butter chicken and – what is described as their “showstopper” – bunny chow, a fruity, hot, chicken and potato curry served inside a bread loaf.
Mowgli received £3.45m in funding from private equity firm Foresight Group in 2017 to aid its UK expansion.
As well as the new Bristol restaurant, sites in Cardiff and Leicester are also due to open this year.
“If you have an idea you can’t let it sleep,” Katona told North West Business Insider last year. “I thought if I’m so passionate about these dishes, maybe others will be too.
“There’s a line in Hamlet that says there’s a tide in the affairs of men and if you take it at the flood it leads to fortune, but if missed you’ll dwell in the shallows of sadness for the rest of your life.
“There’s a voice in the entrepreneur that tells you this.”
Read more: Boutique hotel plans for empty Corn Street buildings
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