Mowgli

78 St Vincent Street

Glasgow

Menu: A lot of effort has gone into thinking up new names for Indian dishes that have been about for aeons. Fenugreek Fries, Yoghurt Chat Bombs and Picnic Curries do have a zingy ring. 4/5

Service: They are clearly ordered to do the tiresome let-me-explain-the-menu in detail chat, but otherwise pleasant and helpful. 4/5

Atmosphere: I sat in the mezzanine in a restaurant that was crowded even on a Wednesday tea-time. Good buzz about the place in its opening days. 4/5

Price: Small dishes always equal pretty big bills. That four prawn curry was £8, yoghurt bombs a fiver, main-ish dishes are pretty small but don’t top £9. Rice and rotis extra. 3/5

Food: Mowgli may be a chain, and it shows in the presentation, but their skill is in packing flavour into low fat Indian food. You’ll probably remember what you ate. 7/10

22/30

SHOULD I really be surprised when the waiter looms up at my table minutes after taking my order?

“Er, my manager says that may be a little too much.” Awkward.

This, I sigh to myself, could be punishment for skipping that usually tiresome, usually upselling-motivated, chain restaurant introductory talk I was offered when I sat down.

Or could it be that Mowgli expends so much effort on virtue-signalling that it doesn’t think twice in poking its nose in its customers lives?

This and other questions I ponder as I blithely plop Yoghurt Chat Bombs one after the other in my mouth. These are good.

Yes, I’ve got a big bag of the same little floury pillow cases in the cupboard at home, Heera calls them (correctly) Golgappa or Pani Puri and knocks them out ready to fill for a fiver or so.

In here, brimming with yoghurt, tamarind, coriander, gloopily spiced they’re tangy and condensed milky, if a little soggy at the bottom. Soggy bottoms, too, on the Gunpowder Chicken, bored-looking garnish of chilli and red onion atop a chickpea batter, a sweetly, sour tamarindy sauce draped over that.

They easily get away with both of these because those sweet, spicy flavours are so powerful. And though I waste a good few minutes trying to work out if exactly the same sauce is draped over the Fenugreek Fries, and I think it is, I’ve got to say this is still wake-me-up-before-I-go-go stuff.

Now, if you’ve missed the memo, and judging by how busy this place is on a Wednesday evening not many have, Mowgli is not just yet another mega chain restaurant finally getting round to opening up in Glasgow. But a whole new way to eat street food. In a chain restaurant.

They’ll slip an extra £1 of your money on your bill for charity and boast how much they’ve given on their website; they’ll take 12.5% for a tip and promise it all goes to the staff.

The charity thing is hardly new. Jamie Oliver, remember him? But I’ve been wary about restaurants and tips ever since it emerged Carluccio’s gave all the tips to their staff: and called them wages. Lol.

Anyway, I like very much the Picnic Potato Curry: the potatoes are good quality, occasionally sticky, crunchy from the pan and the tomatoey sauce has a definite spice to it.

Tea-steeped chickpeas? Hmmm. Another tomato based sauce, this time it’s the slightly bitter tang from the chickpeas that adds character. And now it’s on to Aunty Geeta’s Prawn Curry with Panch Phoron, which is probably more of that Bengali Five Spice than was in the potato curry.

I think Aunty Geeta would probably be a tad disappointed at the four waxy, completely bland prawns that appear in this and I get zero fish stock flavour. But once again it’s a punchy spiced tomato based sauce.

Calcutta Tangled Greens anyone? Shredded cabbage, mustard seed, sugar? Perfectly pleasant and slightly different side dish that has the virtue, says the menu, of having a low carbon footprint.

Eh? Hang on. Here Mowgli is actually breaking new ground. Low carbon dishes? Meaning what? Does it travel up from a factory in England in a different van from the high carbon items? Or is some of this stuff hand-picked from the banks of River Clyde? Meh.

Now, apart from that probable marketing mince is there really anything new in here? They have Bunny Chows, Goan Fish Curries, Butter Chickens and Bhel Puri which along with that Golgappa has certainly been available in some restaurants at Glasgow for about 20 years. I’m thinking of Balbirs here.

Probably not then, but I have noticed one thing. There has been zero ghee, or fat, in anything. The spicing is powerful and memorable, even if most things seems tamarind sweet.

As for the manager’s worry that I had ordered too much. Not a chance. Dishes are small, food generally light. Their real secret weapon.