Indian restaurant chain Mowgli issues update on first Bristol opening

A huge new Indian restaurant will open in Bristol - four years after it first announced it was launching in the city.

Work has finally started on Mowgli Street Food, which has taken over the former Pizza Express site in Corn Street.

The restaurant chain originally revealed that it was to open its first Bristol restaurant back in 2019 but plans were stalled due to the pandemic and also the amount of work that needs to be done on the 19th-century former bank.

But now founder Nisha Katona has confirmed that Mowgli Street Food will open in Bristol ‘this winter’, although there is no exact date yet.

She said: “It took us ages to find the right corner of this incredible city, but you asked for a Mowgli in Bristol and we have searched long andhard ever since”.

The new building is what former barrister Katona calls “very Mowgli”. Set inside the elegantly high-ceilinged buildings of Corn Street, she says the grand space will be home to ‘the fresh, light zing of Indian food unplugged’.

“There are many old buildings like this in India from a bygone era into which life and trees and food markets sneak and grow respectfully, and exotically. I will bring my trees and lanterns, branches and ropes with our chat bombs and cheese toast and gunpowder chicken,” she says.

Since opening in Liverpool in 2014, Mowgli has expanded across the UK and Corn Street will be the 21st site to open. Mowgli’s menu is entirely comprised from the founder’s family recipes and, she says, is about ‘how Indians eat in the privacy of their home kitchens and favourite lunchtime street stalls’.

She said: “I’m full of enthusiasm, for every Mowgli we create 30 jobs and aim to raise over £500k per year for charity. Everything is cooked fresh to my exact spec every morning and every day we know we are only as good as our last curry. We hope diners will love Mowgli’s passion for healthy, fresh Indian food.”