Mowgli Street Food Preston review: We swing by the hottest new addition to the city's booming restaurant scene to test out the Indian home kitchen concept

That said, a swing can be useful if you need room for expansion during a meal at Preston’s hottest new restaurant.

The much-anticipated Mowgli’s is up and running and has transformed one corner of the city’s historic Miller Arcade into a sparkling experience paying homage to Indian home cooking at its finest - and giving Preston’s high street a boost.

The Mowgli concept is a labour of love, which began with a young girl from Lancashire growing up as part of an Indian family subjected to appalling racist abuse, trying to win round the community through food. Nisha Katona initially trained as a barrister, but it was her love of food which later turned her appalling formative experiences into success with Mowgli, starting from one restaurant in Liverpool – Preston is her sixth.

It really is something to look at; Preston’s new Mowgli is not what the British term ‘ a curry house’, and is certainly not intended to be a quiet relaxing spot for murmuring in low voices while eating enormous masala dishes.

Instead, with its shine, buzz and happy atmosphere – and the famous tables with swing seats lining the floor to ceiling windows - it’s buzzy, sociable and even dog-friendly.

The food is a presentation of what Indian families eat at home; fresh, spicy, and often healthy and good value. With its menu of Tapas-style dishes, it offers a dazzling of the senses yet is not unmanageably filling. The joy is in the mix and the spices and the not knowing.

Advised that three dishes each each (they come in from around £3 to £10) was a wise portion size, we of course ordered four in the name of research, and we should have listened but regret nothing.

As the food was delivered to the table, each dish carried out when ready, it became clear we were in for a very special meal. We tried a bit of everything, from meat and fish dishes, to the vegan options, we really could not fault – if the cacophony of oohs and aahs is a measure.

From Chat bombs to Gunpowder chicken, from Angry Bird’s to Monkey Wraps, to Mother Butter Chicken to Picnic Potato curry, the dishes came fast and furiously, all a new experience for the senses.

Must-have’s include the aforementioned Gunpowder Chicken, chicken poppers with ginger, garam masala, golden friend in a chickpea batter and Auntie Geeta’s prawn curry; tomatoes tangled with panch phoron, green chilli, fennel, garden peas and mustard – the menu says it’s utterly addictive and it was right.

We found ourselves wanting to try anything and the good-mood enhancing properties of the spices, saw everyone happy and content. And no, we couldn’t eat it all – though we had a good go. And we still couldn’t resist the cocktails – my expresso martini laced with garam masala was just what the doctor ordered and a little bit different.

I can’t under emphasise enough what a good addition Mowgli is to Preston - somewhere new, sociable and experiential to add to the mix of existing food businessesand perfect for dates, for mates, for families and for shoppers.

But you’ll need to book. Five stars.