Mowgli, the Indian street food chain that has found extraordinary success since its launch in Liverpool seven years ago, opens its first branch in London next week, in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia.

Dubbed “Liverpool’s answer to Dishoom”, Mowgli was founded by former barrister Nisha Katona to showcase the sort of food that Indian people eat at home or out on the street – and to demonstrate that Indian food can be healthy as well as tasty.

She has said she prefers to employ “curry virgins” as staff and train them herself, rather than hire experienced Indian chefs and run the risk that they will cook standard British curry-house dishes.

There are already Mowgli branches in Manchester, Cheshire, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Leicester, Oxford and Cheltenham, with further openings scheduled next year in Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Brighton.