THE news that Wirral-based chef Nisha Katona will be presenting a new TV series called from her home gave us the perfect excuse to make a visit to her Mowgli restaurant on Liverpool's Bold Street.

Opening in 2014, the Bold Street branch was the first of Nisha's restaurants to open nationally. Inspired by the food that Indians eat at home, the recipes and spice blends have been handed down through generations and are cooked fresh every day in the Mowgli kitchen.

This month sees them launch Christmas Feasting Menu. At £35 per person and running from November 4 to January 5, it's perfect if you're planning a Christmas get-together or organising a festive meal with colleagues.

I visited with my wife on a cold and wet Sunday afternoon and was immediately made to feel warm and welcoming in the restaurants intimate and stylish surroundings. The staff are excellent too - friendly and attentive and eager to give advice on the dishes. 

The Mowgli Christmas Feasting menu begins with a glass of bubbles or a cold Cobra beer at the table alongside Mowgli's famous Chat Bombs - these extraordinary little creations consist of crisp bread puffs filled with chickpeas, spiced yoghurt, tamarind and coriander and have to be eaten within five minutes of being cooked or you don't get the literal explosion of taste in your mouth that they provide. 

(Image: Rebecca Bowman) Next up is the Street Chats and Street Meats selection which gives you the option of choosing from the heady Fenugreek Kissed Fries, punchy Gunpowder Chicken or the crowd-pleasing Himalayan Cheese on Toast.

We actually decided to greedily get all three with the wintry spiced ooze of strong cheddar on the toast a particular hit reminding us both of a more exotic yet comforting Welsh Rarebit with the Indian Pickle the perfect accompaniment. 

The Fenugreek Fries came in fabulously well-spiced chunks and could only have been improved by being slightly crispier. 

As the meat-eater I had the Gunpowder Chicken all to myself and I was more than happy to polish off the gnarled nuggets that unfurl into big flavour thanks to the incredible garlic, ginger and chickpea batter which gave them a very pleasing kick.

(Image: Rebecca Bowman) For the main event, there's a selection of towering tiffins of meat and vegetable curries with rice to share. Nisha describe these recipes as "family heirlooms, freshly cooked each morning" and to give you that real Indian home kitchen thrill, the dishes are chosen and curated by the chef and the tiffin roulette is total pot luck, as it is in India.

I opted for the Office Worker's Tiffin and was rewarded with Mowgli House Curry - a lush Kerelan curry simmered with fragrant curry leaves, coconut milk & ground almonds. While, as the ingredients suggest, this is not the spiciest curry you will ever eat but it was tantalising rather than tame.

I also loved the Temple Dahl, a dish I'm not always overly convinced by when in your everyday curry house, but this simmering dish of red lentils with toasted cumin, coriander and lemon really delivered with the floating chilis providing the requisite heat. 

Vegans are well-catered for at Mowgli and although my wife was slightly disappointed by the Tea Steeped Chickpeas' Darjeeling spiced tomato and spinach rather watery sauce she was far more impressed by the Keema Karma's mix of succulent ground plant protein with roast cumin, cloves, tomato, peas and pulses. As she suggested it is easy to dry these meat substitutes out but there was plenty of moisture and and texture as well as spice and flavour.

Desserts may seem like something of an afterthought after that little lot but the Festive Menu rounds things off beautifully with a choice of either the indulgent Mowgli Chocolate Brownie with ice cream or Mango Sorbet served in waffle cones. Both were delicious. 

If you're not looking forward to the same old Christmas menu on your forthcoming woks do with its hoary old turkey, stuffing and burnt pigs in blankets, than Mowgli's festive offering is the