‘It feels like now is the right time’: Indian restaurant Mughli to open in upcoming Manchester food hall

Punjabi restaurant Mughli is set to launch its first city-centre outpost at Manchester’s upcoming food hall, House of Social, this summer.

 

The family-run diner dates back to 1991, having made its mark on Rusholme’s Curry Mile with its street-food-style dishes such as Lahori spinach curry and the Bombay sandwich under its late founder “Uncle Peter”, who died in 2009.

 

Since then, his four sons have taken over the business and are now in the process of expanding the brand through a residency partnership with Vita Group’s House of Social, a 12,000 sq ft food hall opening in central Manchester this summer.

 

The venue will also include co-working spaces, a dedicated fitness and wellbeing studio and 570 bedrooms for students, who will be given special access to “secret menus”.

 

 

The House of Social food hall will be spread across two floors consisting of five kitchens, a central bar and a mezzanine complete with pool tables, a projector screen, DJ booth, private dining room and additional bar area. 

 

Mughli will be joined by four other kitchens once House of Social officially opens its doors in early August, following a soft-launch period in May with Manchester Jazz Festival. 

 

All five stands have been selected by Jake Atkinson, former operations manager of Mackie Mayor, the Picturedrome and Altrincham Market, who told The Caterer he has a “black book of great contacts I’ve been able to pick and choose from” over his eight years in the industry.

 

“I’ve chosen five operators who I think are going to be great for the style of concept, the city and also have a great brand. They are strong operators who will hopefully allow us to put this new venue on the map,” he added.

 

The House of Social outpost of Mughli will serve classics from the flagship restaurant on Wilmslow Road, including its renowned butter chicken, as well as a selection of yet-to-be-revealed dishes exclusive to the new opening.

 

 

Shaz Arshad, one of the brothers leading Mughli, told The Caterer: “We’ve always had a lot of love from the city centre and with ever-growing Manchester, it just feels like now is the right time.

 

“[My brothers and I have] eaten at Mughli like every week of our lives and then we got involved and it became every day of our lives, so it’s just something that we’ve grown up with. I’ve become a bit more hands-on in the last five or six years and I really wanted to be a part of it and have never looked back since.”

 

As to whether Mughli has plans to further expand, Arshad said: “It depends on how well we do at House of Social! I think Jake’s got a lot of interesting ideas, so if House of Social and Mughli takes off with the first site, then why not – we’d be stupid to say no.”

 

Atkinson added: “For us, Mughli is a great restaurant brand in Manchester and we are hoping and looking to do more House of Socials across different cities in the UK. Obviously, if these guys are as happy as we are with them once we are open, we would look to bring them to different spaces across the UK and that’s the future plan and kind of what we are aiming for.”  

 

Vita Group was founded in 2012 and provides student housing in the UK and Spain through brands such as Vita Student, Uhaus, Union and House of Social.