Owners of new east-side Indian restaurant say food will be authentic, not ‘Americanized’
Fans of Indian food in Wichita are about to have a lot more options.
On the heels of news that The Mango Tree Indian Kitchen + Tap House is opening in the former Angry Elephant south space at 111 E. 47th St. South comes word that another Indian restaurant is coming to Wichita — this one on the east side.
Astoria Biryani House is taking over the space at 3242 N. Rock Road that Uno Mas vacated last month. The owners say they plan to launch a soft opening with a limited menu on Oct. 26 then celebrate a grand opening around Thanksgiving.
The owners — partners Prasad Kandimalla and Adi Kancharla — are from Omaha, where they own two Indian restaurants. They’ve operated an Astoria Biryani House there for the past 10 years, they said.
They say they are planning to deliver something Wichita is missing: authentic Indian food, not the Americanized version that lacks spices like cardamom, cloves and cinnamon.
“We use all those to get the real taste of the Indian food,” Kandimalla said, adding that the restaurant’s slogan is “Rich in Taste and Rich in Culture.”
The restaurant will specialize in biryani and will have 15 to 20 different types. Biryani is a rice dish made with different proteins, vegetables and spices, and Astoria will specialize in “Hyderabad Dum” biryani, which are the type of biryani made famous in the Southern Indian city of Hyderabad and is made with marinated meat and rice cooked together slowly in a sealed pot as aromatic steam escapes.
The restaurant also will have curries, tandoori “sizzlers,” stuffed naan, soups and appetizers, and all regions of India will be represented in the dishes, Kandimalla said.
“Our lamb naan is one of the best,” he said.
Astoria will have seating inside for 40 and will be a full-service restaurant where a server takes orders at the table. One unique feature: It will also have a drive-through, which the owners say they’ll test out during the soft-opening period.
“Indian drive through is a challenge because with Indian food, we make everything fresh when we get the order,” he said. “So we want to test the waters for one month before we do a grand opening for Thanksgiving.”
The restaurant will be open six days a week and will likely close on Mondays, though the owners haven’t made a final decision. It will be open on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch and from 5 to 9:30 p.m. for dinner. On Fridays and Saturdays, lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner will be served from 5 to 10 p.m. On Sundays, lunch will be served from 11:30 to 3 p.m., and dinner will be served from 5 to 9:30 p.m.
The owners say they’re open to adding a second Astoria Biryani house in Wichita, but they want to see how customers respond to the first restaurant.
What happened to Uno Mas?
Abel Rodriguez closed his last Uno Mas restaurant, which had operated in the Rock Road space since 2020, in mid-September. (He once had three Uno Mas restaurants across town.)
Contacted this week, he said he wants to focus all of his energy on his Cabron y Vagos at 301 N. Washington, which he opened last year and which he says has morphed into a successful Old Town nightclub that draws crowds to see Mexican bands on the weekends.
“We are concentrating on the bar and entertainment and bringing in bigger name bands,” Rodriguez said.
