Beloved Montrose Restaurant Shakes Off Shuttering Plans and Roars Back to Life

It's New Dishes and a Second Chance for Indika

By Annie Gallay // Jun 28, 2019

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Indika is back in the game.

A once treasured Houston restaurant is back in the game. The shocking early June reveal that groundbreaking Indian restaurant Indika would be shuttering for good on June 30th turned out to be a false alarm.

Despite announcing otherwise, Indika is now staying open according to owner Mickey Kapoor. The restaurant is revving back up — with a few new mouthwatering bonuses.

Kapoor of Khyber, initially had ambitious aims to reinvent Indika as a new restaurant named Bukhara. Inspired by the Silk Road, Bukhara would offer dishes inspired by a particular region of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

The Silk Road connected China and the Middle East, and its culinary creations revolved around dishes like kebabs and paneer. The goal was to open Bukhara in mid-July.

But now, Kapoor’s dropped the new name. Instituting a brand new moniker would entail an extensive permitting process chock-a-block full of new ordinances — and what would surely be an administrative headache.

So instead of transforming the 18-year-old pioneering Indika into a new restaurant built on 15 or 16 dishes, Kapoor will keep the name Indika and incorporate some of the planned Bukhara eats into the menu.

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India-trained chef Suraj Kant will team up with current Indika chef Dipak Aryal of Nepal to create the new twists.

But don’t count Bukhara out just yet. Kapoor’s still plotting to open that new restaurant later in an as-yet undisclosed location.

It’s not entirely surprising that Indika is undergoing this intense revolution. After all, award-winning chef Anita Jaisinghani, the heart and soul of the restaurant, cut ties with it back in 2017 so she could launch the now-mainstay Pondicheri.

Now, it’s a whole new era for Indika. If only The Pass & Provisions would follow suit and come back as well.