First Look at Astoria Biryani House

Wichita has seen a slew of new Indian restaurants in Wichita and the latest one, Astoria Biryani House, has opened in the former Uno Mas space at 3242 N. Rock Road that was also once a Pita Pit.

The restaurant is running a soft opening at the moment and plans to have their grand opening some time around Thanksgiving. If you’ve been to an Astoria Biryani House in Omaha, Nebraska, this is from the same owners.

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3242 N. Rock Road, Wichita, KS 67226
316-351-5544

Tuesday – Thursday: 11am – 2pm; 5pm – 9pm
Friday: 11am – 2:30pm; 5pm – 9:30pm
Saturday – Sunday: 11:30am – 3pm; 5pm – 9pm
Closed on Monday

Website
Cash/Card Accepted
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For our main entrées at Astoria Biryani House, we had the shrimp tikka masala and the goat dum biryani. We also ordered some bullet naan, which was a spicy version of their naan and sounded delicious. Our server asked what spice level we wanted for our dishes and I asked for medium while Megan asked for mild.

There was a steady flow of customers in the restaurant, and our food did take a little longer than expected for a lunch visit. While we were sitting there, they came out to apologize for the food and let us know the food was taking longer than expected and offered us some drinks. We took them up on the offer and asked for the Limca which is a popular soft drink in India, that had a very lemony bite to it. More so than other drinks you’d compare it to, like a 7Up or Sprite.

Next up, our naan came out. After the first bite, we noticed there was no spice to it. There was some crunch to the naan, and could have used a little more butter to it. Moments later, another employee came up and apologized and said they gave us the wrong naan and the bullet naan was taking longer than expected. So, that explained the lack of spice. We were given plain naan.

Megan received her dish first, the shrimp tikka masala. It was an excellent choice; rich, creamy, sweet, tangy, all mixed into one dish. Since I hadn’t received mine yet, I caught myself sneaking in a few bites of her dish while I waited.

After she was done, my goat dum biryani arrived well after. Don’t let the bowl fool you, there was plenty of goat underneath and it was more food than I needed for lunch. I asked for medium and that’s precisely what they provided. It was the perfect amount of heat I was looking for and had the classic aroma that one would expect from biryani. This was another excellent choice and one I was very satisfied with; even had plenty to take home and have for dinner.

We asked for to go containers and around that time, our bullet naan finally arrived but it was too late for us to eat as we had to return to work. They did charge us for the bullet naan, but comped the plain naan. The complimentary Limca drink, they also offered us, was mistakenly put on our tab. I went ahead and paid it, despite the $2.99 price tag.

The service at Astoria Biryani House could have used a little work but they have plenty of time to work on that as they head towards a grand opening date later this month.

On a positive note, the food was exceptional. If they can get over the kinks, there’s a bright future ahead. My only other concerns for Astoria Biryani House are it doesn’t have the best visibility from Rock Road, and Kababs is across the street. Aside from all that, this is still worth a try to see what you think.

Here’s the Astoria Biryani House menu:

Happy Dining,
Eddy