Pasta with butter chicken sauce takes a cue from a favorite Curry Pizza House pie. | Photos courtesy of Curry Pizza House
Indian dishes like butter chicken and chicken tikka are no longer exotic to most of the American dining public, and Curry Pizza House is playing into that familiarity.
“Everyone loves butter chicken, so we put it on our pizza, but the flavors are not over-the-top spicy,” said Neelu Gill, co-founder and partner of the 42-unit Fremont, California-based fast casual. “We’re providing customers with the best of both worlds on a familiar platform.”
Aside from the Butter Chicken Pizza, Curry Pizza House offers about 20 others with Indian-inspired toppings, including Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Tikka, Lamb Kebab, Palak Paneer, and Curry Veggie Delight. “Customers and franchisees came back to us and said, ‘can we get some of these flavors on pastas too?’” said Gill. “So we started experimenting in house at our corporate restaurant.”
Pastas join the lineup
The first “experiment” turned into Butter Sauce Pasta, a relatively seamless dish to develop. The dried pasta was the only new SKU brought in; the vegetables and other ingredients were already in-house, and the item uses the same butter chicken sauce as the pizza. The only tweak: The sauce had to be thinned a bit to coat the pasta.
The final dish is a combination of seasoned penne pasta, butter chicken sauce, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese. The team chose penne because “it’s easy to eat for everyone and doesn’t require twirling,” said Gill.
Three other pastas were developed as well, cross-utilizing ingredients but aiming for more of an Italian flavor profile. There’s Pesto Sauce Pasta, Marinara Pasta, and Alfredo Pasta, all priced at $12.99.
“We tried other combinations that didn’t work as well or were too complex,” said Gill. “We just wanted to keep it simple and flavorful, and at the end of the day, we’re a pizzeria, not an Indian restaurant, and we just wanted to stay true to that side.” But she isn’t ruling out expanding the selection by adapting other Indian pizza flavor profiles to pastas.
Sports bar fare with a twist
In fact, Curry Pizza House offers chicken wings and fries with Indian accents, too. There are Boneless Tikka Wings seasoned like chicken tikka, Curry Wings with a house blend of curry spices finished with Sriracha and cilantro, Tandoori Wings, and Achari Wings with a side of ranch. Achar is a blend of mustard, fennel, fenugreek, cumin, and other typical spices used to make Indian pickles.
Indian-inspired and all-American wings can be ordered together in the “Wing Party” platter.
On the less adventurous side, there is also a wide selection of more traditional wing flavors, such as BBQ, Lemon Pepper, Mango Habanero, and Hot Wings with spicy Buffalo sauce. Other typical sports bar fare includes Mozzarella Sticks, Jalapeño Poppers, Garlic Sticks, and Onion Rings, but Samosas and Masala Chips reflect the Indian direction of the menu. Some but not all of the locations have a full bar and serve alcohol, depending on the franchisee and footprint, while others just have beer on tap. And there are plenty of TVs to catch pro and college games.
The chain also offers more mainstream pizzas, including plain cheese and pepperoni, and guests who truly want “the best of both worlds” can order the Half ‘n’ Half Pizza, combining any of the Italian-American and Indian toppings on one pie.
The Half ‘n’ Half pizza offers Indian and Italian toppings.
While that pizza epitomizes fusion, Curry Pizza House doesn’t use the word “fusion” to promote its menu. However, many tables fuse items from the Italian, Indian, and all-American sides to create a meal, Gill said. Especially families with kids. Nothing is super-spicy, but customers can ask for extra chiles if they want to dial up the heat.
What’s next?
“We’re always experimenting, adding new items,” said Gill. Right now, the team is developing more options with halal chicken to expand wing choices and pizza toppings. “We’ve had many requests for halal,” she added, “but we need to make sure that all our locations are able to get the product at the same time.”
The chain is in expansion mode, recently opening in San Francisco and debuting its first location in Arizona. Perhaps some of those Indian pizza topping ingredients and pasta sauces will make it into other menu categories as Curry Pizza House continues to grow.
Pat plans and executes menu, food and drink stories for Restaurant Business and hosts the weekly Menu Talk podcast. She provides in-depth coverage of chefs, trends and menu innovation.
View All Articles by This Author
Dining and Cooking