Kulture Kurry brings northern Indian cuisine to Overland Park

Growing up in northern India, Roushan Kumar ate lots of naan, kabobs and other traditional foods baked in clay tandoor ovens. At home, his mom would make fragrant curries, vegetarian dishes and roti, a pan-fried flatbread.

Kumar’s love for Indian cuisine continued into adulthood: The Kansas City-based computer engineer cooks curry at home and scouts out restaurants on business trips to Chicago and New Jersey. Last year, when he couldn’t find the food he craved locally, Kumar decided to open his own northern Indian restaurant, Kulture Kurry, in Overland Park’s Shops at Corporate Woods.

Before the restaurant opened in November, Kumar hired a chef, Nazar Abbas, who hails from northern India. He also hired a general manager, servers and a decorator who could make the strip mall location feel more upscale.

Kumar says he didn’t want his restaurants to have paintings of elephants or photos of the Taj Mahal.

“Sometimes that’s too much,” he says. “I wanted a soothing interior design.”

Kulture Kurry has deep crimson walls, stylishly modern light fixtures and vibrant paintings of mandalas on the walls. White tablecloths and votive candles adorn the tables.

The restaurant’s extensive dinner menu features a wide variety of shareable appetizers that pair well with a mango-laced cocktail from the full bar. Options include chili garlic shrimp ($9), tandoori chicken lettuce wraps ($10) and masala crab cakes ($11).

Kulture Kurry also serves several varieties of bread (naan and roti included), soups, salads and a long list of entrees. House specialties include chicken makhani ($14), chicken cooked in a smooth tomato gravy, and Kansas Krackle ($15) a medley of tandoor oven-roasted meats served over rice with a spicy sauce.

Vegetarians have lots of options at Kulture Kurry: The dinner menu boasts 13 meat-free entrees, including Kulture Korma ($14), vegetables braised in a rich sauce made with yogurt and coconut milk.

Good service and authenticity are important to Kumar. He says many Indian restaurants tone down the spice level in their recipes or add butter and cream to appease the American palate.

“Indian food doesn’t mean spicy food,” Kumar says. To him, Indian food is about balance: Finding that perfect blend of fresh spices that maximizes a dish’s aroma and flavor and cooking them slowly, with proper technique.

The best way to sample several of Kulture Kurry’s offerings is during lunch, when $12 buys a plate of two entrees, plus rice and naan. Customers can also build their own “Indo-Oriental Fusion Bowl” ($9) by choosing a sauce (garlic, chili, green curry), meat or vegetables, and rice or noodles.

Recently I went to Kulture Kurry for the restaurant’s lunch buffet, which is available from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. (The buffet costs $13 on weekends or $11 on Mondays; Kumar is considering expanding it to other weekdays).

At the buffet, I tried a little bit of everything, then went back for second helpings of chicken vindaloo, a spicy chicken and potato dish that tastes great nacho-style on a wedge of naan, and mango lassi, a cooling smoothie-like drink made with fruit and yogurt.

Kulture Kurry’s buffet often features biryani, a slow-cooked rice dish popular in southern India.

Biryani is the specialty at Kumar’s second Overland Park Indian restaurant, The Paradise Biryani Pointe, which he opened in January at 7301 W. 91st St.

The Paradise Biryani Pointe is a national restaurant chain specializing in southern Indian cuisine. Kumar, who also runs an IT consulting firm called Randel Solutions, found out about the franchise opportunity while working to open Kulture Kurry. He briefly considered passing it up because he was busy enough with two businesses.

“I thought, ‘If I don’t do it, somebody else will take it,’” Kumar says. And owning a southern and a northern Indian restaurant seemed like a good business move.

“That way,” Kumar says, “I can capture both sides of the market.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Kulture Kurry brings northern Indian cuisine to Overland Park."