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Fusion restaurant brings Indian pizza to Palo Alto

Uploaded: Aug 5, 2019
Curry Pizza House is now slinging chili paneer pizzas, desi pesto bread sticks and achari chicken wings in downtown Palo Alto.

The 320 University Ave. restaurant is the seventh location for a small string of fusion eateries started by first-generation Indian-Americans. The first Curry Pizza House opened in Fremont in 2012; there are now seven locations throughout the Bay Area, with more on their way.


Inside the newly opened Curry Pizza House in Palo Alto. Photo via Instagram.

The restaurant's Indian pizzas include toppings such as chicken tikka, curry chicken masala, tandoori chicken and aloo chaat. The menu also includes curry bowls and burritos, naan, samosas, wings and cauliflower crust pizza. Diners can also create their own pizzas from a combination of Indian and traditional ingredients. View the menu here.

The Palo Alto location also boasts a full bar with tap cocktails, beers on tap and a "huge" whiskey collection, the restaurant posted on Instagram, calling the restaurant "the most adventurous of our endeavors."

Curry Pizza House Palo Alto is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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Comments

Posted by Oofa, a resident of Another Mountain View Neighborhood,
on Aug 5, 2019 at 11:36 am

Good luck.


Posted by Please Help, a resident of Charleston Gardens,
on Aug 5, 2019 at 4:21 pm

Please for the love of California, stop using metal Tolix Chairs and Stools. They're uncomfortable, they look butt ugly, and on top of that they are bad for your butt and can lead to hemorrhoids after daily usage. If that's not enough they weren't nationally popular until the French Middle Easterners brought them to us with the popularity of seemingly endless Macron French Pop-up bakeries. Please go back to cushioned chairs and booths. Thank you.


Posted by Don Keedick, a resident of Cuesta Park,
on Aug 5, 2019 at 4:58 pm

Don Keedick is a registered user.

Ok, so this is finally becoming a trend in the west coast. if you go to new york you see many of these, what I call Rahul Gandhi [half Indian, half Italian] joints. This is mostly a good trend, although I agree with the @Please Help about the hemmorhoidal nature of the stools at the location featured


Posted by Hugh Jasol, a resident of Castro City,
on Aug 5, 2019 at 5:25 pm

This sound like them Korean taco places. Love me some mashup!!


Posted by SPS, a resident of Stanford,
on Aug 5, 2019 at 11:42 pm

I agree with above comments, particularly on the fusion and their choice of chairs. I'll add this, this restaurant is surprisingly bad at both Indian and Italian cuisine. The wings were beyond horrible and the pizza left a lot to be desired. The crust on the pizza was acceptable at least.


Posted by SPS, a resident of Stanford,
on Aug 5, 2019 at 11:44 pm

I would like to add: they have a nice draught beer selection.


Posted by Mohatma, a resident of Menlo Park: Downtown,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 9:01 am

No, gross!


Posted by resident, a resident of Midtown,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 9:10 am

Curry pizza sounds silly, but I've seen similar restaurants in San Francisco for at least 10 years. They must be profitable and not just Indian people are eating there. Palo Alto always seems to be at the tail end of these food trends, for some reason.


Posted by Crotchety Geezer, a resident of Crescent Park,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 9:31 am

I have eaten Indian pizza at a couple of joints in Sunnyvale and San Jose. The first time was try it out and the second time I was invited to welcome a friend who was visiting the area.
Indian pizza is an abomination. However, I welcome this new addition to University Avenue and I will try it once with an open mind.
[BTW I am an Indian.]


Posted by A Moral Compass, a resident of Leland Manor/Garland Drive,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 12:15 pm

A Moral Compass is a registered user.

> Good luck.
> No, gross!
> This sound like them Korean taco places.
> I agree with above comments, particularly on the fusion...I'll add this, this restaurant is surprisingly bad at both Indian and Italian cuisine.

^^^ These East Indian pizza entrepreneurs might do better by simply stuffing pita bread with interesting East Indian ingredients/condiments.

Always advisable to stick with what one is good or proficient at.



Posted by Eater, a resident of Mountain View,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 12:33 pm

Well, look.

Pizza is an elastic concept. Most versions familiar in the US were invented here (including the whole idea of making big pies and cutting them into wedges as finger food.) On pizza's home soil of Naples, they are unsliced, personal-sized, eaten on plates with knife and fork, and made with a limited set of traditional toppings that don't include "pepperoni" sausage (another American adaptation), BBQ chicken, pineapple, etc. Going further back historically, pizzas didn't even have tomatoes (a New-World plant), very early recipes had things like herbs and onions baked on bread. Apparently they started in ancient Greece, which transmitted the tradition to its western colony of Naples. Ancient Rome also popularized versions of them. It's pretty much inevitable that people try new forms and toppings when they have bread dough to work with.

So these restaurants might or might not do a good job of it, but "Indian pizza" is absolutely a reasonable idea and might produce some new taste pleasures that catch on.


Posted by Foodie, a resident of Atherton,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 2:29 pm

A new restaurant is always worth trying. But metal or wooden seats are an abomination and should be banned in sit down restaurants! These owners NEED to have cushioned seating! I am keen to try the food, but will not go there until there's comfortable seating. I hope someone persuades the owners


Posted by Happygirl, a resident of Crescent Park,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 2:47 pm

Metal or wooden seats an abomination. They don't want me to stay very long so they make me uncomfortable so the next lucky boy or girl can be seated.


Posted by Change the mural, a resident of Downtown North,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 7:15 pm

I hope they do well, but that mural is awful. Flowing hair like 99% of young women wear today cloning one another.
Trite, unimaginative. Does it come from a shampoo advertisement?


Posted by @foundation, a resident of Barron Park,
on Aug 6, 2019 at 8:47 pm

I think we should first learn the art of making good pizza and then perhaps we can explore variations. Except for a very few restaurants that make descent pizza (e.g Terun in PA), the quality of pizza dishes in our area is really poor. To begin with, restaurants don't know how to make a good pizza crust. That is the foundation of a good pizza. If that is not solid (figuratively speaking), the rest of the ingredients do not matter. The choice and quality of cheese (in cheese pizza) is another critical element. Pizza should not smell like cheese when it is served. Anyway, we really need bring up our consumer standards and complain when are served a bad pizza.


Posted by Someone Out There, a resident of University South,
on Aug 7, 2019 at 8:32 am

Run - attack of the Hemorrhoid Chairs!


Posted by AlexDeLarge, a resident of Midtown,
on Aug 7, 2019 at 10:33 am


It sounds like a stoners delight, I'll check it out...


Posted by Server, a resident of Menlo Park,
on Aug 7, 2019 at 12:34 pm

I can understand why they don't have cushiony comfortable chairs. It's a pizza joint that needs a big customer turnover to be profitable. If the chairs are really comfortable, customers will sit there for a long period of time glued to their smartphones. I was a server in a restaurant and had customers spend over an hour at the table texting and working on their laptop, long after their meal was finished. How is a restaurant/server supposed to make any money if the customers won't leave after eating, freeing up the space for another customer?


Posted by Chairs, a resident of Another Mountain View Neighborhood,
on Aug 7, 2019 at 2:49 pm

Beware of any restaurant that tries to manipulate your behavior with uncomfortable chairs to minimize your time spent there. "Give us your money then get out" is the message. There can be a middle ground where the business doesn't have to revert to making you uncomfortable.

The best restaurants provide a welcoming comfortable environment. The ones to avoid are the ones who just want you gone once they have your money.


Posted by Amen, a resident of Meadow Park,
on Aug 8, 2019 at 9:33 pm

Amen to that my fellow comfort chair brother/sister, amen!


Posted by George, a resident of Old Palo Alto,
on Aug 9, 2019 at 1:27 pm

Have to agree with @foundation - the most popular dish in America is not very good West of Hackensack and pretty not great in Palo Alto. Good pizza first, then variants. Ban cell phones and laptops from restaurants and offer comfortable seats. Good pizza and comfort = lines out the door. Indian pizza? Maybe, good luck.


Posted by Dakka Skintab, a resident of Atherton: other,
on Aug 11, 2019 at 9:16 pm

Why would someone object to a painting of a woman with flowing hair? And did you just assume zher gender? You must have hemorrhoids! Curry up and get out of here!


Posted by Eater, a resident of Mountain View,
on Aug 15, 2019 at 10:40 am

@foundation, a resident of Barron Park: "Except for a very few restaurants that make descent pizza (e.g Terun in PA), the quality of pizza dishes in our area is really poor."

George, a resident of Old Palo Alto: "the most popular dish in America is not very good West of Hackensack"

Of course those are personal taste judgments (even if phrased otherwise: "is really poor" ... "not very good"). I have actually heard people arrived from Naples disdain the weird notions of "pizza" they found in the Northeastern US. Marcella Hazan in her second cookbook (More Classic Italian Cooking) confessed her horror at some of the dishes called "Italian" there, dishes unknown in Italy.

Santa Clara County boasts one of the highest pizzeria concentrations in North America, so clearly, most people like what's offered here even if not quite everyone. There's a lot of style range. If you cite Terun or its business cousin Doppio Zero in MV, both were inspired by Napoletana Pizzeria, first of today's Naples-certified (AVPN) true-Neapolitan pizzerias in the county; its proprietor-cook is a perfectionist (unlike the others. he keeps strictly to Naples styles).


Posted by pa resident, a resident of Downtown North,
on Aug 21, 2019 at 11:12 pm

I tried the chkn tikka pizza, the veggie pizza and the chkn tandoori pizza. all were mediocre at best. for me pairing indian curry with a pizza crust is a recipe for disaster. once the novelty wears out, i don't see this place surviving oppressive downtown palo alto rents. bottom line, pairing pizza and indian dishes is failed concept that doesn't work. sooner they realize it the better off everyone will be.


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