Central Oregon is home to a wide variety of cuisines with a bustling food-truck scene and fast-growing restaurant industry. Among the numerous options, however, is a noticeable deficiency of Indian food. Good news: The choices just doubled from one to two.

Mantra Indian Kitchen is the latest food truck turned restaurant in Bend — a transition that’s been successful for Barrio, Spork and The Brown Owl.

The area’s second Indian restaurant found a home at 744 NW Bond St., a location that has hosted several food-vending tenants over the years. The owners, Arun “Runi” Srikantaiah and Jassey Uppal hope their eatery is the one that will stick.

“We’ve had people come in four or five times already, the same people,” Uppal said. “We get lots of good feedback.”

The new restaurant serves a combination of small plates, curry and rice dishes and thali meals, along with a rotating menu of specials. Srikantaiah and Uppal opened the restaurant last month.

The duo wanted to create a casual Indian dining option, similar to a dhaba, a roadside eatery in India.

The atmosphere is easygoing with a long bar and Bollywood music videos playing on TVs throughout the restaurant. High ceilings and large windows adorn the room, which is filled with jewel-toned accents.

Orders are taken at the counter. Guests seat themselves and bus their own tables. The casual setting is welcoming and reflected in the prices, with most dishes costing $8 to $12.

All of the meals are served on stainless-steel dinnerware, a traditional way of presenting Indian dishes, and, as with many Indian restaurants, there are several vegan and vegetarian options.

Locally owned

Many Bend locals are already familiar with Srikantaiah and Uppal’s cooking even if they aren’t aware of it.

Srikantaiah is the owner of The Curry Shack, an Indian food cart that was parked in the food-truck pod by the Box Factory. “The Curry Shack was a proof of concept like this to see what people want, what they like,” Srikantaiah said. The goal was to “get an idea if it’s even reliable to do a brick-and-mortar.”

And Uppal used to sell her homemade Indian curries and samosas in the Butler Market Store, the convenience store she owns.

She had been considering remodeling the store to include an express deli when Srikantaiah approached her with the restaurant idea.

From cart to curry

“Customers kept asking for a second option” said Srikantaiah, who was referring to Indian food restaurants.

He launched The Curry Shack in 2013 and, in the last year, decided to turn his sights toward a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

“I did a lot of festivals and events to build my brand up, so that really gave me feedback for what the next steps needed to be,” he said.

He explained that he was ready to grow the business, and there were two ways he could do that: Open a mobile food truck or start a restaurant. The food cart could not be easily moved.

Because the space off Franklin Avenue had already been remodeled for a restaurant, “it would be the same cost-wise,” Srikantaiah said.

“Getting a new truck would be the same as an initial investment in a restaurant, so I decided to go this route.”

With some food trucks costing $35,000 stripped down and new, a truck with all of the proper equipment and branding could reach $50,000 to $60,000.

The focus is on the new restaurant; The Curry Shack is currently in storage and will only make appearances at events and festivals.

More on the menu

Without the space confines of a food cart or small store, Srikantaiah and Uppal have had the chance to expand their menu.

“Indian cuisine has thousands of items,” Srikantaiah said. There are so many variations of curry made from different vegetables and spices, it would be impossible to include all of them on one menu, Uppal explained.

Extending the menu is the easy part; the challenge is determining when to stop expanding it. “I think everyone wants a different dish when they come in,” Srikantaiah said. “We have to keep that in mind and not go overboard in trying to make everything at the same time.”

Luckily, that’s where the rotating menu of specials comes in. Every day, the restaurant will offer a list of different specials, sometimes including mango lassis, (a sweet yogurt drink), tandoori chicken, chicken drumsticks, or masala dosa, (a potato-filled crepe).

While determining the menu at the restaurant, the two must-haves were pakoras, (vegetable fritters;) and samosas, (potato pastries).

Uppal makes the samosas by kneading the dough, flattening it with the palm of her hand, putting it through a dough roller and folding it into the shape of an ice cream cone. She scoops a mixture of potato, peas and spices into the cone, smooths over the edges and cinches the dough together and then places it in a deep fryer.

The thali meals were another important offering and are likely a popular dinnertime item. Thali meals include a main curry — butter chicken, aloo gobi, vindaloo pork or goan shrimp curry — two sides plus paratha, an Indian flatbread; a cucumber yogurt salad, green chutney, mango pickle and papadum, a rice cracker.

A pinch of cumin

As with most Indian dishes, spice plays an important role in the offerings at Mantra Indian Kitchen. “It’s the flavor, and people love flavor,” Uppal said. “(India’s) very colorful in everything — clothing and food.”

Among the staple spices are cumin, coriander and turmeric; garlic, ginger and onion are the three main ingredients in most curries.

“Most of the curries will have all of these ingredients, and then you’ll add on the top some special spices based on the dish you’re making, like fenugreek leaves or a spice blend called garam masala” Srikantaiah said.

He also hopes to integrate spices into the drink menu with a masala — “spiced” — chai and other drink offerings. “We want to incorporate Indian flavors into mixed wine spritzers and kombucha kinds of things, so we’ll work with some bartenders to see if we can do that,” Srikantaiah said.

Traditional Indian cuisine

Both Srikantaiah and Uppal have Indian roots and learned how to cook from their mothers and grandmothers. He was born and raised in the southern region of Bangalore, India, and moved to Portland in 2000. She was born in the region of Punjab where she lived until she was 8 years old, before moving to Canada.

The cuisine in India varies vastly depending on the region you are in. “It could differ in the same 15 miles in the same state,” Srikantaiah said. With different ingredients available to them and different family dishes, the two have certain recipes that they remember making and eating in their households.

For Srikantaiah, it was dosa, a crispy rice and lentil crepe with a potato filling, served with a side of chutney salsa.

Uppal grew up eating a curry called saag, that was made from cooked spinach and broccoli. “It’s a big thing in our house; it takes a long time to cook, but it’s very traditional,” she said.

Srikantaiah and Uppal try to include five distinct flavors in every meal: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and astringent. “If you incorporate all of these tastes equally in your meal, every meal is well-balanced, like a well-flying airplane,” Srikantaiah said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0351, mcrowe@bendbulletin.com

Mantra Indian Kitchen

Where: 744 NW Bond St., Suite A, Bend

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Monday

Happy hour: 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Monday.

Contact: mantraindianbend.com or 541-241-7967