Owner of Popular Food Truck to Open Restaurant in Milpitas

Since , the Tikka Bytes food truck—which serves up Indian fusion food to hungry high-tech workers in the south bay—has been growing in popularity by leaps and bounds.

Because of that, owner Prashanthi Mehta is finally about to realize a life-long dream—opening her very own restaurant.

This month, Mehta will be taking the cuisine of her popular food truck and expanding upon it to design the menu for the Tikka Bytes Café, which will be located in the Serra Center at 138 S. Main St.

“This is a completely new business for me,” said Mehta excitedly. “I’m learning so much as I go.”

After the success of the Tikka Bytes food truck, Mehta considered expanding upon that business with a fleet of multiple trucks. However, Mehta said it has always been a dream of hers to own a restaurant, so she finally decided to throw caution to the wind.

“I felt that the truck was really succeeding, but more than that, I felt the sense I was being really restricted,” she admitted. “I felt I couldn't really bring out the best in our food, so that's why I looked into restaurant space in Milpitas.”

Surprisingly, Mehta still works in the software industry at a local high-tech company. She says the schedule she keeps between her job, the food truck and getting her new restaurant ready has been crazy, to say the least.

“After my husband and I leased the space we considered quitting many times, and just focusing on our regular jobs,” Mehta admitted. “But we realized, we are so close to my passion, my dream I’ve had for so long. So we kept with it.”

The answer for Mehta and her husband was assembling a dynamite team that can focus on the day-to-day management and up-keep of the restaurant, taking much of the stress off of her so she can focus on the food.

Her love of the food has always been at the center of Mehta’s motivation and driving force.

“Food's always been my passion,” she said. “It's been my dream all my life to be close to food.”

Speaking of food, Mehta gets excited when she talks about the menu for Tikka Bytes Café.

“It’s a big expansion from the truck’s menu,” she explained, adding that, to start, the café will be open for lunch and dinner. “It will be cafeteria-style food but, as always, with a flair of Indian.”

Mehta said the café will serve all of the most popular items from her food truck, such as her signature “naanwiches,” or meat served in the middle of a thick, doughy piece of traditional naan bread, with the customer’s choice of sauce.

The sauces are what draw in many of her loyal food truck customers—they are all her own, original recipes, and range from slightly sweet to intensely spicy.

She is also known for her naan wraps, burritos that never fall apart, grilled sandwiches and different types of biriyani rices, such as vegetable and chicken.

“We’ve gotten very good reaction to those items on the truck, so we’re making them main features in the restaurant as well,” Mehta said.

With the freedom of a full-sized restaurant kitchen, Mehta said the café’s expanded menu will also allow for a few additional items, combo plates, and occasional specials such as lamb biriyani, which she says customers of the truck regularly inquire about.

Mehta says, once the café is up and running smoothly, if all goes well, they hope to expand to offering breakfast service on the weekends as well.

“We’ll be testing out the market with lunch and dinner in the beginning, and then we’ll see about breakfast,” she said. “I’d love to do it, because there are so many great Indian breakfast items that no one really serves around here.”

Mehta says, she really hopes the restaurant will be open for its first day this Friday, Dec. 9. Regardless, though, she says Tikka Bytes Café will definitely be open in the month of December.

For the latest news on where the Tikka Bytes food truck will be parked for lunch service each day, and when Tikka Bytes Café will be opening its doors, visit www.tikkabytes.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.