Wichita restaurant cancels plans to move, clearing way for a new food business.
Plans to move longtime Wichita restaurant Passage to India to the black-and-yellow metal building that went up last year at 21st and Oliver have changed.
Instead, Passage to India will stay put, and its owner will help the owners of the new building launch a new concept: a combination Indian restaurant, bakery and market called Desi Dhaba.
Local lawyer/developer Abdul Arif and his nephew, Tariq Azmi, put up the 5,000-square-foot building last year but originally announced their plans for it in March 2024. The initial intention was that Passage to India would move into one end of the building and that 360 Deli & Grill would open another location in the other.
But those plans evolved once Passage to India’s owner Md Zakir Hossen decided he didn’t really want to relocate the 31-year-old restaurant, which he bought from Arif and Azmi in early 2020. The owners of 360 Deli & Grill also had a change of heart, they said last month.
Arif said he came up with a new plan, having been inspired by a successful chain called Desi Chowrastha, which has locations across the country, including one in Overland Park. The businesses include not only Indian restaurants but also fresh groceries and halal meats.
Arif decided to launch his own version of the business and is leasing the space to Passage to India’s Hossen and another proprietor, who is moving to Wichita from Chicago. Together, those two will operate the restaurant and market.
The goal, Arif said, is to provide a place for the many South Asian students who attend Wichita State University to gather and find the comforts of home.
“They are these kids who were born in America yet have grown up with their parents’ taste in food,” he said. “So we’re trying to cater to that group. Especially with being so close to the school, we feel we have a significant population of those kids. And if they’re not 21, they can’t go to a bar.”
Arif said that the restaurant will open first, likely in the second week of February. It will be set up “Chipotle-stye,” he said, and it will serve halal proteins like goat, lamb and chicken, which customers will be able to get over rice, quinoa and other bases. It will also offer items like dosa, curry dishes and pani puri. The highest-priced items in the restaurant will be about $12.99, Arif said.
“We’re going to be heavily geared towards the South-Asian style,” he said.
The restaurant, which is on the north end of the building, will have a drive-through window, and in the early mornings, people will be able to drive through for coffee and doughnuts. The restaurant also will serve Yemeni coffee, and it will include a bakery that produces Indian and Middle Eastern pastries.
Restaurant customers will find lots of indoor and outdoor seating, Arif said. The restaurant will also have television sets so that students can gather to watch cricket and soccer matches played by their home teams.
A halal meat market that serves items like goat, chicken, lamb and some beef will open at the same time as the restaurant, he said. The grocery, which will occupy the south end of the building, will come later — likely in April. It will carry South-Asian grocery items like spices and vegetables.
The building, which sits just west of the Family Dollar at 5120 E. 21st St., is part of a bigger development that Arif owns. It will include 20 duplexes, 10 of which are already built, plus an 80-unit apartment complex that should go up starting in the fall.
This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 1:47 PM.
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