Nikki Lansford  - Restaurants

Raj Express, new Overland Park restaurant, offers build-your-own Indian food ‘Chipotle style’

New Raj Express Indian Kitchen offers fast on-the-go Indian cuisine to Overland Park residents. The menu consists of a build your own bowl style, in which the customer chooses their own protein, curry and side. The restaurant also offers a variety of wraps, traditional India street food and signature entrees. Image via Raj Express.

A new Indian restaurant has opened in Overland Park that offers a quick, on-the-go menu featuring build-your-own bowls as one of its main options.

Raj Express Indian Kitchen, 11721 College Blvd., officially opened last month and is an offshoot of Rajmahal in Olathe but aims to offer a different type of service from that original dine-in location.

Unlike Rajmahal, 118 S. Clairborne Rd., Raj Express is carry out or delivery-only.

The menu itself is quite different, too.

Raj Express’ main offerings are the build-your-own bowls, in which customers can choose their own protein, curry and sides. The protein selections include chicken, salmon, lentils and paneer, a type of cheese prominent in Indian cuisine.

“It’s almost like Chipotle-style,”said Rana Vijendra, who helps run the Raj Express in a strip mall near Johnson County Community College.

The restaurant also offers a variety of wraps, along with traditional Indian street foods, like samosas and kathi rolls.

Customers can also get lassis, a smoothie-type drink based on yogurt, and Indian chai.

Vjendra said the idea to open a second location offering to-go options only came about due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We thought we would make a casual concept where we use all disposable and keep as contactless as possible,” Vjendra said. “We’ve had great success with it so far.”

Raj Express is open every day, from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Hi! I'm Nikki, and I cover the city of Overland Park.

I grew up in southern Overland Park and graduated from Olathe East before going on to earn a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. At Mizzou, I worked as a reporter and editor at the Columbia Missourian. Prior to joining the Post, I had also done work for the Northeast News, PolitiFact Missouri and Kaiser Health News.

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