By the time this posts we’ll be off on our summer travels. But I have a couple of Twin Cities restaurant reports cued up to post while we’re gone and here is the first one: a an account of a couple of lunches at the new branch of Pizza Karma in Apple Valley. The first Pizza Karma opened in Eden Prairie in 2017. We had been interested but it was a long way to go for what seemed then like an uncertain proposition. During the height of the pandemic we did make it out to Eden Prairie to eat Indian pizza at Bombay Pizza Kitchen. We mostly enjoyed that meal and it strengthened our resolve to eat soon at Pizza Karma. But for one reason or another we never got around to it. That is until they opened a branch much closer to us, in Apple Valley. We’ve now eaten two lunches there in the last month. Herewith my report.

Pizza Karma, as you doubtless know, was the brainchild of the prominent Indian-American food writer and chef, Raghavan Iyer. Iyer, who sadly passed away this year, much too young, from cancer, had made Minnesota his adopted home a long time ago. Pizza Karma may not have been his first restaurant—there’s a reference in the Star Tribune to a place called Cafe Moca that he was associated with in the early 1990s—but it is the one that will likely be his legacy (other than his well-received cookbooks, that is). After the original opened in 2017, they’d opened another branch in Maple Grove in 2019, and now this Apple Valley branch in March 2023.

I’ve noted before that there have been many signs for the last few years of an expanding desi population in the Apple Valley-Lakeville-Burnsville-Eagan area. The number of Indian restaurants and grocery stores has been steadily rising (and Mantra Bazar, which opened in Apple Valley in 2018/2019 has since expanded). Pizza Karma’s choice of Apple Valley for their third suburban location seems to confirm the presence of a “home” audience.

Now it must be said that their main proffer is not actually what most Indians going out to eat pizza in India are generally expecting. That is something closer to what Bombay Pizza Kitchen does: Indian-themed toppings on top of generally conventional pizza crust. You can get conventional pizza at Pizza Karma as well—or at least I assume that the “Classics” are on traditional crusts—but not with Indian toppings. For that you have to get their signature “Tandoor-Fired” crusts, which essentially amounts to a naan-based pizza. Sounds gimmicky but the results are actually very good. We didn’t like every single one of the toppings we had across our two lunches but we thought the crusts were great.

So, what did we eat? Two of the “Signature Pizzas”: the saag paneer pizza at the first lunch and the coconut shrimp pizza at the second. The flavour of the saag paneer really didn’t do it for us but we really liked the coconut shrimp, which features a Kerala-style white coconut curry sauce. The boys were hoping for tandoori chicken pizza but it doesn’t exist there by that name. They do have a chicken tikka pizza but it involves a sauce with cashew in it and both our boys are allergic. (This cashew information, by the way, is not listed on their big menu—but it is mentioned in their takeout menu; the takeout menu has more information for a couple of other dishes too and I recommend looking at it instead.) But it turned out we could solve the problem via their “Build Your Own” pizza option. At the first lunch we got them one custom pizza with chicken tikka pieces with a tomato-fenugreek sauce and one chicken kebab pizza with the same sauce. They enjoyed both—and particularly liked the sauce—but we couldn’t really tell too much of a difference between the chicken kebab and chicken tikka options, taste-wise. At the second lunch they got another custom chicken tikka pizza.

They don’t just do pizza, however, and that’s not all we ate. They have a wide selection of starters and wraps and salads and so forth, and we sampled some of those. The size of the starters is quite large, by the way: get them to share. At the first meal we shared the crispy okra fries and the masala fries—both of which we quite liked. At the second lunch we shared their pav bhaji and the tandoor-fired tikka wings. The pav bhaji was creditable. As for the tandoor-fired tikka wings, that’s their tandoori chicken by another name, and we all liked it very much.

For a look at the restaurant and what we ate, click on a pic below to launch a larger slide show. Scroll down for thoughts on the whole experience and for cost.

The restaurant is large but a bit dark. You order at the counter and they bring your food to you as it becomes ready. There are a bunch of four-top tables but at our weekday lunches there weren’t many people there. There did seem to be a fair bit of take-out action happening; I’d guess they’re much busier on the weekend. Service is very friendly and helpful.

Price? I didn’t save the receipt from the first meal but at the second, two pizzas, the pav bhaji, the wings, a mango frappe and a soft drink came to $65 with tip. We were all full and it generally seemed a decent value. Nothing I’d want to drive to Eden Prairie for but very attractive at half the distance. My guess is it will become a regular-occasional stop once we’re back in Minnesota.

Alright, next week’s Twin Cities restaurant report will be the aforementioned farewell blowout dinner at Grand Szechuan. More from Seoul, New York and Italy before and after that.