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Blog Cross Timbers Road is one of those streets that looks like a strip of retail from the car but holds a lot more than it appears to once you start eating your way through it. There are now two Indian restaurants on this road in Flower Mound. They're different enough that knowing the distinction matters before you drive out.
This guide covers both, then goes deep on Curry Up Now at 2717 Cross Timbers Rd, which opened in June 2025 and brought something to this corridor that had never existed here before: Indo-Californian fast-casual Indian food with a full cocktail bar, halal-certified proteins by default, and a counter-service format that works as well for a 40-minute weekday lunch as it does for a Friday evening with friends.
Ista Indian Cuisine sits at 2221 Cross Timbers Rd, Suite 105, at the corner of Cross Timbers and Morriss Road. It's the established name on this street. Sit-down dining, traditional North Indian cooking, tandoori dishes, signature sizzlers, a lunch buffet, and a BYOB policy for diners who want to bring their own drinks. The kitchen does chicken tikka masala, lamb rogan josh, paneer curry, Hyderabadi biryani, and kabab. Good food for a traditional Indian dining experience with table service.
Curry Up Now is further east at 2717 Cross Timbers Rd, Suite 400, in the Flower Mound Town Center near Lakeside DFW. Counter service. Indo-Californian menu. Mortar and Pestle cocktail bar. Weekend brunch from 11am. Halal-certified proteins across every menu item by default, not by request. Founded by Akash and Rana Kapoor in April 2009 in Burlingame, California, it has grown to 20 locations under Corporate Executive Chef Bikram Das. The Flower Mound location is owned and operated by Kiki Khajuria and Samy Kilaru, a woman-led franchise team who first encountered the brand as customers in California and decided north DFW needed it.
They were right. A 4.4-star Google rating since opening tells part of the story.
The sit-down vs counter-service distinction isn't just about speed. It changes the whole dining logic.
At a sit-down restaurant, you arrive, wait to be seated, order from a server, and get food in waves. Great for an unhurried dinner. Not practical for a Tuesday lunch where you have 40 minutes from leaving your desk to getting back.
At Curry Up Now, you walk in, order at the counter, and your food is ready in 10 to 15 minutes. You're back at the Flower Mound Town Center parking lot in 30 minutes if you eat in. Closer to 20 if you ordered ahead through the app. The space is built for both solo meals and groups, and the kitchen handles a Friday dinner rush without the wait times that typically come with counter-service concepts that understaff their peaks.
The halal difference is also structural rather than optional. Curry Up Now's own language on this is worth quoting: "All meat at Curry Up Now is halal certified. That's not a marketing checkbox. It's how we've sourced meat since day one in 2009." For Muslim families and halal-observant diners on Cross Timbers Road, that level of clarity is more useful than a general claim.
The Tikka Masala Burrito: The Dish That Started Everything
Akash Kapoor invented the Tikka Masala Burrito in April 2009 at the first Curry Up Now food truck in Burlingame, California. Halal chicken, lamb, or paneer in tikka masala sauce, a tomato-cream preparation with Kashmiri chili and garam masala turmeric rice, HI-Slaw made with coconut milk, mango, apple, and cabbage, and a flour tortilla. Foil-wrapped. Hold heat for 45 minutes.
Tikka masala itself has a contested but well-documented history. Most food historians trace it to Ali Ahmed Aslam at Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow in the 1970s, where the kitchen improvised a tomato-cream sauce after a customer complained his tandoori chicken was too dry. That sauce became one of the most ordered Indian dishes in the English-speaking world. Inside a burrito with turmeric rice, it became the founding item of the Indo-Californian cuisine category.
The Tandoori Fried Chicken Sandwich
One of the most-ordered items at the Flower Mound location. 72-hour marinated halal chicken in the tandoori tradition, brioche bun, Bombay dust aioli. The Indian answer to the fried chicken sandwich format. For Cross Timbers Road diners who want familiar food with unfamiliar depth of flavor, this is the order.
El Jefe and Punjabi 69
El Jefe is a naan-based wrap with guacamole, halal protein, pickled onions, and lime. Indian and Mexican culinary formats meeting in one wrap. Punjabi 69 is South Indian-influenced fried chicken and cauliflower. Both appear in the top-ordered items at this location. They're the dishes that signal what Indo-Californian cooking is actually about: not just Indian food, but Indian flavors in formats that weren't designed to be Indian.
The Naughty Naan: For the Table
Naan flatbread with caramelized onions, jalapeño, mozzarella, cotija, and your choice of tandoori protein or pav bhaji. Think Indian pizza. It's the shareable table dish that works for groups eating in, and consistently the one that neighboring tables notice arriving.
Street Food: Chaat, Bhaji, and Pav
Kachori Chaat from Rajasthani sweet-shop tradition: deep-fried pastry filled with spiced lentils, topped with tamarind chutney, mint chutney, yogurt, sev, and cilantro. Pav Bhaji from 1850s Mumbai: spiced vegetable mash cooked on a flat iron with butter, served with buttered rolls.
Both dishes have centuries of street food history behind them. Both are vegetarian by default. Both land differently on Cross Timbers Road than anything else available in the same corridor.
The full picture of the Indian street food on this menu is worth reading if you want to understand what Indo-Californian cooking draws from before your first visit.
Peri Peri Fries and Sexy Fries
Don't skip the sides. Peri Peri Fries with house peri peri sauce. Sweet Potato Fries with Maggi hot and sweet ketchup. Sexy Fries with tikka masala sauce and cheese. These are the dishes that show up in customer reviews by name, often mentioned by people who came in for a burrito and left talking about fries.
Curry Up Now delivers from the Cross Timbers Rd location to Flower Mound in approximately 10 minutes, Grapevine and Lewisville in 15 to 25 minutes, and Coppell in 20 to 30 minutes. Order directly at order.curryupnow.com/menu/flower-mound for the lowest delivery fee without third-party markup.
For group orders, the Indian catering program covers office lunches, corporate events, and private celebrations across the Cross Timbers corridor and north DFW. The office catering guide and corporate catering guide cover team-specific formats. The Indian food truck format handles outdoor events.
The Hella Vegan Burrito at Curry Up Now uses chana garbanzo masala as the protein base. It's a standalone dish, not a modification of the meat version. At the Oakland, California Curry Up Now location it's the best-selling item. The vegan Indian food guide for Flower Mound covers the full plant-based options.
Every burrito converts to a Bowl format, replacing the flour tortilla with turmeric rice or cauliflower rice. Standard menu item, not a special request. The gluten-free option for Cross Timbers Road diners who need it without a workaround.
Paneer builds are on every burrito, bowl, and thali for vegetarian diners. Kachori Chaat and Pav Bhaji are vegetarian by default.
The cocktail program running at the Flower Mound location is what makes an evening here feel different from a takeout pickup. Customer reviews consistently mention it. The menu is designed to pair with the food in the same way a craft beer list pairs with good bar food. Intentional, not an add-on.
For weekend visits to Cross Timbers Road, the combination of Indian street food and a proper cocktail program is currently available at Curry Up Now and nowhere else in the Indian dining category in Flower Mound.
Address: 2717 Cross Timbers Rd, Suite 400, Flower Mound, TX 75028 Previously occupied by Noodle Swing Thai Café. Now the Curry Up Now Flower Mound Town Center location. Phone: (214) 222-5596 Hours: Open daily 11am to 9:30pm. No gap between lunch and dinner service. Parking: Free in the shared retail center lot. Weekend brunch: Available with Mortar and Pestle bar from 11am. Online ordering: order.curryupnow.com/menu/flower-mound
For the full picture of the Flower Mound dining experience, the best Indian restaurant guide for Flower Mound covers everything from dine-in format to bar program to how this location compares to the broader Cross Timbers corridor. All 12 Curry Up Now locations are on the store locator.
Two. Ista Indian Cuisine at 2221 Cross Timbers Rd, Suite 105, is a sit-down restaurant specializing in traditional North Indian cooking, tandoori dishes, and signature sizzlers. Curry Up Now at 2717 Cross Timbers Rd, Suite 400, is a counter-service Indo-Californian restaurant with halal-certified proteins by default, a Mortar and Pestle cocktail bar, and a menu spanning Indian burritos, street food, thalis, and fusion dishes.
Yes. Every chicken and lamb protein at Curry Up Now 2717 Cross Timbers Rd is halal-certified from the supply chain in place since the brand was founded in April 2009. The certification applies to the standard menu. No separate halal menu or special request needed.
Counter-service format (10 to 15 minute wait), halal certification across every meat protein by default, the Indo-Californian menu format invented by Akash Kapoor in 2009, a Mortar and Pestle cocktail bar, weekend brunch, and continuous service from 11am to 9:30pm with no gap.
A fast-casual food category created by Akash Kapoor when he launched Curry Up Now in 2009. It combines authentic Indian flavors with California food formats: burritos made with tikka masala sauce and turmeric rice, naan used as flatbread pizza base, Indian spices applied to American fried chicken sandwiches. Curry Up Now is the originator of the category.
Yes. The Hella Vegan Burrito and Hella Vegan Bowl are standard menu items built around chana garbanzo masala. Kachori Chaat and Pav Bhaji are vegetarian by default. Every burrito converts to a gluten-free Bowl format.
Yes. Flower Mound approximately 10 minutes, Grapevine and Lewisville 15 to 25 minutes, Coppell 20 to 30 minutes. Order at order.curryupnow.com/menu/flower-mound.
The 2717 Cross Timbers Rd space was previously occupied by Noodle Swing Thai Café. Curry Up Now opened there on June 7, 2025.