Koh-i-noor Indian is the new Indian restaurant and lounge that is now open in Downtown Champaign — located at 6 Columbia Street, Champaign — where Escobar’s used to exist. From the owners of Sitara in Urbana, a terrific restaurant, bring Koh-i-noor, which is a welcomed addition to Downtown Champaign’s restaurant landscape.
There isn’t a website — or really any online presense for Koh-i-noor at this point in time — so I decided to waltz myself over there and see if I could actually walk inside and see what’s up.
While this isn’t a review of the restaurant in really any capacity whatsoever, it s a brief introduction and overview of the new space — and a look at the menu in particular. And by “overview”, I mean literally a look at the menu itself for the first time — which is loosely based off of what you can find at Sitara. While they haven’t celebrated their Grand Opening yet (they are shooting for Valentines Day 2017), they’re currently in their “soft open” phase. Training employees and getting a feel for things, slowly but surely, at this point in time. Yesterday was their very first day of being open, so I made a trip over there and walked through the joint.
Editor’s Note: The restaurant is actually open — you can go eat there during their open hours, which are posted below.
While they’re still a week or so off from getting their alcohol license in line, the restaurant is essentially sectioned into three portions — two main dining room sides, and a room with the full bar on the north wall of the joint, which you can see below.
The main dining room:
The room to the west, with the bar as well:
Sadly, the photo is a bit dark — but there were 10-12 seats at the bar, and a bunch of tables throughout the barside.
Full menu, plus hours:
Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. / 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m.-3 p.m. / 4:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
And their current special, which is good now through November 30th:
We’re definitely looking forward to trying this out very, very soon. We suggest you do the same.
