San Jose: After 20 years, Amber India closes Santana Row restaurant, prepares for a big move

The Amber India group has permanently closed its restaurant at San Jose’s swanky Santana Row, with its owner saying the decline of in-person work at local offices has “adversely affected” lunch business at the upscale restaurant.

Amber India was one of the original tenants at the center, opening in 2003.

“Our lease after 20 years came to an end this May, and to renew the lease we would have to pay a much higher rent and were expected to make a lot of changes,” owner Vijay Bist said.

So instead of investing in that property, he decided to pivot to a new business plan for the South Bay while maintaining his more traditional restaurant model in Los Altos, where he has a devoted clientele, and in San Francisco, where his Yerba Buena space has proven popular.

“As the dining landscape evolves, Amber will evolve with our clients,” he said.

The relocated Santana Row restaurant, in Milpitas, will have both production space in the kitchen and front-of-house dining space to serve two audiences, he said: Those who prefer business lunches to go, catering or Indian street snacks and those who want more traditional dining. The new Lunch Meal Boxes available for pickup or delivery include such options as Butter Chicken, Goan Fish Curry, Tandoori Chicken, Saag Corn, Kadai Paneer and Aloo Gobhi; all come with basmati rice/quinoa.

Amber India’s inaugural Silicon Valley restaurant, in 1994, was on the Peninsula (first in Mountain View, then in Los Altos). “The timing was perfect,” a later Mercury News interview with Bist said. “What may have seemed like exotic food to native Californians back then was a taste of home to the many software engineers who hailed from Asia’s subcontinent, Bist says.”

Grand plans to open a stylish restaurant at Santana Row were delayed in October 2002 when a massive fire broke out at the center, which had been under construction for two years and was close to welcoming customers and residents.

Amber India finally opened there in 2003, winning “best Indian restaurant” plaudits from Zagat diners in the years following. The opening also launched a South Bay trend of upscale Indian restaurants offering contemporary menus, then-Mercury News restaurant critic Aleta Watson wrote in 2006.

The new Milpitas location is expected to open this Friday, June 30, at 556 S. Milpitas Blvd., with both onsite and takeout menus; the liquor license is coming soon, Bist said.