Philly’s Favorite Indian Chain Is About to Open in King of Prussia

Source: Philadelphia Eater, Rachel Vigoda

The popular Indian restaurant Tiffin, which began as a delivery-only service and now has nine brick-and-mortar locations in the Philadelphia region, is opening in King of Prussia next month. The newest Tiffin, going into 254 W. Dekalb Pike in the Valley Forge Plaza Shopping Center, is the first franchise location for the local chain. One of Tiffin’s first employees is opening it.

Tiffin founder Munish Narula, a former investment banker with an MBA from Wharton, started the delivery concept out of a Northern Liberties storefront in 2007. It was a hit, and over the next 10 years Narula opened restaurants in Northern Liberties, South Philly, and Mt. Airy in Philly, in the suburbs in Elkins Park, Bryn Mawr, and Wynnewood, and over the bridge in Cherry Hill, Voorhees, and East Hanover. (Tashan, a higher-end sister restaurant on South Broad Street, is now closed.) But, Narula says in a press release, “we started to see a pattern several years ago as former Tiffin employees would open their own restaurants. It occurred to me I’d rather turn my employees into partners instead of competitors.” IndeBlue and Ekta both have Tiffin connections.

The franchising experiment begins with Rajesh Byanjankar, who’s been working at Tiffin for nine years. His King of Prussia location is scheduled to open early June.

Narula hopes to sign on several more franchisees and get up to 20 or so locations in the next 18 months.

Fifty-six new retailers and restaurants opened in King of Prussia in 2016, according to the King of Prussia District’s 2017 Report to the Community. Almost 30 more are coming this year.