Merced’s Taste of Little India restaurant to close after 23 years of business

Taste of Little India, a staple of the Merced dining scene for more than 20 years, has lost its lease and will be closing its doors at its location on Main Street on April 11.

That gives patrons less than a week to go to the restaurant. Parm Samra, 55, opened with the goal of having Indian food go mainstream and be talked about in the same why Chinese, Mexican and Thai food are discussed. He feels he has achieved that in a sense and that Indian food has become main stream in Merced.

After having been in business for a total of about 29 years, Samra said his customers have seen a change in him and he has seen a change in them. Prior to opening the location on Main Street in Merced, Samra opened a location in Atwater in 1996. The current location opened in December 2001 and has been there ever since.

Samra said that when he opened his first restaurant in 1996, his was the first Indian restaurant to open in the area between Modesto and Fresno. He said his cuisine was foreign to people in the area.

“People didn’t know what our food smelled like, what our food tasted like, what our food looked like,” he said.

Samra said he would educate his customers on Indian food and after people began trying it, the started telling their friends and family. More people frequented the restaurant and word spread by mouth before the age of social media.

“We literally made our customer base from the ground up,” said Samra.

Getting to know his customers and developing relationships with them, Samra said he believes he was able to resonate with the community.

“Food is such an intimate thing, you put it in your mouth. Having Indian food, people accepted Indians in a sense because they came in and they tried my food and they accepted Indians in part of the community,” he said.

Samra said the reason behind the closing is that the landlord sold the building and he was informed by the property manager that they were terminating his lease. Samra said he was devastated when he received the news.

“I was too afraid to tell anybody,” said Samra. “It was like a shock for the first week. I just didn’t know what to do.”

Samra said he had difficulty sleeping and after contacting an attorney, he learned there wasn’t much he could do. He then began informing people of the restaurant’s impending closure. Samra said he is determined to find a new location and to re-open his restaurant.

“I don’t want to go out by someone telling me to get out. I want to get out on my own terms,” he said. “I’m more determined now to find a spot and to open up again.”

When people in the community learned of the April 11 closing and began reaching out to him and showing their support, Samra said it was then that he found out the kind of impact he and his restaurant have had on the community over the years. He said that was something he didn’t really notice while working.

“You don’t see what’s happening outside, like, the impact you have on the community and people coming in, and it’s like being, all sad and mad for me,” he said. “I’ve been blown away by the response by the community, like how they took me under their wing.”

Samra said he’s looking for a new location in North Merced, and that the support he has received from the community really means a lot to him at this time.

“Those customers are really invested in me,” Samra said. “They’ve seen me grow. I am who I am because of my customer base, they raised me in a sense.”

And he wants to continue in the business.

“There’s still a lot of fight in me left — there’s still a lot of curry in me,” Samra said while chuckling. “I would love to have the opportunity to serve my customer base, because they are everything to me.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM.