People had been asking about that Wendy’s for years. The one at 19430 Bruce B. Downs, sitting empty, generating the same question in every New Tampa Facebook group — what’s going in there?
The answer is House of Biryanis & Kebabs, and it’s open.
What it actually is
HBK is a halal Indian and South Asian restaurant, and the New Tampa location is a local link in a chain that now runs to 35 restaurants. The ribbon-cutting was July 6, with Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera on hand.
The important detail for anyone who cares whether a place is genuinely local: it’s run by five local franchise owners, led by Satya Meka and Karthik Achanta. That’s a group of people from here putting their own money into a corner that sat dark for years, not a corporate rollout dropped into a vacant lot.
What’s on the plate
The name tells you the two anchors, but the appetizers are where the early reporting landed hardest.
The Murgh Malai Kebabs come out fajita-style on a sizzling dish — chunks of chicken, and described by Neighborhood News as uniquely garlicky. The Mongadu Gobi is cauliflower and it’s spicy. The Onion Samosas are the interesting one: onions and potatoes wrapped in a crisp, almost cellophane-thin crust closer to spanakopita than to the thick-shelled samosa most people picture, and not spicy at all.
On the heat question, co-owner Satya Meka told Neighborhood News: “We can vary the spice on any of our dishes. But these authentic recipes use the same quality ingredients and taste the same.”
That’s worth knowing before you order for a table with mixed tolerances — the spice is adjustable, the recipes aren’t being simplified to get there.
Where it fits
Bruce B. Downs is not short of Indian food. What HBK adds is a halal kitchen with biryani and kebabs as the headline rather than a curry-house menu with biryani buried in the back — and it does it in a building that a lot of people had written off.
The former-Wendy’s location is also the thing that will get people through the door the first time. Everyone in New Tampa knows that building. Very few have had a reason to pull into it since it closed.
Good to know
House of Biryanis & Kebabs is at 19430 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in New Tampa, in the former Wendy’s. Halal. Open now — it opened following a July 6 ribbon-cutting.
Spice levels can be adjusted on request.
Opening details, ownership and dish descriptions reported by Gary Nager for Neighborhood News, August 1, 2026.