Riverside home-restaurant Cali Tardka becomes talk of town: "We got people traveling 4 to 5 hours"
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Riverside has a restaurant that's getting a lot of attention and it's called Cali Tardka. The ones responsible for it are the Sanghu family who are serving Punjabi fusion food.
"I'd say get the Greg special. You are going to get chicken tiki masala, buttered chicken. You are going to get some rice, a freshly made samosa and some naan," said Manu Sanghu, the son in the family. "We sell out every single day. Our food sells out really quickly. Because of the demand, we are working nonstop."
And Cali Tardka is literally serving up a home-cooked meal. The family said they are among the first in the state to get a permit to open up a home restaurant. They offer curbside pickup.
"We are literally a travel spot. We got people traveling four to five hours ... San Diego, Las Vegas, Tijuana. All the locals know us," said Sanghu.
And this home restaurant was born out of need after the Sangu family said they were almost homeless a few years ago and went through many challenges through the pandemic, like dad losing his job.
"Just out of nowhere everything went bad financially. We just had to see what we had to do as a family to ... we are just not trying to lose another house after losing twice in a row. So, my mom had a talent for cooking so we just said 'yo, let's just start like a home-based restaurant.'"
Thanks to social media and the support of the community, Cali Tardka helped the Sanghu family turn things around for the better.
"We got blessed with awesome people who knew our talent and they wanted to showcase it. We boomed on TikTok and since then we've just been thriving."
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