Wok to Bowl opening

A Bloomington-based Asian restaurant is coming to the Springfield market.

Wok to Bowl is renovating the building at 3114 S. Sixth St., which formerly housed the Jaalsa Indian restaurant, for its first location outside Bloomington. The new restaurant is slated to open in late September or early October, according to owner Siva Busa.

Busa opened the first Wok to Bowl in Bloomington 18 months ago. The restaurant’s build-your-own bowl menu features curries, biryani, stir-fries, noodles, fried rice and bulgogi options.

“We build our menu around stir-fry and curry — both Indian curry and Thai curry,” Busa said.

Baldovin Construction Co. is the general contractor for the remodel of the 13,300-square-foot Sixth Street building, according to a building permit filed with the city. This will be the third restaurant with Indian menu options to operate in the building. Prior to Jaalsa, which opened in 2023, the property was home to Indian Cuisine, which briefly operated a buffet there in 2022.

Busa moved from India to Bloomington in 2001 and opened the Aroma Indian Restaurant there in 2018. He later transitioned the restaurant to the Wok to Bowl concept to add flavors from Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Thai cuisines to the Indian classics on the menu.

In addition to the new Springfield location, Wok to Bowl will soon be opening a location in Champaign. Busa said plans are also in the works to expand the brand to Peoria and then the Chicago market.

“We want to build a community brand,” he said.