don't restart the API by default
diff --git a/voltha b/voltha
index cd47696..71ee5af 100755
--- a/voltha
+++ b/voltha
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
 INSTALL_ONOS_APPS=${INSTALL_ONOS_APPS:-no}
 JUST_K8S=${JUST_K8S:-no}
 DEPLOY_K8S=${DEPLOY_K8S:-yes}
-SKIP_RESTART_API=${SKIP_RESTART_API:-no}
+SKIP_RESTART_API=${SKIP_RESTART_API:-yes}
 INSTALL_KUBECTL=${INSTALL_KUBECTL:-yes}
 INSTALL_HELM=${INSTALL_HELM:-yes}
 WAIT_ON_DOWN=${WAIT_ON_DOWN:-no}
@@ -1082,9 +1082,6 @@
     wait_for_pods - "voltha" 0 "includes" -1 "Wait for API to stop $STOP" $API
     (set -x; kubectl scale --replicas=1 deployment -n voltha voltha-api-server voltha-ofagent >>$LOG 2>&1) >>$LOG 2>&1
     wait_for_pods - "voltha" 2 "includes" -1 "Wait for API to re-start $GO" $API
-else
-    bspin "Skip VOLTHA API Restart"
-    espin $NO_ENTRY
 fi
 
 bspin - "Forward VOLTHA API port $FORWARD"