The Restaurant
Cassia opened in July 2014 on Fort Lane under restaurateur-chefs Sid and Chand Sahrawat, won instant acclaim and a Cuisine Hat in its first year, relocated to the SkyCity dining precinct in 2023 after Auckland Anniversary Weekend flood damage, and is moving to a new corner home at Albert and Wyndham Streets — beside voco Auckland City Centre — as the restaurant's working long-term seat. The dining floor seats about seventy across a single open parlor of two-tops, banquettes along the longest wall, and a tandoor pass that anchors the back of the room. The geography reads as the working contemporary-Indian benchmark of the South Pacific.
The kitchen serves a contemporary Indian menu organised around the classic spice and flavour combinations Sid Sahrawat grew up with — reworked with contemporary technique and seasonal New Zealand ingredient. Signature plates include the roasted carrot with vindaloo and cashews (the room's longest-standing menu staple); the tandoori chicken tacos that have become one of the city's most-photographed plates; the goat shoulder slow-roasted with northern-Indian spice; the lamb biryani served in a sealed pot at the table; the chickpea-flour bhel chaat; and a dessert programme — the chocolate, coffee and miso course in particular — that has carried a following of its own. The roti and naan are pulled from the tandoor to order; the spice oils are pressed in-house; the cocktail programme is built around the kitchen's spice notes.
Service is the warm, captain-led pace of a contemporary chef-driven Indian dining room that has held a Cuisine Hat without interruption since opening: the staff narrates the spice profile of each course without lecturing, the bar carries a working tamarind-and-cardamom cocktail card, and the wine list — about ninety labels with deliberate Marlborough Pinot Gris, Hawke's Bay Syrah and Alsatian aromatic-white depth — pairs into the menu without requiring a sommelier round. The Albert-Wyndham address, just north of The Grove and a five-minute walk to Britomart, anchors Cassia in the working CBD dining quadrant. For an Auckland evening that wants contemporary Indian cooking at the city's reference standard rather than a chain curry house, Cassia is the standing answer.
Why This Is Auckland’s First Date Pick
Cassia is the Auckland first-date room because the format does the work that an American steakhouse cannot. The seventy-cover dining room is small enough that the captain knows the regulars, which reads as warmth rather than performance. The contemporary Indian menu — the tandoori chicken tacos on the same card as the slow-roasted goat shoulder — lets a date order across the table without negotiating a single cuisine. The bar's tamarind-and-cardamom cocktail programme is the working conversational opener — a careful Negroni reworked with Indian spice gives the host an easy first round without lecturing about it. The Albert-Wyndham address, on the working CBD walking grid, is quiet enough that a real conversation can carry across the table. For an Auckland date that wants real chef-driven cooking rather than a chain dining room, Cassia is the standing answer.
Leave a Review
Registered members get published by default; guest reviews are moderated first.