Cassia began in 2014 in a hidden basement beneath Fort Lane, where Sid and Chand Sahrawat set out to reinterpret the food Sid grew up with in India through refined technique and New Zealand ingredients. Floods damaged that site in 2023, sending the restaurant to SkyCity and later to a brief stay at Ozone in Grey Lynn, and since September 2026 it has settled into a permanent home at 58 Albert Street in the Auckland CBD. It is the first restaurant the couple have built from scratch, fitted out from an empty concrete shell across two floors. Tall windows now pour daylight into a room that once lived underground, guests enter through the bar and catch a glimpse of the kitchen before they are seated, and the old Fort Lane mural rides with them in the lift.
The cooking reimagines Indian flavours with local produce, and about half the menu carried over from earlier chapters, including two longtime favourites, the pani puri and the Mughlai lamb chops with smoked yoghurt. Snacks might start with a Te Matuku oyster in pickled lemon rasam, spiced tuna with pomegranate on a dahi puri, or kulcha stuffed with smoked paneer and truffle. Among the small plates sit burrata with pickled chilli salan and cumin lacha paratha, Kerala black pepper prawns with curry leaf and coconut, and tandoori fish with raw mango and black garlic. Larger dishes run from a Hyderabadi fish curry sharpened with tamarind and Guntur chilli to First Light Wagyu deckle in a smoked Kashmiri rogan josh and tandoori chicken xacuti, a Goan dish with Portuguese roots.
There are several ways to eat here. At lunch an express option pairs pani puri and ghee roast lamb sausage rolls with a main such as the fish curry or the lamb seekh kebab in mushroom and saag sauce, served with naan and rice. The Journey menu moves through three snacks, two small plates, two larger dishes and a dessert. Sunday dinner centres on a biryani for two that changes every six weeks; a recent version layered beef short rib and oxtail through basmati with cucumber salad and house raita. Desserts lean bright and fragrant, from lychee and yoghurt sorbet with passion fruit curd and saffron pavlova to chocolate kulfi with cumin caramel. Vegetarians can build a meal around paneer kebabs with Naga chilli and coconut, and the team works around allergies flagged in advance.
Drinks draw on the same spice cabinet. Cocktails range from a Cassia House Martini to the Queen of Kashmir and a Langra Lassi, the house gin comes with tonic, and mocktails such as Mango Masti and Chai Darbar give anyone skipping alcohol something considered. Wines by the glass stretch to orange and dessert styles, with Sawmill beers alongside. A cocktail lounge bridges the gap between lunch and dinner with complimentary bar snacks, and three private rooms of fourteen seats each can open into a single space for fifty. Sid Sahrawat remains executive chef, cooking alongside head chef Ketan Joshi, who has worked through every move, while Matthew Aitchison, part of the original Fort Lane team, has returned to run the restaurant as general manager.
Address: 58 Albert Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010
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