{"id":300733,"date":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300733\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","slug":"auckland-restaurant-cassia-closing-at-skycity-moving-to-a-new-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300733\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland restaurant Cassia closing at SkyCity, moving to a new location"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SidSid Sahrawat. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so grateful to the SkyCity team for welcoming us into the fold and giving us a home over the past three years,\u201d Sahrawat said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s time for us to make our final move. We\u2019re thrilled to remain in the CBD and close to our loyal guests who have supported Cassia since we first opened in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

SkyCity\u2019s general manager of hospitality, David Allott, told the Herald its team felt \u201cprivileged\u201d to have Cassia with them over the past three years.<\/p>\n

Sahrawat has won several accolades and awards for his cooking. <\/p>\n

After moving to New Zealand in 2000, he and his wife co-own three top restaurants – Anise, The French Cafe and Cassia. <\/p>\n

In 2018, Sahrawat was named New Zealand\u2019s Best Chef at the Metro Peugeot Restaurant of the Year Awards. Cassia has been a regular in Viva\u2019s Top 50 Auckland Restaurant Awards.<\/p>\n

The Sahrawats sold their Ponsonby restaurant Kol in April last year, citing challenging trading conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is no confirmation of what will open in Cassia\u2019s place at SkyCity, with a spokesperson saying \u201cwe will let you know as soon as we have something to share\u201d.<\/p>\n

The news comes two weeks after restaurateur Luke Dallow announced he had sold his Ponsonby Rd restaurant GiGi<\/a> less than a year after opening. <\/p>\n

The new owner is Kiwi chef Matt Lambert, who held a Michelin star for his New York restaurant The Musket Room from 2013 to 2020. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a moment in hospitality when you know when to step back,\u201d Dallow told Society Insider at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot because you tried \u2013 but because the story has been told honestly, and it\u2019s time for the next voice to take over.\u201d <\/p>\n

Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers travel, entertainment, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sid Sahrawat. Photo \/ Babiche Martens \u201cWe are so grateful to the SkyCity team for welcoming us into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[37111,74,1975,51,3952,165145,651,6789,22503,2946,6741,156,5904,5501,13419,39084,2686,117,111,139,69,56448,2539,2552,8529,61,1533],"class_list":{"0":"post-300733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-acclaimed","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-auckland","12":"tag-aucklands","13":"tag-cassia","14":"tag-close","15":"tag-closing","16":"tag-dining","17":"tag-dinner","18":"tag-doors","19":"tag-entertainment","20":"tag-final","21":"tag-indian","22":"tag-june","23":"tag-location","24":"tag-moving","25":"tag-new","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-newzealand","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-precinct","30":"tag-restaurant","31":"tag-service","32":"tag-skycity","33":"tag-to","34":"tag-will"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}