It\u2019s an ambitious move from Sid and Chand Sahrawat but has it been the right one?<\/p>\n
This is the third attempt from Cassia to find a suitable home and it\u2019s my favourite yet. Has any other restaurant upped sticks twice? Has anyone done it once? <\/p>\n
\n And yet Sid and
\n Chand Sahrawat believe in this concept so much that they are willing to stick with it until they\u2019ve found the perfect location. I think this is it.\n <\/p>\n
It\u2019s an ambitious move. The restaurant takes up two floors of a big glassy corner site on Albert St. Remember Albert St? It used to be famous for the food hall, and then it was closed down for about 300 years while they built the City Rail Link and now it is operational again, even if most of Auckland hasn\u2019t realised it. It\u2019s in the middle of the city, yet you barely see a car. I approached Cassia feeling like I was in a scene from The Quiet Earth. <\/p>\n
New walnut tables and a stainless steel back splash set the tone of the new space. Photo \/ Josh Griggs<\/p>\n
But inside the dining room it\u2019s a bright and bustling vibe, a step up in energy from either Fort Lane or Federal St. There was a certain gloominess to those places but Albert St immediately feels more fun. The staff wear royal blue rather than undertaker black, the kitchen is more open and more central than ever and the waiters have a skip in their step. I visited a week ago and have since recommended it to three people looking for dining advice. I guaranteed them they\u2019d have a good time.<\/p>\n
The food is and has always been spectacular \u2013 aromatic, intense and at times fiery hot Indian inspirations and tributes. At the SkyCity Cassia I complained that the guy spilled the pani puri liquid over my plate; here on Albert St (unrelated, I\u2019m sure) I was supplied with a little jug to theatrically pour the coriander water myself. The waitress told me to put it \u201cdown the hatch in one go\u201d and, look, my hatch is as cavernous as the next guy\u2019s but I did struggle a little to fit the whole thing in. The tiny-mouthed might find themselves subject to unconscious discrimination here, in the way short men have learnt to live with permanently.<\/p>\n
The highly regarded pani puri at Cassia on Albert St. Photo \/ Sahil Patel<\/p>\n
As you can see, a reviewer has to work pretty hard to find something to complain about here \u2013 like an art critic pointing out chipped paint on the frame of the Mona Lisa \u2013 but I have to make a small note about the gin cocktail, which was too syrupy-sweet for me. I don\u2019t mind the passionfruit in a cocktail but India is home to the G&T and I missed the bitterness, while finding the botanicals got swamped by the sugar. A small kaffir lime leaf balanced on the top \u201cfor fragrance\u201d actually didn\u2019t smell of much until I scratched it with my fingernail. To Sid\u2019s annoyance, I never quite got my head around his Ponsonby Rd cocktail joint Kol and this reminded me of that. I was much happier once I switched to wine.<\/p>\n
The last bill I paid at Cassia was eye-wateringly large but perhaps with an eye on the economic weather they seem to have made an effort to keep things affordable here. Their $95 tasting menu would have been good value 20 years ago; in 2026 it reads like a typo. Seriously, it pays for itself before you\u2019ve even got to the main course and you\u2019re a mug if you don\u2019t order it as soon as you spot a waiter.<\/p>\n
Cassia offers a $95 tasting menu. Photo \/ Sahil Patel<\/p>\n
Highlights included a morsel of goat\u2019s cheese, deep-fried and served with tamarind sauce; tandoor-chicken in a concentrated gravy of cassia (cinnamon bark) and black vinegar \u2013 a nod to the Portuguese influence on Goan cuisine; and my favourite dish from my last visit, a perfectly spiced \u201cvege stir fry\u201d, which is much more like a paneer curry but with enough of your 5+ to make the whole thing feel worthy.<\/p>\n
The menus of India have always borrowed from and traded with the Chinese chefs \u201cover the hill\u201d, and the masterpiece at Cassia right now is the Moreton Bay Bug Toast, a riff on the Cantonese classic that brings some real luxury to the dish. The chefs mix the lobster up with ginger and kaffir, then replicate the crunch of toast with a tempura batter. Hundreds of tiny chopped chives create a visual \u201clawn\u201d on top of the structure and beneath them is a mayonnaise spiked with kasundi chutney. Hello Beasty now has a rival for best prawn toast in the city. Just don\u2019t think about the food miles. <\/p>\n
The Moreton Bay Bug Toast, which Jesse hails as the restaurant’s masterpiece. Photo \/ Sahil Patel<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a real pro in charge of the wine programme, though a surprising lack of confidence from the staff when he\u2019s not around. I was there on week two so things will only go in one direction but a restaurant that is surely making a claim for the supreme spot in this year\u2019s Top 50 will want to work it out quickly.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, there\u2019s plenty to feel excited about. I\u2019m looking forward to it filling the lower dining room and then the spillover bar area upstairs. Meanwhile, if you\u2019re looking for a group dinner, Cassia has exceptional spaces that will make your guests feel like they\u2019re eating in New York. Auckland\u2019s outstanding Indian restaurant just got a whole lot better.<\/p>\n
Address: 58 Albert St, Auckland Central<\/p>\n
Reservations: Accepted; limited walk-ins available<\/p>\n
Contact: 022 348 0055, cassiarestaurant.co.nz, @cassia_auckland<\/p>\n
Hours: Dinner 7 nights, 5pm\u2013late; lunch, Thursday and Friday from noon<\/p>\n
From the menu: Journey Menu $95<\/p>\n
Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss. 13-15 Good, give it a go. 16-18 Great, plan a visit. 19-20 Outstanding, don\u2019t delay.<\/p>\n
According to Dining Out editor Jesse Mulligan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an ambitious move from Sid and Chand Sahrawat but has it been the right one? This is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10049,4523,1975,1558,165145,168162,6435,156,71,3594,702,302,2537,39084,32573,2683,2538,117,111,139,69,5270,763,9979,168163,11420,223],"class_list":["post-609313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-albert","tag-ambitious","tag-at","tag-been","tag-cassia","tag-chand","tag-does","tag-entertainment","tag-from","tag-hit","tag-it","tag-its","tag-jesse","tag-location","tag-mark","tag-move","tag-mulligan","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-reviews","tag-right","tag-sahrawat","tag-st","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609313","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=609313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}