Cassia

The Verdict

Cassia is back. After more than three years in SkyCity and then operating as a pop-up at Ozone Coffee, the lauded Indian restaurant has found itself a permanent home once again. That home is at 58 Albert Street, underneath the Voco Hotel in Auckland Central. 

Sid and Chand Sahrawat are referring to this as 'Cassia 3.0'. It is not, exactly, a return to the Fort Lane Cassia, but nor is it a new concept. Instead, its a restaurant that has adapted to exist in the Auckland it helped to shape. When Cassia first opened in 2014 there was nothing like it in Tāmaki Makaurau and it feels almost like an understatement to say that it completely changed the city's dining scene. It paved the way for restaurants like 1947 Eatery, Goat, and Aarth—places that now seem like an inherent part of Auckland's dining lexicon. So, for Cassia to return it couldn't simply restart as it was in 2014, nor even how it ended up before closing in 2023. It needed to relaunch as a Cassia that will still push boundaries in 2026. 

The menu still features cult favourites like the Mughlai lamb chops, eggplant sev puri and burrata with pickled chilli salan, but there are new additions, too, like the tandoori chicken xacuti—a dish from Goa—and a few that have carried over from their time at Ozone, too. So far the butter chicken Sid trialled at the pop-up is yet to make an appearance, but that doesn't mean it won't show up in the future. 

Front of house is helmed by Michelin sommelier award-winning Matthew Aitchison, who will across both Cassia and The French Cafe. Here, he'll manage 120 guests across two floors and three private dining rooms—a slight step up from the 75-person capacity of Fort Lane. 

The opening feels like a statement in the resurrection of Auckland's CBD and a reminder that the city's modern Indian dining scene is one of the best in the world. Here is one of its designers, back to prove it.