With Its CBD Restaurant Flooded, Cassia Is Temporarily Relocating Again

Sid and Chand Sahrawat’s acclaimed restaurant Cassia hasn’t fared well with the intermittent flooding that Auckland has experienced over the past year.

The subterranean CBD venue was damaged and closed for five weeks in March 2022, when Niwa Weather clocked the second-highest amount of rainfall in an hour on record.

But the rain on Friday January 27 decimated records, with many Auckland regions receiving approximately an entire summer’s worth of rainfall in one day.

This resulted in 140 diners at Cassia needing to evacuate at about 6pm as the prep kitchen floor gave way, flooding the kitchen and dining rooms. “We couldn’t believe it was happening again – the team acted quickly to let customers know what was happening and everyone was very understanding,” owner Sid said in a statement.

With the restaurant having temporarily closed its doors again, the Sahrawats are returning to a solution they first introduced back in March last year – relocating the team to a pop-up at their airy private dining room The French Kitchen at Sid at The French Cafe.

From February 8, The French Kitchen will once again be The Cassia Kitchen. You can book in for the Journey Through India menu, which is a five-course tasting menu supplemented with snacks, cooked in Cassia’s signature flavourful style.

For $95, you’ll enjoy Cassia’s delicious pani puri, roasted carrots with vindaloo cream, signature Goan lamb chops and more, with the menu likely to evolve and change. There is one sitting per evening at 6:30pm, Wednesday through to Saturday, and dietary requirements can be catered to if you let them know when you make a reservation.

Open for bookings from Wednesday February 8 to Saturday, March 4 at this stage. Additional dates beyond March 4 will be added each Monday, with guests able to book up to a month in advance at a time.