Indian & Nepalese Kitchen brings the flavours of two Himalayan neighbours to 360A Thames Highway in Oamaru North. Run by a passionate family team of chefs, the restaurant celebrates the culinary traditions of India and Nepal through authentic recipes, fresh ingredients and traditional cooking methods — a menu that runs from aromatic curries to succulent momos.
The menu is genuinely broad: fourteen Indian main courses (butter chicken, korma, tikka masala, madras, sagwala, rogan josh and more), each served with basmati rice and available mild, medium or hot; tandoor-cooked kebabs and entrees like onion bhaji, samosas and pakora; and a Special Hand Picked section featuring Nepalese-style goat curry, chicken 65 and tandoori grilled prawns. There are also seafood, vegetarian, biryani, tandoori bread and side-dish selections. The momos — including a soup momo served steamed with soup — are the dish diners most often recommend.
Ordering is online pre-order with pickup only (delivery isn't available), and table reservations can be made through the website. The kitchen also caters for events, and reviewers consistently praise both the food and the service — around 222 reviews on the restaurant's ordering platform average about four and a half stars.
Oamaru's Victorian precinct gets the postcards, but drive north along Thames Highway and you'll find one of North Otago's most talked-about dining rooms: Indian & Nepalese Kitchen. This family-run restaurant at 360A Thames Highway in Oamaru North cooks the food of two neighbouring Himalayan cultures under one roof — the aromatic curries of India and the dumpling-centred cooking of Nepal — and has become a fixture for locals and a happy discovery for travellers passing through town.
The restaurant is run by a passionate family team of chefs who describe their work as a celebration of culinary traditions from the heart of India and the landscapes of Nepal, brought to New Zealand. The approach is deliberately traditional: authentic recipes, fresh ingredients and time-honoured cooking methods across a wide, carefully built menu. That menu swings comfortably between the familiar and the adventurous — a butter chicken for the cautious, a goat curry on the bone for the curious.
The reviews suggest the kitchen lands its aim. A diner visiting from Nepal called it one of the best places for typical Nepali taste, praising the kitchen for serving so many Nepali dishes so well even though it's located in a small town. Another table persuaded a self-declared mutton-hating child to try the curry mutton rice — and the dish won him over completely. Food, service and atmosphere all score fives from regular reviewers.
If there's one dish regulars point newcomers toward, it's the momos — the pleated Nepalese dumplings that are the most-recommended item in customer reviews. The soup momo is the full experience: dumplings made with fresh vegetables, herbs, spices, garlic and ginger, steamed and then served with a fragrant soup. Beside them sits the goat curry, cooked on the bone in typical Nepalese style with fresh herbs and spices — a dish you'll meet at every Nepali celebration but rarely on New Zealand menus.
The Indian side of the menu runs deep: fourteen main courses covering butter chicken, korma, chicken tikka masala, madras, spinach-based sagwala, garlic balti, kadai, jalfrezi, bhuna, dhansak, pasandra and lamb rogan josh, among others. Most come in chicken or lamb versions, every main is served with basmati rice, and each can be made mild, medium or hot — so a mixed-tolerance table can order from the same list without anyone suffering. Heat-seekers can push a vindaloo-style vondaloo as far as they dare.
There's a dedicated vegetarian section with nine dishes, seafood options, Indian tandoori breads, rice and biryani dishes, and sides to round out a feast.
Entrees lean toward the tandoor: chicken tikka and malai tikka kebabs, tandoori chicken by the half or full bird, plus the fried classics — onion bhaji, vegetable samosas and pakora — with vegetarian and non-vegetarian mixed platters for sharing. The Special Hand Picked section is where the kitchen has fun: murg malai kebab in cashew and curd sauce with Afghan-style masala, tandoori-grilled prawns, South Indian chicken 65 with curry leaves and mustard seeds, chicken chilli, vegetable-ball manchurian, and schezwan noodles and fried rice — a nod to the Indo-Chinese cooking loved across both India and Nepal.
Practicalities are simple. Table reservations can be made through the website, and online ordering is open — though it's pre-order for pickup only, as delivery isn't available, so plan to collect your food. The team can be reached on 03 437 1414 or at [email protected], and for bigger occasions the kitchen runs a catering service blending Indian and Nepalese dishes, from curries to momos.
The feedback is strikingly consistent: 222 reviews on the restaurant's ordering platform average about four and a half stars. A traveller from the United States, stopping on a whim on the drive to Dunedin, reported super yummy food and excellent service; a local scored the customer service a 10/10. Whether you're an Oamaru local after a regular curry night, a homesick Nepali after proper momos, or a road-tripper splitting the drive south, this kitchen makes a strong case for pulling off Thames Highway — start with momos, choose your heat honestly, and add tandoori bread for mopping the bowl.