Indian Roots is a family-run Indian restaurant in the Longhurst Shopping Centre on Hamill Road, Halswell, Christchurch. It is the creation of Ron and Kiah, a husband-and-wife team who describe the restaurant as an amalgamation of the two of them — quite literally, a love story. The name reflects their vision of staying true to where their food comes from: the street markets of old Delhi, where spices are ground fresh, and family kitchens where dishes simmer slowly and no flavour is left to chance.
The story behind the kitchen is deeply personal. Ron grew up with a passionate grandfather who would slow-cook food for hours, and he learned his way around a spice tin so young that he could tell what flavour was missing before tasting. Kiah grew up watching her mother pour heart and soul into three meals a day, while her father made every guest feel welcome. Those two inheritances — careful, patient cooking and genuine hospitality — are what Indian Roots sets out to pass on to every table it serves.
Diners can enjoy the restaurant's old Delhi-inspired cooking in-house or order from the takeaway menu, and there is an online ordering option for easy pick-up. Indian Roots is open six days a week for lunch and dinner, closing on Mondays, and welcomes diners Tuesday through Sunday from 11.30am to 2pm and again from 5pm to 9pm.
Tucked into the Longhurst Shopping Centre on Hamill Road in Halswell, Indian Roots brings the food memories of old Delhi to a friendly corner of Christchurch. It is a restaurant built not around a trend or a formula, but around a family — specifically the family stories of its founders, Ron and Kiah, who describe their business as an amalgamation of the two of them. In their own words, it is a Love Story.
The flavours at Indian Roots trace back to a decade of nostalgia the couple still find hard to forget: the freshly ground spices of the street markets, the aromatic dishes of old Delhi, and the endless whistling of the pressure cooker at home. Ron grew up with a grandfather who would slow-cook food for hours, making sure everything was done properly, and picked up cooking hacks so young that he could identify a missing flavour before even tasting the dish. Kiah's childhood kitchen was no less formative — her mother invested her heart and soul into cooking three delicious meals a day, while her father was a born host who made sure every guest felt welcomed by the ambience.
Those inheritances shape everything about the restaurant. One is about patience and flavour: food cooked with care, spices handled the way they are at the source. The other is about people: the belief that a meal is as much about how welcomed you feel as what is on the plate. Indian Roots' stated vision is simple and sincere — to create lasting memories through great food and people.
Indian Roots serves the Halswell community in several ways. The dine-in menu is there for relaxed lunches and dinners in the restaurant, while a separate takeaway menu makes it easy to bring the same cooking home. There is also a drinks menu to round out a meal, and for those who like to plan ahead, the restaurant runs online ordering through its own ordering site — handy for a pick-up on the way home.
The cooking is rooted in the aromas and techniques of old Delhi: freshly ground spices, slow-developed flavour and the kind of dishes that come from recipes learned in family kitchens rather than boardrooms. It is food made by people who grew up around the stove, and it shows.
The restaurant is easy to find at 1 Hamill Road in the Longhurst Shopping Centre, Halswell, Christchurch — a suburban local rather than a city-centre destination, which is exactly how its regulars seem to like it. Indian Roots is open six days a week: Tuesday through Sunday, service runs in two sessions, from 11.30am to 2pm and again from 5pm to 9pm, with the kitchen taking a break in the mid-afternoon between lunch and dinner. Mondays are the restaurant's day of rest, so plan accordingly.
Questions, bookings or group enquiries can be made by phone on 03 261 9260 or by email at [email protected], and the team is active on Facebook and Instagram where they share updates from the kitchen.
What makes Indian Roots worth a visit is the same thing that makes it easy to recommend: it knows exactly what it is. This is a neighbourhood Indian restaurant with a genuine story, run by owners who learned about flavour and hospitality at their own family tables and now pass that on in Halswell. Whether you sit down for a long dinner, swing by for a takeaway on a weeknight, or order online and collect, you are getting food that comes from somewhere real — from street markets and pressure cookers and grandparents who never rushed a pot.
For Christchurch diners in the south-west of the city, that combination of honest cooking and warm, family-run hospitality is a rare and welcome thing. Indian Roots is open six days a week, and as Ron and Kiah would tell you, every plate carries a bit of their story with it.