Little India Merivale has been part of Christchurch's dining scene for more than 20 years — long enough that one customer described it as "not just a restaurant, it's an Institution." The restaurant sits alongside the bars and eateries of the Merivale Mall on Aikmans Road, with the convenience of more than 200 carparks and a dining room that seats 90, making it a natural choice for group bookings of every kind. The kitchen serves the legendary North Indian food of the Punjab, using recipes handed down from grandmother Premjit Kaur Gill, who personally trained every Little India head chef in her own kitchen in Chandigarh. It's all part of the Little India family business founded by Sukhi and Joanna Gill in Dunedin in 1991, which grew from a fish and chip shop with a few Indian dishes on the menu into a nationwide family of restaurants. Fully licensed with BYO wine, open seven days for lunch and dinner, and offering online ordering for takeaway and delivery, Little India Merivale pairs friendly service with food that has kept locals coming back for two decades.
Little India Merivale has been feeding Christchurch from Aikmans Road for more than two decades, and in that time it has earned the kind of affection most restaurants only dream of. One customer put it plainly: "Little India Merivale is not just a restaurant, it's an Institution." It's a fair verdict on a place that has spent 20-plus years serving one family's recipes to generations of locals, from a friendly dining room in the heart of Merivale. This restaurant is one of seven Little India locations around New Zealand, and one of two in Christchurch.
Little India is, at heart, a family business. It was founded by Sukhi and Joanna Gill in Dunedin in 1991, and it grew from remarkably humble beginnings. When Sukhi's mother and father visited from India, he decided to add a few Indian dishes to the fish and chip shop's menu. They were an instant hit — soon there were lines of people down the street hoping to taste the new dishes. With a single electric stove struggling to keep up with demand, Joanna, a chef, and Sukhi, an accountant, decided to open a proper New Zealand Indian restaurant.
From that first dining room, Little India has grown into a nationwide family of restaurants, from Glen Eden in Auckland to Dunedin's Moray Place, with stops in Timaru, Nelson, Palmerston North and two Christchurch locations — Spitfire Square and this one, Merivale — along the way.
The food here is the legendary cuisine of North India, The Punjab, and its pedigree is unusual for a restaurant of any size. The recipes cooked in every Little India came from the kitchen of Sukhi's grandmother, Premjit Kaur Gill — and she has personally trained each of the group's head chefs in her own kitchen in Chandigarh. That line of teaching, straight from grandmother to chef, is what keeps the food honest: these are the dishes the family grew up eating, made the way they are made at home in the Punjab.
The restaurant sits alongside the bars and restaurants of the Merivale Mall, with more than 200 carparks across the complex — so even a busy Friday night rarely involves circling the block. Inside there is seating for 90, which makes Little India Merivale an ideal venue for group bookings for any occasion: family birthdays, work dinners or a long table of friends. The team is known for exactly the pairing the restaurant promises — friendly service and legendary cuisine.
The kitchen serves lunch from 11:30am to 2:00pm and dinner from 5:00pm to 10:00pm, seven days a week, with an afternoon break between the two services. Whether it's a weeknight dinner for two or a celebration filling a long table, the same kitchen sends out the same family recipes. If you like your curry matched with a glass of something, you're well looked after — the restaurant is fully licensed and also welcomes BYO wine.
If you'd rather eat at home, Little India offers online ordering for delivery and takeaway. Regulars can download the Little India Loyal app, which brings table bookings, takeaway and delivery orders, loyalty points and member specials together in one place. There are gift vouchers for giving, and the Little India cookbook for anyone keen to try the family's dishes in their own kitchen.
More than twenty years in, Little India Merivale remains what its customers call it — an institution. Book a table, bring a bottle, and taste why the queue that once formed outside a Dunedin fish and chip shop has never really gone away.