Origami Rolleston brings the group's Japanese-fusion cooking and freshly-made pâtisserie to Tennyson Street in Rolleston — the fast-growing Selwyn town the team tags with its te reo name, Tauwharekākaho — on Christchurch's southwestern edge. It is the southernmost of Origami's three New Zealand branches, joining Cuba Street in Wellington (Pōneke) and Emerson Street in Napier South.
The kitchen covers a range of Japanese-fusion dishes, with dine-in, takeaway and drinks menus published on the website, plus a dedicated desserts and high tea offering that gets its own corner of the site. The Rolleston branch is licensed, with alcohol available, and reservations are encouraged — the website's message for this location is simply 'book in today!'.
Hours are generous: doors open at 11.30am seven days a week, trading to 9pm Sunday–Thursday and 9.30pm on Friday and Saturday, with a short Monday–Friday pause between 3pm and 4.30pm. The branch is cashless, and delivery is available through DoorDash, Uber Eats and Delivereasy.
Rolleston is one of the fastest-growing corners of greater Christchurch, and on Tennyson Street — a spot the Origami team happily tags with its te reo name, Tauwharekākaho — you'll find the branch that carries the group's cooking to the South Island. The formula, as the website puts it, is easy to summarise: a range of Japanese-fusion dishes and freshly-made pâtisserie, served seven days a week from 11.30am right through to the evening. For Selwyn locals, that makes this Tennyson Street site a surprisingly well-stocked option — dinner, takeaway, drinks, and a dessert programme with real ambition, all under one roof.
Origami is not a one-town affair. The group's homepage waves you between Cuba Street in Wellington — 'the coolest little capital', Pōneke — Emerson Street in Napier South, and down south to Rolleston on Christchurch's doorstep, with the invitation to 'visit us throughout Aotearoa!'. Each branch keeps its own phone line and its own details: Wellington answers on 04 385 1354, Napier on 06 833 6303, and Rolleston on 03 347 0040. What links the three is the kitchen's signature approach: Japanese foundations, a fusion sensibility, and a serious sweet programme of freshly-made pâtisserie.
The Rolleston site sits at 3/51 Tennyson St in the 7614 area, an easy detour for Selwyn residents and Christchurch day-trippers alike — and unlike many suburban kitchens it keeps long hours, opening at 11.30am every day of the week.
Origami keeps its menus live on the website: a dine-in menu, a takeaway menu and a drinks menu, plus a page devoted entirely to desserts and high tea. The 'fusion' label does genuine work here — rather than a fixed, predictable list, the savoury side is described as a range of Japanese-fusion dishes, which gives regulars a reason to keep coming back to see what the kitchen is doing. The pâtisserie, meanwhile, is billed as freshly-made, and the desserts and high tea offering is prominent enough to earn its own corner of the site — well worth a look if you're plotting a birthday, a celebration or simply a long afternoon catch-up.
One detail that shapes a visit to the Rolleston branch specifically: it is licensed, with alcohol available — a point the website flags directly for this location, alongside its characteristically brief call to action, 'book in today!'. Combine a fusion dinner with a glass of something, or build a visit around the sweet stuff; either way, reserving a table first is the move the site itself recommends.
Hours are long and generous. The branch opens at 11.30am seven days a week and trades through to 9pm from Sunday to Thursday, and to 9.30pm on Friday and Saturday. The one wrinkle to remember: from Monday to Friday the branch pauses between 3pm and 4.30pm, so a mid-afternoon visit will need to become a lunch or a dinner instead.
Payment is cashless — cards only — so there's no last-minute scramble for notes at the counter. And if you'd rather eat at home, Origami lists all three of New Zealand's major delivery apps on its site: DoorDash, Uber Eats and Delivereasy, alongside the takeaway menu for those collecting on the way past.
Because the three branches each run their own details, it pays to use the Rolleston numbers and hours above rather than assuming the Wellington or Napier times apply. The social channels — Facebook and Instagram — are where the group posts its updates, so they're the quickest way to keep an eye on what's happening between visits.
Whether you come in for a fusion dinner with a drink, grab the takeaway menu on the way home, or settle in properly for the desserts and high tea treatment, the Rolleston branch packs the group's whole repertoire into one Tennyson Street address — with the friendly suggestion that you book first.