The doors may have closed on Indian Summer’s first premises but the journey through food is just beginning at the restaurant’s new home in Hobsonville Point

Indian Summer, owned by restaurateur TC Suresh, traded from a Hobsonville Road villa for the past 12 years. That branch was closed at the end of last month but not before TC opened his new restaurant, complete with a refreshed menu, on the ground floor of the Brickworks Apartments on De Havilland Road.

“It was sad in the sense that every day when I worked in the villa, I didn’t feel like coming out. It was just like being in a home away from home” says TC. “But this opportunity in Hobsonvillle Point has allowed me to create my dream project. It is something totally different from the conventional Indian restaurant, more modern, but at the same time it retains my fundamental expectation of creating impeccable Indian cuisine."

A visit to the restaurant is an immersion in what TC calls a “journey through food”. From the Indian Summer motif, which directs diners to the front door, to the authentic Kolam patterns on the ceiling (signs of invitation and welcome), the Diya silhouettes in the bathrooms (akin to the oil lamps used during Diwali) and the illuminated storyboard showcasing India’s great train trips, no detail has been overlooked. The kitchen has intentionally been left open to enable customers to connect with the chefs at work.

“The space was a blank canvas, an opportunity to re-invent the Indian Summer brand and the re-imagining of the environment which I felt embodied Indian cuisine” TC says. “It’s been a long time in the making but the time was well spent, and I have the utmost faith that my patrons will thoroughly enjoy the experience.”

Indian Summer can be contacted on (09) 972 4952 or (09) 972 4957. It is open for lunch from 11:30am to 2:30pm, Monday to Saturday, and for dinner from 5pm to late, seven days a week.