Our Story

Rajesh (The restaurant owner) comes from a small place in India, known as “Garhwal” in “Uttarakhand” in the far north of India. As Garhwal is such a small place he created the restaurant “Mini India” referring to the mini size of his home town.

Why did you want to build this restaurant?
India is a huge country. it contains over a hundred languages and recipes, but because the Hindi language is more common than the Garhwal a lot of the their recipes are forgotten and so is Garhwal. Rajesh is bringing the culture and it’s amazing food to new Zealand through Mini India to keep it alive.

“Uttarakhand is both the new and traditional name of the state that was formed from the hill districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. Literally North Country or Section in Sanskrit, the name of Uttarakhand finds mention in the early Hindu scriptures as the combined region of Kedarkhand and Manaskhand.

Uttarakhand was also the ancient Puranic term for the central stretch of the Indian Himalayas. Its peaks and valleys were well known in ancient times as the abode of gods and goddesses and source of the Ganges River. Today, it is often called “the Land of the Gods” (Dev Bhoomi) because of the presence of a multitude of Hindu pilgrimage spots. Uttarakhand is known as Dev Bhoomi from ancient times. The Pauravas, Kushanas, Kunindas, Guptas, Katyuris, Palas, the Chands, and Parmars or Panwars and the Britishhave ruled Uttarakhand in turns.