A high-profile Auckland couple are among the thousands stuck in Dubai with flights grounded as Iran continues a wave of retaliatory air strikes.

Restaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat arrived in Dubai two days ago to discuss potential investment deals before planning to travel on to India.

They are now hunkering down with their future plans up in the air, after the New Zealand Government advised Kiwis stuck in the conflict zone to “shelter in place”.

Chand Sahrawat said she and her husband had been enjoying poolside refreshments in the UAE city while discussing potential investment deals, when “everything changed very, very quickly”.

“We’ve been here before. We perceive it to be a very safe space,” Sahrawat said.

“I did not expect Iran to be impacting Dubai. In fact, when the other Gulf countries started shutting down their airports, I thought, ‘Surely Dubai won’t shut the airport’.”

Within hours, that assumption unravelled. What began as reports of partial closures quickly escalated.

“Then within a couple of hours, it was like partial closure, and then full closure,” she said.

“That is when we started seeing images of the interceptors [drones].

“Then we heard a couple of booms.”

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Renowned restaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat.

Following a drone strike that caused a fire at another hotel, the Fairmont Palm Hotel in Dubai, which left four injured, Sahrawat and her husband made plans to stay with a friend until things calm down.

“We’re in Business Bay, which is the centre of the city.”

Despite the ongoing drone strikes, Sahrawat said Dubai was still a safe space and “feels quite protected”.

“The worry is how long people are stuck for.

“We’re supposed to leave the day after.”

The only difficulty since, Sahrawat said, has been explaining to their children why Dubai is being affected by the Iranian-US conflict – telling them it is due to military bases and strategic interests in the region.

The Sahrawats own acclaimed Indian restaurant Cassia, which this week announced it will close its doors at Auckland’s SkyCity dining precinct in June, before moving to a new central Auckland location.

Sid and Chand Sahrawat in front of Cassia at SkyCity. Photo / Babiche Martens

Sid Sahrawat has won several accolades and awards for his cooking.

After moving to New Zealand in 2000, he and his wife now co-own three top restaurants – Anise, The French Cafe and Cassia.

In 2018, Sahrawat was named New Zealand’s Best Chef at the Metro Peugeot Restaurant of the Year Awards. Cassia has been a regular in Viva’s Top 50 Auckland Restaurant Awards.

The Sahrawats sold their Ponsonby restaurant Kol in April last year, citing challenging trading conditions.

Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.