New Delhi, Aug. 23 -- Just 15 minutes south-east of Christchurch, New Zealand, where Victorian and Gothic facades stand alongside steel-and-glass structures, lies the port town of Lyttelton. Freight depots and weathered warehouses line its streets to move supplies to Antarctica. Beyond a handful of cafes and grocery stores, there is little to interrupt the industrial landscape of London Street, the town's main thoroughfare.

Down a narrow slip lane off the main street, sits a 20-square-metre restaurant named Mapu Test Kitchen.

The six-seater place overlooking the small kitchen, on high bar stools at Mapu, many of the things one expects from a restaurant are absent. There is no signboard, waitstaff or menu.

Mapu Test Kitchen is less of a...