Zaika

Last week on the weekend I went to this restaurant with my friends the food was fine but what really hit me was the server who was serving the drinks. I forgot the gentlemans name i think he told me his last name was Nepal but anyways his drinks were on POINT! Even his service was AMAZING! He took care of me and my friends. This is my first time going to this place but thanks to his service we will be back! I ENJOYED the drinks! THANK YOU MR NEPAL!

Don’t offer sparkling water and not tell someone is $ 3.50 for a glass. Food was good but overpriced for such a small portion.

BEWARE: Zaika charges all customers who are using a Groupon toward their meal purchase a 18% fee, regardless of how many people are dining. This is the restaurant’s practice at least as of Thursday June 9, 2016 (when we were dining there and discovered the surprise fee), but likely earlier.
Neither Groupon nor Zaika provide the consumer with ANY form of prior notice regarding this fee! My wife and I only became aware of the restaurant’s fee upon receiving our bill at the end of the meal.
This deceptive practice may need to be reported to oversight agencies, such as the CFPB. I will be conducting research into the issue. In the meantime, Zaika Groupon buyer beware.

I came here for lunch and had the buffet — it was excellent! A nice variety of dishes and all of them tasty! All of the sauces were very flavorful without relying on being overly spicy. Yum!

It was my first time having Indian food and I had a great experience! The service was incredible. Our water was constantly being refilled, they brought a lantern to our outdoor table when the sun started going down and the server offered several recommendations to help us choose our meals. The food was delicious and the portion sizes were very large. I think the prices are beyond reasonable. Also, the décor inside and out was beautiful and very inviting. I will definitely be back.

The smell of urine in the restaurant was disgusting. The filthiest bathroom I have ever seen. We lost our appetite.
If the bathroom is filthy I can only imagine the kitchen.
Beware they add 18% gratuity on your bill even if it is just 2 people.
We ordered samosas, fried spinach appetizer dish, butter chicken and malai kofta.
The fried spinach dish was very good I must be honest. Truth is truth. The samosas were steaming hot and tasted good, but there was some random spice thrown in there that threw off the taste.
Butter chicken was kind of sweet. Im not sure why tomatoes in this country have a sweet taste. Where we come from (Middle East) tomatoes have more a sour taste and it makes dishes with tomatoes in them very tasty. It felt like they dumped a can of tomato soup over the chicken dish. I give the butter chicken 3 stars.
My husband is vegetarian and ordered the Malai kofta which had huge clove pieces in it, intact and everything. It was a turn off for him and he nearly puked from the urine smell coming from the bathroom.
My husband gave them a tip and it was only after that we discovered that they added 18% gratuity.
Please improve the cleanliness of your restaurant and try to become more authentic in your indian food and less americanized.
If you go there be prepared to fork up 18% on the bill.

Best Indian cuisine I’ve ever had!!! Price maybe a bit high but well worth it and the food is just amazing! I’ve been here several times and have always been more than satisfied with their food and service. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone! Can’t wait to go back!!!

So delicious. So good. Nice atmosphere — modern setting. Can even make chicken tikka hariyali Good date spot.

Just moved into the area and wanted Indian food to munch in while unpacking. ordered in for delivery. The food came earlier than expected so that was a pleasant surprise. The portions are relatively huge, so this could have easily fed 2 – 3 people…
As far as the food goes. it’s pretty bad. I ordered the chicken 65 (I’m from the city where the dish originated so I know what it’s supposed to taste like), with the layered paratha, chicken biryani and gulab jamun. They really should change the name of the chicken 65 dish because its clearly a recipe of a very different dish, and had it been cooked well it might have been better, whatever it was supposed to be. The biryani was interesting, very sweet because of the raisins it was topped off with, guessing this is also a regional difference, could have paired well with a spicier raita to balance the sweetness in the rice. The gulab jamun’s jamun (milk dumpling) were actually really good, but the simple syrup had a very chemical after taste to it. I’ll probably not be ordering from here again, $ 50 later its all sitting in my fridge contemplating if I should eat it or just toss it.
Edit 5÷1÷16: Food still sucks. I’d forgotten that I had ordered from here before and it was awful and ended up ordering through Eat24… but now that this place is etched in my mind, won’t be making that mistake again. There are very few places that boast serving indo-​chinese cuisine, and if you’ve ever had the good luck of trying good indo-​chinese food you’ll know that its some serious eats! Hit up the suburbs of chicago for some if you’re ever in the area, or better yet. if you’re in India, definitely try it there. When I saw Hakka noodles on the menu, I knew I needed to try this place. If this place was any good I was going to make alot of Indians around here very happy. but unfortunately what they serve as indo-​chinese is nothing like the authentic stuff. For starters they use spagetti noodles to make their hakka noodles instead of chinese egg noodles. huge mistake. And its slathered in some sort of fish ketchupy suace. wth? Yeah not sure what they’re serving up. but that’s not Hakka noodles. neither did their manchurian dishes taste anything like they’re supposed to. At this point, my mother could probably go in there and teach them how to cook these dishes better.

I got delivery so I can’t speak to the service or restaurant but the lentil/​kidney bean daal was good and I liked the okra do piaza as well. I tried the minced lamb stuffed naan and the lamb meat kind of tasted like gyro meat. It was interesting but I’ll probably just stick with good old garlic naan from now on.

It had been few months from the last time we have been here. While all past visits were on the positive side of fine, last night we left disappointed. The second star is for the staff who were apologetic and tried to right the mistakes.
I know this is Indian food and while it’s fair to expect some heat in dishes I can’t tolerate too much heat. So I ordered mild as always and noted that I would like them to make it as little spicy as possible. I never had an issue with that here. Both dishes brought out were over the top spicy for our taste. The lamb dish was full of bones with almost no meat and looked nothing like the dish we ordered.
They took both back right away. When we got our dishes back mine was this time actually mild and the lamb dish was the dish we ordered.
However, we waited a bit more than we would like and when we ran out of rice it took a while to get a refill. It was late, but the dining room had four– five tables and at one time there was no one from the waitstaff in the room for a while. Our water was never refilled. Also, the next day I felt pretty terrible to say the least. I am sad this was a place I used to like and is no longer is that.

We found this place from a living social deal but have been back since. I think the garlic naan is so good but my BF doesn’t think so. I always get chicken dishes that pretty much are all very similar to me. I had the chicken vindaloo this time and it was super spicy which I was warned and pretty good. My BF got the lamb which he always gets and this time he said it tasted old. I like the atmosphere and the service is always pretty good.

I’ve had Indian food many times and this has got to be one of the best places I’ve been to!
First of all, I really loved the way this place was decorated when I first walked in. Then when I was seated, I was immediately served my drink and soon after my appetizers and naan bread came out. The naan bread was super fresh and definitely one of the best I’ve had! OMG you have to order the cauliflower that’s encrusted, it tastes like a version of hot wings except ten times better. As for my meal, I had a little bit of everything (shown in the picture below). All of these dishes were filled with so much flavor!
This place is extremely underrated and I highly recommend stopping by if you like Indian food! I will definitely be coming back again especially for the cauliflower appetizer!

Reviews all over the map are never a good sign, but I figured I’d throw a vote for the positive as the food is great. Here’s how I’d break it down:
Ambience: 4
Service: 4
Food: 4
Value: 4
I believe Zaika used to be Tandoor Nights. The murals remain the same and I love the lighting and cloth drapery as it does transform the space from strip mall boring to Indian palace. I am a fan of Chicken Tikka Marsala and they do it well. I’d say their sauce has a heavier tomato taste and consistency but I prefer this to the heavier cream/​yogurt consistency. The chicken is high quality white mean, but there wasn’t as many pieces as some other local restaurants serving the same dish. (I’d rather have fewer pieces of higher quality.) The Chana Marsala is spicy (like it should be). Hands down my favorite (and a recommendation from the staff) was the Aloo Papri Chaat! I’d call it the American equivalent of nachos! Simply delicious!
We ordered the «naan basket» which had more carbohydrates than 6 humans should eat in a day! All were piping hot and devoured by 2 humans!
Our glasses never went empty, our dishes were served hot and we didn’t have to ask twice for our check. I am not an expert at Indian cuisine but I chose my two «known» or «staple» dishes and found them to be tasty and aligned to other Indian restaurants.

I found this restaurant through LivingSocial and decided to give it a try. I decided to try the Roti this time instead of the Naan which was a mistake on my part. You should always stick with Garlic Naan at any Indian restaurant that offers it.
I ordered the Lamb Patiala which was very good, and I highly recommend it. Also the staff was very friendly and service was good.

The restaurant is very nice. Comfortable seats. Nice décor. Living in Clarendon I thought I’d check it out since I haven’t been here before.
Well here’s my summary. This is not real Indian food. This is American food with Indian names
Dal makhani dish. Truly disappointing! I’m a Dal makhani lover. It’s urad and rajma dal with spice and cream/​butter. I think the cream butter was there but there was no spice. No heat. There were no rajma whole. It was rajma blended and some urads floating in there. Weird and disappointing. Taste. So so. But it wasn’t dal makhani. And yes I’ve eaten Dal makhani in New Delhi and south India too. Though the dish is northern.
Chicken curry. How can an Indian place mess up chicken curry? No spice. Missing the curry I believe. I think they use curry powder only ?? No ginger. Extremely thin Definitely no complex flavor of mustard cumin seeds curried in pan. Tastes tomatoey. Like tomato soup w some curry powder
Rice. Tastes good. Liked the rice
Garlic naan. Acceptable. Not best but good. Better than store bought
mixed grill. Ok. Meat was over cooked. The spice seemed fine.
Chicken 65. I like it spicy and crispy. It had tomato flavor. No crispy. At least This dish had some heat and flavor. I liked it but it wasn’t what I was expecting
With all the Indian food in nova I will not be back.

This was my first Indian restaurant that has some Indian-​Asian fusion to it. Went here on a dinner date with my friend, we were promptly greeted and were seated outside. They have a really nice patio over looking some Clarendon shops. It was a nice romantic atmosphere.
We started with 2 drinks. The Lychitini and Gingertini. The lychitini was sweet and refreshing while the gingertini was zezty and had some nice spice to it.
For starters we had Pani Puri. I’ve never had this before but it was super unique and fun to eat. The fried bread ball was perfectly crispy and the tangy/​zesty sauce that went inside was delicious. When combining the two, it made my taste buds explode. It was super delicious and fun to eat.
For entrees, we order the chicken tikka masala and chili chicken. The chicken tikka masala was spicy and flavorful. It paired very will with the Jalapeño cheese naan and onion kulcha. The chili chicken was the Indian-​Asian fusion dish. It was sweet and spicy. The chicken was well prepared and not overcooked. It went really well with the rice.
Their naan here is the real star! There are sooooo many choices of naan! We had the Jalapeño cheese naan and that was the most delicious tasting naan I’ve ever had. We also ordered an Onion kulcha. It was perfectly cooked and not too oily. Their naan here is perfect and I was happily satisfied.

I was on the fence about this place due to the reviews and you know what, I still am; it’s worth another shot.
During monthly dinner dates with UnilocalElite Miss Megan C. we try new things, explore menus and share everything! Upon arrival, we told our wait staff that we love heat, we aren’t kidding and in general to bring it on. What’s a white girl have to do for some real heat and spice in her life? I LOVE lamb vindaloo because it makes me dab my brow from sweating «so much,» but you are not going to find that kind of heat at Zaika.
Megan C and I got to Zaika just before happy hour ended (7pm). Be sure to take advantage of their long happy hour. All wines are considered «House Wines» which is a huge perk. They also offer a few appetizers for what seems like half price on their happy hour menu, too.
After looking at the menu we decided we were going to split the Lamb Vindaloo (Grilled tender lamb cooked with potatoes in a fiery sauce) and the Lamb Madras (Lamb cooked in a coconut curry). Please note, the descriptions for each item. Each also indicated an «S» next to their description to alert people that it was a spicy option. Super, extra spicy! I cannot wait. When ordering Megan and I again told our waiter we wanted heat. We wanted pep in our step and we wanted to be a fire breathing dragon. Our waiter ensured us that he could make that happen and he’d «kick it up a notch.» This seemed really promising!
Let the disappointment ensue because there was zero heat in either of our meals. It was lacking flavor in general and i didn’t even get tingly lips. NOTHING. There was absolutely nothing here for me.
This restaurant’s tagline is where food meets flavor, but I just wasn’t seeing that from my experience last night.

Food– I went here for a buffet on Saturday afternoon. The food tastes very good. Not oily Not over the top spicy.
The Buffet had a lot of options– chicken tandoori, malai chicken wings, dahi wada, aloo chat papari, potato fries (surprisingly very good), mutton rogan gosht, chicken tikka masala, palak paneer (very good), black channa masala, dal Makhani (very good), jeera rice, gobi & soya bean, anguri gulab jamun, and kheer.
I have to say all the dishes were good. I had a great experience. We ate a lot and at the end I just wanted to go home and take a nap. It was very satisfying.
The buffet did not have any seafood items and hence the lost a star. However, their regular menu has seafood dishes.
Drinks– the regular drinks for any restaurant, they have a Bar too.
Ambience/​Restaurant style– They have an indoor and an outdoor seating available. Nice Bollywood music. Very spacious with a lot of tables. They a separate booth and a private seating available too upon request. Very clean. Very big. Nice professional waiters. Quick service.
Overall– i will definitely visit it, a bit expensive for $ 15+ tax for a buffet, but almost worth it.

One of my favorite restaurants. Been here quite a few times this year, so far the food is exceptionally well made except once.
But that is normal in restaurant business, every chef, every restaurant has their good days and their bad days.
We usually get Kashmiri Naan, its veryy good and this is a must to get. We have tried all the different dishes here. Malai Kofta, Paneer Makhni and Paneer Kadai are pretty good. The staff is very nice and friendlly. It’s a nice and upscale looking restaurant and located in the heart of clarendon.
Will definetely been returning here again soon.