Zoya Oulton — Restaurant in Leeds

Zoya is nicely presented and has a modern vibe to it from an interior perspective especially when compared to other similar eateries. Atmosphere was also good and felt active.

The food was somewhat average actually, we were given what appeared to be like a wall planter which had been repurposed as a poppadom trough and this didn't really suffice between 5 people, in reality it was probably less than 4 poppadoms.

To accompany these we were given 2 pickle trays with 6-7 pickles on each. Ridiculous amount given the poppadom situation.

Starter was actually quite poor, I had fish Pakora and it just didn't have much flavour. I'd say that this was the worst element of the meal other than service which I will circle back to shortly.

For a main I had Indian Butter Chicken, The flavours were quite nice. The chicken could have done with being a little less dry but it tasted reasonable. Pilau rice felt fresh, naan bread again relatively average and nothing extraordinary here.

Now the unfortunate running theme with Zoya is service. This can be seen reflected in other reviews I read. Staff are ill trained to be working in hospitality and this should be addressed at the earliest opportunity as the business will suffer over time.

I felt forced to help clear our table, which has never happened to me personally before whereby the server was demanding that we pass all our plates down the table and almost borderline passive aggressively.

Now I'm not wanting to be wait on like some sort of Roman emperor but I was trying to enjoy conversation and the waiter just kept being rude and interrupting me to pass him various plates and cutlery. Extremely awkward, unorthodox and actually very rude.

Waiting for the bill felt like it was an eon and that we'd been deserted, only then as we all rose from our seats to go pay up at the counter we were then pounced upon by the same rude waiter who clearly thought we may have attempted to walk out and basically wanted us to pay but on the most unusual terms I've ever experienced.

We just wanted to split the bill 5 ways and pay across multiple cards, however we were refused the ability to do so as we we're told the restaurant would incur a charge per card...

At this stage everyone's interest for the experience had somewhat soured and we were left with a bitter sense of regret to be honest.

It's that moment as you're leaving through the door of an Indian restaurant and you say to yourself 'We should have just gone to Aagrah'...

Zoya isn't worth your time really, I'd recommend just going somewhere else. Aside from this it's in a really strange location opposite a Ford garage so...

Most impressive part of the meals we ordered was that they managed to be both greasy AND dry at the same time, leaving behind a salty film in our mouths. Zoya used to be the top quality curry restaurant we'd take relatives to show off our local eateries, so we're heavily disappointed that tonight's quality was so low it had put us off returning. A complete disregard and LAZY attitude towards health and safety regarding covid should have been the red flag on collection, as nobody wore face masks and the shields they had were all lowered away from their faces. No social distancing either.

If that's what you display up front then what goes on in the back that we don't know about when it comes to hygiene?

We ordered two curries from the mild and creamy menu, since we never had them before: Kashmiri khana with lamb and pasanda with chicken, keema rice, and garlic naan.

The lamb tasted off and I questioned if it actually was lamb. Low quality and dry texture with little flavour made for a gross combination in the sauce, which was meant to be mildly sweetened by pineapple. It was VERY sweet and there were only two small chunks of canned pineapple in the whole dish with an ABUNDANCE of sultanas. I hate sultanas. They were mentioned in other dishes on the menu but not this one, so I was annoyed I had to pull them out constantly. Sauce had a grainy texture, as if they mixed shredded coconut into it but the description said only coconut cream was in the dish. Maybe they skipped the cream and used cheaper coconut flakes?

The pasanda had no distinctive flavour, was weirdly salty send very heavy. AND FULL OF SALTANAS, which were also not mentioned in the menu.

Keema rice felt dry and some bits of keema had a squishy-firm texture, so I thought the sultana plague had infected this as well but it turned out just to be congealed lamb fat. Very salty.

The garlic naan smelled nice and that was the best part because the taste didn't live up to the hype entrancing my nose. Felt and tasted like it had been made far in advanced and left under heat lamps to stay warm enough to shrivel into a dry-yet-greasy dough interpretation that pleasures nobody.

I guess you stop trying after you win a curry...

Go to LaLa’s instead.

What a nightmare this was. I’d avoid at all costs if you want poor service, managers who laugh when you complain and food that’s barely got any taste.

There were only 2 of us dining and yet they got our order wrong.

I had chicken pakoras for a starter and I’ve had better from a takeaway for half the price. Dripping in oil and no taste.

Missed my partners main completely. We had to ask 3 times where this was as waiters were asking how our food was and if everything was okay. It took 15 minutes for his main to arrive. I’d already eaten awkwardly on my own at this point. Garlic naan was tiny compared to other Indian restaurants and burnt. Pilau rice had no flavour. Partners curry which was meant to be as hot as a madras was also tasteless and had no kick to it at all.

Then we asked for our bill 4 times.

Finally a manager walks over with the bill and we tell him about what’s happened. Apparently the waiter wrote our order wrong, yet he repeated it back to us and even commented on how my partner has ordered a very spicy curry. Very odd I find!!

Then to top it off while we are walking out the manager is laughing in the door way to the waiter about how he messed up our order.

Absolute waste of money and time. Not sure why people...