Zaika Indian Cuisine - Colorado Springs — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

A longtime lover of Indian food - like my whole life. I am from the UK where very good Indian food can be found in abundance, alongside totally horrid Indian food - I've encountered both, the latter far less frequently than the former, thankfully!. I personally cook a lot of Indian recipes myself at home, weekly, and our family's Christmas Eve tradition since my children were very small, is a full on Indian meal. I go all out making 8 or so dishes and they eat the leftovers for brekkie Christmas Morning.(Unique right?) You can imagine I was super excited when my family suggested going out for Indian for my birthday. My daughter checked the reviews and it was a go! First impression: Zaika is a pretty basic looking strip mall restaurant, nothing like the dark but ornate restaurants I grew up visiting most Friday nights in and around London - with their gilded statues of Ganesha, Vishnu & Brahma everywhere and sitar music in the background. They were fabulous! Back to reality.... Back to Zaika and this review: We ordered poppadoms & pickles along with onion pakora (onion bhaji where I'm from). Both were delicious, and the portions were generous. Next, we ordered Lamb Biriyani (they were out of lamb, switched to chicken, no worries). Grilled Chicken Tikka (breast meat) which came with a delicious potato, spinach side that I know as Aloo. Shrimp Vindaloo and Khatta Bhindi (Bhindi Bhaji) along with Roti & Naan. It was plenty of food and we loved that you could adjust the spice level on a scale of 1-5. We picked 3's and 4's. If you're not used to Indian food I might suggest a 1-2 to see if it suits you? I'll be honest and say it was all good, the biryani was especially tasty, would love to try the lamb though, the Tikka was very moist, no easy feat with breast, okra was delicious.The disappointment was the one I was most looking forward to, the Vindaloo. Yes, it was spicy, my hubby broke a sweat (a 4 is Indian hot I would think a 5 would be a Phaal equivalent for any Brummies out there:/). Unfortunately, their Vindaloo didn't have the depth of flavour from the spices or the mild vinegary taste I'm used to. It was just spicy, which I love, but it should be tasty too. However, everything did taste very fresh which I'm appreciative of. All in all, it was a nice birthday meal.I'm pleased we went.Everyone was happy with their choice (we have 3 teens so it was the 5 of us).The service was attentive without being overbearing. Would I go again? Most likely, just not sure when. I would like to try their Chicken Tikka Masala and wonder how good their Tandoori is? COS was sorely lacking Indian restaurants until recently, but that is changing. Believe it or not the best Indian I've eaten in the US is in South Dakota! There are a couple of other Indian restaurants now open here that I would also like to try before returning to Zaika, as it didn't blow my socks off enough to become my go-to place for...

I placed an order for takeout on Valentine’s Day and arrived at the time specified on the order confirmation. The restaurant was packed, and I ended up standing in a crowd of at least a dozen disgruntled DoorDashers. Over the course of the first thirty minutes, they bring out three or four takeout orders. After another fifteen minutes, I see others cancelling their orders, so I attempt to do the same. The waiter I spoke with told me that “we’re working on your food right now”….

Another 30 minutes elapse before I am given my food. At this point, I have watched several tables of people walk in, get a table, be served, eat their food, pay the bill, and leave. My biggest mistake was not checking my food, as we were missing an order of rice and samosas.

I returned about thirty minutes later, after the dinner rush. The same guy that told me “we’re working on your food right now” seems annoyed that I am back to claim the missing food. Yeah buddy, I guess we’re both frustrated. By the time I arrive home (again), my wife has already eaten another meal for Valentine’s dinner. She didn’t realize until the next afternoon that her paneer masala was actually tofu masala.

I have worked in several fine dining kitchens and understand the stress the employees must have experienced. Food takes time, and that’s okay. But to execute an order two and a half hours after it is placed is absurd. Lying to a customer’s face so that they don’t cancel their order is negligent and disrespectful. Serving dine-in customers before fulfilling takeout orders is poor etiquette. They should have a disclaimer in the ordering process or at least have a person monitoring order confirmations to ensure that the timelines provided are semi-accurate.

However, there were a few silver linings:

1. I was given a free beer after I expressed dissatisfaction, which improved the experience.
2. The food is absolutely delicious. I am happy to report that they did not sacrifice quality.
3. My wife called into the restaurant the following day to file a complaint about the paneer/tofu mixup. The manager was kind enough to personally deliver an order of paneer masala and samosas amidst a snowstorm, which displays top-notch attentiveness to customer service.

For the manager’s actions alone, I am leaving a positive review. That man...

This was my fiancé and I’s first visit and we had high hopes of finding a new place for us to become regulars at that was a little closer to home. We specifically strayed away from our favorite place just to give this one a shot.

We walked in and were seated within minutes. They served us water and took about 15-20 mins to return to take our orders, which felt like a long time but I’m aware of the worker shortage and the place was starting to get busy (6:00ish.) We were never offered menus that listed beverage options or even told if they sold soda products so we drank water. We placed our orders at 6:38 pm and only noted the time because the waitress said (AFTER we ordered) that they were on a kitchen wait. Okay, fine we can wait. They took another order from a 2 person table and then an order from a 6 person table after we placed our order.

Both the other 2-top and 6-top were served within 45-60 mins. Still a long wait, but they literally ordered after us, and were served before us. We ordered Chicken Korma, Grilled Chicken Tikka, and cheese naan. We had one single water refill in the entire time we waited for our meals. Finally about 85 mins passed before the owner (I think? Not sure) comes to our table and says “we haven’t forgotten about you, your food is coming it’s just crazy here tonight.” I would have much preferred a gracious “we dropped the ball and are so sorry, can we offer you a complimentary drink or dessert in return for the wait?”

When the food was finally served, the server LOUDLY slammed the ceramic plates on the table and left without asking if we needed anything (we had been told they were bringing spoons but never received them.)

To put the cherry on top, another couple that had finished eating stopped by our table on their way out and apologized to us for our wait, saying they felt so guilty while eating their food and watching us wait so patiently.

The only reason I am giving one star is for the sweet waitress who apologized profusely at the end of our meal and asked us to give them another shot. We won’t...