Zaika Keylargo Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Key Largo

What a great addition to our Key Largo community. Just writing this review from a visit about a week ago makes me want to go back again. We visited Zaika for the first time and were so pleased with the whole experience.

The restaurant looks much different inside than what you picture it would look like from the outside. When you step inside, you smell the aroma of the deliciousness to come. It’s dark and romantic and very beautiful with deep reds and gold accents. We were starving and I had read about their bread so we were so ready to dig in. For appetizers, we ordered the garlic naan and Bengali Garlic Lobster, both were delicious. Definitely a must have plate!

For dinner, the hubby had Lamb Chop Biryani and I had the chicken Tikka Masala and we ordered more garlic naan because you just can’t get enough of it. For the dinners, you can customize any level of spiciness IF you choose, we both like spicy so our meals came medium spicy. The presentation was wonderful and portion sizes standard, but…. my masala was AMAZING, like out of this world amazing! I took home the leftovers and my son was crying for more. Just wow!

A couple of observations. There is no alcohol yet as of last week, but we can see the preparations for it. No biggy for us, they said we can bring our own if we want. We did make a reservation and they encourage it. I can see where they may be needed toward the weekend.

We didn’t have space for dessert, but we will be back for sure and maybe not load up and all the bread - eh, not going to lie, I will still have all the bread and dessert too! One thing though, we eat out a lot and we found the prices to be in line with eating at a good, quality restaurant. Places like these aren't cheap, but also not something that would prevent us from eating there often. The portion sizes are healthy enough to bring home leftovers for the price you pay. Don’t let the other reviews crying about pricing deter you from eating here as good food is worth the...

We had driven by several times while in key largo, on our trips down from homestead. We finally found the time to stop into the restaurant for dinner, and were fortunate enough to stumble upon the October taste of the keys menu. I should first say that what initially drew our attention was the absolutely charming exterior of the restaurant! It has a bright cottagy and colorful exterior with nice under lanei waiting/seating up front to boot. The interior did not fall far behind either, with nice subdued lighting and a very tranquil environment. The service was impeccable, attentive, and very very welcoming! The server was actually willing to point out how taking a different direction in the menu would actually save us some money. We gravitated toward the all-in-one October menu, with many many choices to choose from, and with the server only too happy to explain the differences in selections, with patience and always a smile! We cannot rave enough about the food, the wonderful selection, and the very very generous portions! We would recommend this restaurant to anyone in the Upper keys, looking for authentic and reasonably priced Indian food! As a final testimonial to the quality of folks that run this business, my wife unfortunately left her cell phone inside the restaurant, and we drove away too quickly for them to be able to catch us. Discovering our mistake we called the phone an hour later when we finally got home, and not only did they answer and we're very very concerned for us, but unbelievably the gentleman (who I perceived to be the owner of the restaurant), was more than willing to bring the phone to our home on his way back to his own home after what must have been a long and tiresome day. For this, and many many other reasons, I cannot any more strongly recommend...

Bad business practices. They charge an automatic 3.5% fee for using any form of payment other than cash; so if you use any type of debit card, credit card, or contactless payment (like Apple Pay), you will be penalized and pay more for your order. The customer should not be paying for the restaurant’s credit card processing. They lack consistent pricing because they calculate your bill by hand with a calculator and it is frequently different from what you might have paid last time you went. It is not uncommon to pay an extra $10 on top of what you were expecting. One time, they charged an automatic $10.99 gratuity for carryout and I had to argue with the employee for it to be taken out. Everything just feels very sleazy considering the already excessive markups on their food. They are always trying to take money from customers with silly added fees and charges, so be careful and check your receipt. Although the food was well made and had a relatively good flavor, it was excessively overpriced compared to other Indian restaurants around South Florida. The Chicken Makani (Butter Chicken) was good but it was essentially just a single serving of chicken and rice with some butter sauce for $25 (around $26.50 with the fee). The meal will be very boring and you will have tons of left over sauce if you don’t go for the naan bread, which is also overpriced because it is $5.99 for two small pieces that will barely last throughout the meal. The flavor was good but nothing extraordinary. The experience would be a lot better if they charged a fair price, did away with the silly credit card fee, and set up a consistent charging system with less room...