Zest Indian Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Lakeway

My recent visit to "Zest Indian Kitchen" left me utterly disappointed, as both the food and service failed to live up to the restaurant's name. Walking into the establishment, I hoped for an explosion of flavors and aromas, but instead, I was met with a lackluster atmosphere. The ambiance was dull, with generic decor with large screen TVs scattered throughout the restaurant, playing dumb YouTube blooper videos, which felt completely out of place in a dining environment. The service was equally lackadaisical, with waitstaff seemingly more interested in chatting amongst themselves than attending to customers. Despite there being 5-6 people working, not even one was tending to customers. We had to call out multiple times for anyone to notice us, and even then, it felt like a chore for them to tear themselves away from their conversations. It was evident that the wait staff didn't care to be there and seemed almost as if they wanted the business to fail. It took an eternity to place our order, and when the food finally arrived, it was clear that something was amiss. Not only did they forget to provide cutlery when delivering the plates, forcing us to get up and scavenge it from another table, but they also had the audacity to serve the food without any Naan. When I inquired about the missing Naan, the waiter condescendingly lectured me, claiming that it's impossible for everything to be ready at the same time. After enduring a 45-minute wait for our main course, I finally voiced my frustration to the waiter. His response was I don’t think you had waited that long, then went away to check what time we had placed our order. This level of obliviousness and lack of concern was appalling. It was abundantly clear that this guy had no business being in a restaurant, let alone working there. The Chicken Tikka lacked any zest or seasoning, tasting more like bland, grilled chicken than the vibrant dish it should be. The Chicken 65 was disappointingly soggy, lacking the crispiness and bold spices that make this dish memorable. The Chicken Karahi was a letdown, with tough meat and a sauce that lacked depth and complexity. Even the vegetable platter was uninspired, with lackluster flavors and limp vegetables. To add insult to injury, the portions were small, and the prices were unjustifiably high given the mediocre quality of the food. In conclusion, "Zest Indian Kitchen" failed to deliver on its promise of flavorful Indian cuisine. Save yourself the disappointment and seek out a restaurant where the flavors are bold, the spices are aromatic, and the service...

We have been out exploring new restaurants and came across this Indian restaurant. We have found a few very good ones down in Austin and had high hopes for this place. Unfortunately, we did not find it to be worthwhile to recommend or come back to.

It's located in a strip mall with plenty of parking. We arrived right as the restaurant opened and were seated right away. When we go to a new restaurant, we usually try some foods we are familiar with just to get a sense of how good a restaurant is.

Normally I we would order appetizers at an Indian restaurant, but we kept reading about the "Chicken 65" and we started off with that. They are deep fried pieces of chicken with a 'chili' sauce. The chicken chunks didn't taste very fresh and the sauce was very unimpressive. It's a large appetizer and could easily be shared by four people. But I wouldn't recommend; it was lightly covered with the sauce and the chicken didn't taste freshly cooked.

For entrees we had Chicken Tikka and Rogan Josh along with the Garlic Naan bread. The chicken in our dishes seemed to taste very similar to the Chicken 65; a bit over cooked and not quite fresh. And the sauces were only slightly indistinguishable. Other than color, they both tasted very similar. We ordered every "medium" for a spice level but it was more like mild. And the naan bread tasted like something out of a package and not fresh.

We had heard about this place but it really didn't live up how others described it. The service was quite slow; they seem to focus most of their time on filling "to-go" orders. You might be better off ordering to-go and then when you pick it up, asking to eat it at the restaurant.

There are simply too many good Indian restaurants down in Austin to recommend this place and I would rather make the drive to get amazing food than just settle...

I used to order Indian Tandoori whole wheat bread from this restaurant and always used to request them politely to make it thin cause they make very thick rotis. The reason to do so was because I have a hard time digesting thick rotis and end up with stomach pain. Couple of weeks back I called them back again and politely requested to make thin Tandoori bread for the pick up, the restaurant Chef (Singh) ,who claims to also be an owner, came over the phone and started talking loud (actually screaming) and very rudely and told me that he won't be able to make them thin and cannot take this order. I thought he could have been polite and told me that he cannot take any custom orders but instead he was extremely loud and rude over the phone. I ended up disconnecting the phone because I did not want to argue over a small request. Never had such issue with other restaurants. Sometime back, I had returned their half cooked rotis once and he remembered that and wanted to get personal with me because of that. Extremely shameful behavior, I hope the management gets educated on how to speak and behave with women.

We went to dine in this restaurant couple of time when they opened and stopped going there. Initially they were nice because they just opened and their quality of food was okay but after that we stopped going because of food quality issues (Stale food) and also behavioral issue from the management

I wish I could give them No stars but I don't...