Zaiqa Kabab & Grill — Restaurant in Lower Allen

Updated Review: Feb 2018: We finally found enough time to be able to make the trek back to this great little restaurant. It's a bit of hike for us (45 minutes each way), but it really is worth it. Again, ordered several different dishes, and everything tasted wonderful - very fresh & flavorful, nice blend of spices, but nothing overly hot. Excellent food, and the waitress was very attentive to us, refilling waters, checking on us, getting a corkscrew for the bottle of wine we brought with us... Great little spot, with very good food. Very happy we found this. Hope others continue to frequent them, as well.

First Review - Aug/Sep '17: We were in the area, looking for dinner, and stumbled upon this place. How lucky for us! We ordered several different dishes (lamb gyros, chicken kababs, another chicken dish, palak paneer, and chana masala, topped off with some Naan). Everything was really wonderful. Nice flavors, and good use of spice. The lamb gyros was nothing like we had ever had before - it was very good and flavorful. Spicy thousand island taste to it. We are definitely going to be back here again, as the food was very good, the service was very good, and overall, we really enjoyed ourselves. It's a little strip mall restaurant, so it lacks any decorative charm to it, but the food was great, and that's what is most important to us. In reading other reviews from other patrons, I am learning that this is a Pakistani restaurant, which is very similar to Indian style cooking, but with some differences. Glad we happened...

We reached at around 8:50 pm and they didn't serve the food. Insane! They close at 9:30 pm.

EDIT after the response:

To clarify the situation, I have attached a photo that shows the time of our arrival 8:48pm. When we entered, a private event on the left side of the restaurant had just concluded, and the right half of the space was entirely empty. We were the only (three) guests at that point.

I am sharing this review primarily for those who rely on Google reviews to choose where to dine. There is no mention anywhere on Google that the kitchen stops accepting orders at 8:45 p.m., even though the restaurant is officially open until 9:30 p.m.

In my 13 years living in the United States, I must have dined at more than 130 different restaurants, and I have never encountered a place that stops serving food 45 minutes before closing time. In fact, some restaurants have served food 5 mins before closing. So, it seems unreasonable to list 9:30 p.m. as the closing time and then turn away dine-in guests at 8:50 p.m., suggesting takeout instead.

If the restaurant does, in fact, stop taking orders at 8:45 p.m., I believe it would be more transparent and fair to list that as the actual closing time, whether it is 9:00 p.m. or even 8:45 p.m. So that guests can plan...

I went here for lunch. I walked in and the place was empty, except for the well dressed guy behind the counter with great hair. My first impression was that it was really clean, which is a plus. Atmosphere was nice. They were using a television to play modern Indian (?) music from a streamed youtube playlist. I wish I had gotten the name of the band that was playing. The bassline was great and that drumset reminded me of Rush.

I ordered the lamb kabob roll and chicken samosa. Took a little longer than I would have liked, because I'm always in a rush, so I will order in advance in the future. It wasn't an unreasonable amount of time at all.

The lamb kabob roll had just enough kick to remind me how much I love Indian spices, while not overwhelming me. The cucumber sauce was a perfect compliment to it. Portion size was exactly what it should be for the price. I highly recommend this.

When I took the samosa out of the bag, I wasn't impressed. They were ugly. But then I tasted them and realized that they had sacrificed looks for flavor. They were amazing!

I will be eating here in the future. I will be bring friends here...