Zaika Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Mooresville

I took my family here for a special birthday treat for my wife. Appetizers were OK, but when the entrees arrived that's when things went downhill quickly.

Instead of flavorsome, vibrant dishes with the spice and taste combinations that one expects from good Indian food we were served bland inedible slop. A Chicken Vindaloo which should have been sour and hot was a tasteless mess of tomato sauce with a dash of vinegar. Lamb Rogan Josh tasted like 2 day old stew, with tough chunks of meat and no discernible attempt at adding spices or even garlic and ginger. A basket of assorted breads was cold and hard.

When I complained to the waiting staff their attitude was awful, and some of the things they said and did were just plain weird. I was told 'I didn't know what I was talking about', that the food was 'the best food they'd ever eaten', and at one point a waiter went in the back and came back with a bowl of hot spice paste, stuck it in front of me and told me to stir it in to the food myself 'to spice it up a bit'.

My 9 year old ate the Fish curry, but she was the only one who ate anything. The rest of us just left it as it was truly disgusting. Appalled by the awful atmosphere the waiting staff were generating as they took the uneaten food away, I asked for the check. There was no effort on the part of the staff to placate us or adjust the check to remove the offending articles.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any stranger or more bizarre, the same female waiter who a few minutes earlier had pretty much told me I was a know-nothing idiot appeared from the back carrying a tray of thimble size mango drinks and to a stony reception insisted on singing 'Happy Birthday'!

To end the whole horrendous debacle, and despite my personal reservations, I paid the check - $115, for which I got some appetizers and two mouthfuls of food. The five of us left in silence, four of us still hungry.

My wife's birthday was ruined.

Not only was the food in this place the worst Indian food I've ever tasted, it was without a doubt the worst experience I've ever had in a restaurant in my...

Place is in the tube, management had nonchalant and uncaring attitude to poor service. Wrong food, wrong check and I wasn't alone. Multiple parties there had wrong orders and poor service. Poor english speaking waitress (yes just one) meant well, but just couldn't understand us. Same problems with food quality as others have noted. Samosas were cold in the center still. Gave us naan that wasn't fresh. Naan was cold and was sitting for a while. Portions in general were naan-existent. Yeah I did that...Super salty food so much so that it was inedible. Not going back. Gotta go to Concord or Charlotte for better Indian and this place is South Indian owned just FYI if you're used to North Indian or largely Gujarati Indian cuisine which has been more prevalent in the area if you've been here for a while. They have the same named dishes, but different preparation because the dish may not be native to their state in India so the taste you are looking for may not be the same. Think grits or jambalaya prepared by a New Englander , or bagels, chowdah or a lobstah roll prepared in nebraska. We like it all, just gotta be mindful to what dishes are native to where etc. It may be more or less oily than you want, more or less spicy, and meat dishes with more or less sauce to dry curry, etc. You may have better luck but this is our 4th time and you can't have an off-day every time...if you can get your order placed....

I wish there is a way to give 0 stars. Zaika was on our list from very long time. So finally we decided to go out for dinner. We decided to try north indian food so ordered Dal Makhni and paneer tikka. When Dal Makhni was served we were in shock, it does not look like dal makhni, they had some old curry and some added boiled Rajma & lentils to it. Then came Paneer tikka, which was worst. Paneer was unchewable. Paneer is meant to be soft in any dish, so that one can eat it. But this paneer was so tough, one cannot eat it and swallow it down. I am sure this was stale paneer. I cook indian food a lot, so I know when paneer is fresh or stale.

We told them that paneer is non eatable, they took it inside added some butter it and bought it back. They asked us to try it again, but it was same. We asked them to take it back. But they didn't and it was left on our table on the side. So, for our dinner it was just some dal, which they named as dal makhni & roti.

Time for bill :- When we asked for bill, I was surprised at the audacity that they added Paneer tikka in the bill. In the name of customer satisfaction, They added 10% discount on the total for the bad food.

I will never go back to this restaurant again. And also the server was very rude. When we mentioned that the food is not eatable, they...