Let's do Indian for Supper!

Everytime one of my girlfriend's and myself meet up, we always somehow end up eating Indian food. I like Indian food-well, specifically butter chicken, saag paneer (or palak paneer depending where you go) beef/lamb vindaloo, coconut rice and naan bread. Other than that, I'm not too fond of the exotic spices because it leaves my throat and stomach burning.

I've been meaning to try Zaika for quite some time now. They've been open since November 2009. I guess I don't really have a good excuse for not trying Zaika other than just simply forgetting. It's a 6 minute drive from my place and last summer, one of my girlfriend's asked me to go but I had to work till late. I figured Tuesday night was the night to go and my friend agreed to go!

A very sleek and contemporary atmosphere, this isn't your typical family friendly Indian restaurant. It's very modern with black upholestered booster seats, dim lighting and oversized lighting fixtures. I was seated right behind the large picture of an eye-talk about "eye-catching"(okay, I'll stop). But the atomosphere seemed more fitting for a younger, under 30 crowd. 

I forgot to take pictures before we ate because we were too busy chatting! Here's what we had as leftovers, baingan bhartha (l), vindaloo (c) and paneer (r) and basmati rice.

My friend and I couldn't decide if we should order off the menu, or go for the dinner buffet. Buffet's are usually the way to go, but I just can't eat that much Indian food at once. We scoped up the dinner buffet and it was lacking one of our favourite dishes (yes, I say "our" because we both love the same dishes!) saag/palak paneer (creamed spinach with homemade Indian cheese for those of you who aren't familiar with Indian food). We then decided to order off the menu so we can take leftovers home for lunch the next day. We opted for the palak paneer, beef vindaloo, and baingan bhartha (minced eggplant with spices). Each main dish came with basmati rice and naan bread. Since we ordered 3 mains, we were given a large dish of basmati rice, and 6 pieces of naan bread. When the portions came, it didn't seem like a lot, but once we started chowing down, I could feel my stomach filling up quickly as Indian cuisine is very creamy and oily. My friend and I both agreed on the dishes, that they weren't as good as New Asian Village. The vindaloo dish, which typically consists of a tomato/tamarind sauce that gives it a distinct tang, didn't even come close to the one at the Village. As we both said, it simply tasted like "Frank's Hot Sauce".... That being said, the palak paneer was tasty and so was the baingan bhartha (eggplant) dish. I also ordered mango lassi on the side to help with the heat (water is not good to have with Indian food because it just sits on top of the food in your stomach-so I've heard anyway).

I will come back to this restaurant to give the dinner buffet a try and since I got a $16 for $40 worth of cuisine, thanks to Goodnews.ca, I can make good use of my money.

Verdict: scrumptious