Zaika Indian Bistro - Sleek and delicious Indian buffet

So much food!

Located in the heart of Summerside, Zaika Indian Bistro doesn’t look like much from the outside. On the inside however, it looks nothing like your typical Indian restaurant. With black banquettes, a sleek dark interior, and a circular metal buffet area in the middle of the restaurant, they are trying to make things as modern as possible.

We opted to try the buffet instead of ordering from the menu, and are confronted with a plethora of choices including vegetable samosa, lamb curry, mango chicken, tandoori chicken, basa fish pakora, paneer hababeer, dal makhani, aloo gobi, butter chicken and naan. All the sauces are quite creamy, but I especially enjoyed the lamb curry with incredibly tender pieces of lamb that fall apart easily. The basa fish pakora has a crispy exterior yet retains a moist, juicy and flaky interior.

Naan

The only issues we encountered were paying the bill at the end of our meal. We had come as a large group and had to pay the 18% large group fee despite the fact that we all opted for the buffet. I for one wasn't pleased to be paying this extra fee just to have our water glasses filled and our dishes bussed the same as any other customer in their restaurant. Our group wasn't making any additional work for the servers had the seats been filled by a number of smaller groups instead. However I suspect we were charged this fee because we reserved a larger number of seats in advance, so regardless of whether or not we utilized the servers time and skills, we were going to be charged for it.

We were also told that the portable debit machine wasn’t working and we would have to pay at the front, which was fine. When we went up to the front to pay, they were using the portable debit machine which appeared to be working without issue, which confused me as to why we were told it was out of order. We unfortunately spent the next 10 minutes clearing up confusion that shouldn’t have existed surrounding our bill. Instead of charging us for 2 buffet meals like the bill indicated their computer insisted on charging us for 3. Once we managed to convince them that our printed bill was correct despite what their computer was telling them, the computer then insisted on charging us the 18% gratuity for 3 meals. After insisting several times they manually calculate the cost of our meal plus the 18% gratuity instead of relying on their computerized till which was obviously having issues, they finally gave in and conceded we were correct.

So go for the food, not for the service, we only wish they were located closer to where we lived.

More photos at PhotoBucket.

Zaika Indian Bistro
2303 Ellwood Drive SW
Edmonton, AB  T6X 0J6
780-462-8722