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Zaika is an Indian restaurant located on Kensington High Street in London, just opposite Hyde Park. I stopped off here last September when in London on business and was very impressed with the restaurant which offers Indian cuisine incorporating both traditional classic favourites as well as a few original recipes (I’m only now getting around to posting my restaurant review for Zaika nearly 6 months later).

Inside you are welcomed to a very highly decorated and sumptuous interior with carved high ceilings and double height windows.

The menu is vast, and even for a lunch menu it was quite varied. I chose a Butter Chicken dish for my main. While I was waiting I got a pre-starter which was very tasty. I also ordered a Corriander Naan, and although it was not on the menu, they made one up for me. The main course of Butter Chicken was not what I expected; I was expecting more of a korma style sauce, instead it was a fusion style tomato based sauce and was like an Indian style pasta sauce … Don’t get me wrong, it was still very enjoyable and was served with a light pilau rice. As expected, in a UK Indian Restaurant, the dishes are a bit spicier than in Ireland. The portions are of a decent size, not too large but enough to fill adequately (as you can see below).

The dinner experience here is apparently a very refined affair with low lighting, good music and a more extensive menu.

The one thing which was obvious was the service. At all times attentive and attention to detail and service is very personal – there was a French waiter the day I was there and he was chatty but not intrusive, leaving you to enjoy your meal.

I really enjoyed the food and the ambiance here, £20 for lunch and a drink is a bit much, but worth enjoying a great restaurant experience such as this. Definitely 5 stars for food and ambiance but 3 stars for value as I’m sure you can get an Indian Lunch menu for half the price but you may have to compromise on the end result.

Contact

No1 Kensington High Street, London W8 5NP, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7795 6533

http://www.zaika-restaurant.co.uk/

Why should people in Ireland continue to shop here when cheaper prices exist in the UK and Northern Ireland?

I have a few examples of products which have huge differences in price:

Canon D450 DSLR Camera plus lens kit and 2Gb memory card

Dublin €720
Northern Ireland €569 (£499)
Saving €151 (Difference of about 21%)

Fuji S7000 lens adapter ring

Dublin €70
Online €17 including shipping

Try explain this? As long as this continues people are going to continue to cross into Northern Ireland and do their shopping there.

Over the past few years prices in Ireland have over inflated the cost if everything. The recession seems to be bringing down the cost of certain items but it will be interesting to see if prices between UK and Ireland level out even more in next few months. Especially with a good Euro – Sterling exchange rate.

The Irish Government say that €430m has been lost to Ireland as a result of people not shopping in Ireland. Yet the government are the ones that raised VAT by 1% to 22% yet the UK dropped theirs to 15% and are almost out of recession.

Lenihan doesn’t seem to have what it takes … The December budget will be a last ditch attempt to salvage the sinking Irish economy. The way this new budget will be calculated is as follows … “Einey meeny miney mo , How do I budget, I don’t know”!

Why do passengers always clap when you land at your destination?

This may be just an Irish thing or it may just be on Summer flights to popular holiday destinations such as the Canaries… Either way it’s pretty strange when you think about it!

The pilots job is to land the plane. Therefore why is he clapped? If an 84 year old granny landed the Boeing 737-800 in a stiff 30 knot crosswind – I would certainly applaud that !!!

If you are on a local bus between your house and the shopping centre … Do you clap the driver?

Do you get clapped in work? I don’t get applauded for every advert I design, every script or app I write.

The Next time you are dealing with the service industry – in the bank, at the library, or in the restaurant – and you get good service ; give them a rousing round of applause to thank them and tell them you learned about it on your last flight.