Zaiqa

Forth time to Zaiqa ad we will be coming back as this has become one of the favorite places for my fiancé and I to eat — location in the mall is not the best for the owners but I think that once you have eaten here you will definitely return — I am baffled by the few reviews complaining about the service, so far we have been extremely pleased with the service that we have received here and have always been treated in a friendly and curtious manner.
We recommend the Karahi Lamb! and the Biryani but there are plenty of other items that we will be trying in the future.
Give them a try, I think you will be pleased.

My wife recently were looking for great tasting Indian food and went on a search for it. We happened to find Zaiqa by chance and now love this place and eat here often. We especially love the garlic and onion naan, the aloo gobi, and the samosa. Good food and very friendly service, Rushni and Ron are wonderful! Give it a try as we don’t think you will be disappointed.

At the Willows shopping center many restaurants are cranky or just don’t give a hoot, so it was nice to find a quiet little restaurant where the service was excellent. I had past by it several times before, just because Fudruckers or Quiznons was familiar, but then my work had an event catered by them and I was astonished by how delicious it was.
My experience at the restaurant was just as awesome. Roshni was very pleasant and helped me in choosing a delicious vegetarian course (btw’s best place probably to get healthy food for a vegetarian in the center). The place was also huge and I can definitely see myself taking friends and family there in the future for a relaxing and delicious meal or even a date for a romantic dinner since the mood is already set.
Delicious! Go eat there!

The lunch buffet is where its at! the food is really tasty and they aren’t afraid to make that stuff spicy if that’s your type of thing the service was good.
PS: Garlic naan bread would be a good addition to the buffet.

Damn, they’re gone.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I’m still disappointed. This place was so good, probably my absolute favorite Indian restaurant this side of Berkeley (and I’ve been to almost all of them)
I guess it was hard to survive in such a poor location.
The most disappointing this is how Swagat seems to drive all the other local Indian restaurants out of business. First it was Namaste, a place I still fondly recall as one of my favorites of all time… and now Zaiqa? Yet Namaste and Zaiqa, truly, blew Swagat out of the water. In comparison, Swagat really was mediocre. and in this context, I still gave Swagat a ⁴⁄₅ review, which says something about how much I liked Namaste and Zaiqa.

How unfortunate for this wonderful restaurant to be lodged in the center of a courtyard of a shopping complex known for their retail shops and a kiddie park rather than good eats. I love the flavors from India/​Pakistan, and this place is right up there among my favorites. First impressions are very important, and on my first visit there (dinner), I was treated to some pleasant conversation with the awesome waitress, Rushni. I asked for my favorite dish, Saag (Spinach) Chicken with some rice. She offered me some complimentary Naan which rocked, and upon the first bite into the Saag, my taste buds were in ecstasy! To top it off, she offered me complimentary dessert, Kheer (sweet rice pudding)! It was great! Grand total on the bill: under $ 10!
Fast forward to my visit during their lunch buffet: I was equally impressed with their offerings of curry, tikka masala, and tandoori chicken. The quality of the buffet on the day I went was supreme.

I’ve eaten here about 5 times, and I think its declined a bit. I went there for the lunch buffet, and they didn’t have the free chai tea anymore, and they had less selection of dishes. The naan bread used to be brought out to you hot, in baskets… now you just pick it up on the buffet line and it isn’t nearly as fresh. On the good side though, their items are more spicy than other Indian buffets which I like.
Overall, its still pretty tasty. However its $ 12 for the buffet on Saturday. Mirch in Pleasant Hill costs less, and I like Mirch’s food more.

I’ve come here twice now with my partner and close friend. I was remiss in my Unilocaling duties for not reviewing this place last time (shame on me!). What a fantastic place to cozy up to for great Indian cuisine. The atmosphere is quiet, casual and relaxing.
Roshni, our wonderful hostess, works hard to ensure that her guests are comfortable and enjoying their meals here; she’s an exceptional gem and very informed at making suggestions if you’re feeling adventurous. At her behest we tried the Chapli Kabab as an appetizer instead of our usual samosas. It came out sizzling hot on a flat iron display and was fantastically spiced. I had the Rogan Josh (curried lamb) which was excellent. The Naan basket provides great variety and had just the right hint of buttery-​goodness!
When we moved to Concord, we were a bit concerned about finding a great place to enjoy Indian food. Fortunately, Zaiqa fills that void quite nicely.

After shopping at Old Navy I was hungry since I didn’t eat all day. I saw this place and wanted to give it a try. They had a lunch buffet for $ 8.99 and it was good.
They had different dishes in the small buffet table:
Basmati Rice
Naan: baked bread Yum!
Salad with different dressing (didn’t try this)
Chicken Tikka Masala: MY FAVORITE! Chicken marinated in spices in a creamy sauce. Flavorful and not too spicy
Chicken Curry: Pretty good!
Goat Curry: Not a fan of goat so I didn’t try this
Tandoori Chicken: Marinated chicken in yogurt and spices– Kinda dry
Palak Paneer: Spinach and cheese (didn’t try this)
Daal Channa: yellow lentils cooked in spices (didn’t try this)
The food was pretty good, but my favorite dish was the Chicken Tikka Masala. The level of the spiciness was perfect and tasted really good with Basmati rice. The people working here are super friendly and were very accommodating. Glad I tried this place and will come back for more Chicken Tikka Masala.

Great find! This place was located in the inner center of the mall. It was empty yet open for a late afternoon. With the lowest expectations — though some decent Unilocal,this place surprised and surpassed. Very nice and accommodating folks who tolerated my kid’s mess.
The food was a pretty standard buffet, but everything was super tasty. I expected stale product based on the (lacking) crowd. Wrong — great flavors and freshness. While selection was basic, still managed to get good range of vegi and curry dishes (mmm, goat). Definitely worth a 2^nd look!

This is a hidden gem in the Walnut Creek-​Concord Area.
Arguably the best Indian/​Pakistani restaurant in this neighborhood, and I’ve tried many (I am Indian).
Ambiance is what is typical for Indian restaurants (mood lighting, paintings on wall depicting women around the wells — why is that? I’ve never seen any women in India hanging out near community wells anymore — a throwback to quaint times in the last century perhaps?). Place is larger than most restaurants I’ve seen, with an upper level for parties of up to 50.
Service was great — Roshni the manager was handling things by herself on a Tuesday, and was doing a great job. Not too crowded, and the wait times were slightly more than what I am used to, but nothing worth complaining.
Food — the piece de resistance of the evening. We started with the Tandoori Fish, and it was well seasoned. Came on a sizzling hot plate, and did not disappoint. But what caught us gaping was the second dish — the Chicken Curry was absolutely supercalifraglisticexpialidocius! It was perhaps the best ever I’ve tasted, and I’ve tasted it all over the world! Made me log on to Unilocal and write this review.
Will surely be back, no doubts. Might also go for the Butter Chicken this time :)

First time at this self-​described «Indian/​Pakistani» restaurant tucked away in the Willow Pass shopping center across from a Gymboree and in the questionable company of Claim Jumper and Benihana.
The space is huge, too huge really for what is really an unassuming restaurant offering basic dishes at a reasonable price. However, it is comfortable enough; I just wonder if they can support it. There happened to be a child’s birthday party (!) in the upstairs area while we were there, so there was some extra noise, but I would guess that this is a pretty rare event.
Note: no liquor license. They have applied, but for now you can try BYOB (didn’t ask) or just enjoy some tea.
They were out of Vegetable Samosas (!) so we ordered the «Kachumber Salad». This is apparently a standard dish, but I can’t remember seeing it before. It’s a simple salad of tomato, cucumber and onion. I thought it was a really nice way to start the meal, and would highly recommend it. There was a little spice on it, just enough to make it interesting. As an appetizer it was enough for two (and only $ 3!)
For the main course, we had the Lamb Vindaloo and Palak Paneer. Both were quite good. We got the bread with one of them, and it was a pretty generous amount (didn’t need to add a side-​order) and very good. For me, the bread is one reason to even go to Indian places, so I was really happy with that. The Palak Paneer was mild, almost a little too simple, but still quite pleasant. The Lamb Vindaloo had a very tasty (spicy, but not pure fire) sauce and, best of all, the lamb was very tender.
The portions were generous, so we didn’t have room for dessert, but there wasn’t a lot of options on the menu anyways. Sweets are not the reason to come here. Come for the savory, stay for the bread.
The service was very good. They took a little longer coming out with the salad than I would have liked, but that is a very minor complaint. Overall, I would strongly recommend this place and I intend to return myself. I think that at least for the items we ordered, the taste was actually better than the more well-​known Breads of India.

This place is completely hidden within The Willows Shopping center. we never knew it was there until we got a LivingSocial or Groupon for it… and it’s GOOD!
**WHERE IS IT???** In The Willows, inbetwixed: REI/​Aaron Brothers/​The Jungle!
We had; veggies samosas, various chicken dishes (including achari, which we’d never had before), daal, along with lassi’s, chai, and tasty naan.
We’ll definitely head back, our server was also really great, the place I’d bet is always quite because it’s tucked away. I kind of like that :)

I am a vegetarian and I heard this place is specially good for lamb and chicken. So I had my expectations low to begin with.
I must say I was quite surprised. I went for Sunday buffet, and the vegetables were pretty well cooked, had clean taste, and zucchini was especially well made.
Do not forget to try their hot gulab jamuns — they were perfectly fried and just sweet enough as I like it.
My non-​vegetarian friends just loved their Chicken tikka and Biryani.
The only reason I am giving them 4 v/​s 5 because they didn’t have daal for buffet. No food complains.

We came here one night because my husband found a coupon in a mailer. We thought we’d try a new Indian place and Pakistani sounded good too. Walked in at about 7pm ish on a Thursday. The place was empty, ok, well, might be early yet.
We were greeted quickly and he was very friendly. As we looked through the menu is was not a lot of items, but certainly some items I’ve not seen on many Indian menus (I forgot about the Pakistani part)
We ordered
Veggie Samosa
Achari Chicken (my favorite that is hard to find)
Goat Curry (was not sure what to expect
Salt Lassi
The samosa were good.
Achari Chicken yummy
Goat Curry… I found a new love in life, it was sooooooo tender, not at all gamey. And the Pakistani curry with paprika OMG phenomenal!
Salt Lassi very salty and good, could use some cumin.
Definitely will be back.

Good lunch buffet!!!
Love their chicken tikka masala here… for being a buffet. they cook it to a very nice SPICINESS level which i LOVE! A lot of times they do it so mild … so here. its great!
Their vegetable basamati rice is delish. and so is their lamb/​goat dish. YUM!!!
This restaurant has definitely replaced my other indian lunch buffet spot. =) All due to the perfect spice level and great tikka masala!

Tonight was my first trip to Zaiqa. I ordered Chicken Tikka Masala. The sauce was thick and had tons of flavor. My Father ordered Shrimp Tandorri, that was delicious too.
The Garlic Naan was what you would expect from Garlic Naan. For an app we ordered Onion Bhaji, it was served kind of like onion rings, however they were damn good and way better than the fritter style I’ve been use to in the past.
I’ve been looking for an Indian Restaurant in the area for over a year now, after relocating here from So. Cal. So far Zaiqa is the best I have found. One thing I’ve noticed — Swagat, Mamasate, and Monsoon Masala; all of their sauces seem to be thin and watered down and flavorless. So if you want your curry and masala thick and flavorful, this is the place to go.
I’ve finally found my Indian food fix in the Concord area. I will be back.

Yum! Had to try the new joint on town, and we’ll be back. It was pretty spicy (read HOT!) but the water kept flowing, so no problem.
The waiter suggested some items, and was right on with each of them. The Chicken Tikka Masala was a bit sweeter than expected, but the spicy Karahi more than made up for it. The chef gave us all a sample of the chicken skewer, and it was so good we ended up ordering a couple more. And it was obvious that they were hand made… due to the varied spiciness of each. (Heh heh. Ahem.)

With the 2 for 1 coupon I had acquired from a business expo this restaurant took part in, I had high hopes for a good buffet lunch. The coupon and their samples were good ideas because there is nothing to indicate that this pretty restaurant tucked away in the Willows is even there; S and I found it by following the smell of spices to the door.
The buffet did not have many choices; we did find the curry goat intriguing, the dessert was very good, the naan and the service were topnotch. I sure did miss having a soup on the buffet
S comment summed up the experience, «It was good, but I would not be unhappy if we did not go back.» They is a lot of potential here and I do suspect we will be back.

We had a wonderful dinner of goat «mutton» briani and lamb masala, with naan and desert. The decorations are really nice and new. Nice music playing. And the staff were tolerant of the 2-​year old, who can be a bit messy and requires a few trips in and out of the restaurant.
And everything was made nicer by the owner giving us a free entrée as part of the grand open promotion.
The lunch buffet setup looks great, so we hope to drop by in few days to try it out, with an updated and more detailed review then.