If you're looking for authentic Indian food, on the whole, you'll struggle in Germany. Indian…read morecuisine is adapted for the German palate and as they tend to steer away from anything too spicy, the traditional spiciness that much of Indian food is renowned for, is diluted.
What they call onion bhajis in this restaurant are poor, low-quality onion rings. Onion coated in a fatty batter.
The spicy dishes like madras, jalfrezi and vindaloo are much the same degree of spiciness and flavour as each other... not very. I have always asked for authentic Indian vindaloo (so HOT), and I think that they just put an extra pinch of chilli powder in the sauce. Very disappointing. All very similar sauces.
The chicken I believe (and I might be wrong), is mechanically-recovered chicken. It always has the strangest texture. Slightly slimy too..! Not a quality ingredient at all.
Dishes are 'well padded out' with potato.
What did it for us at our last (and very last) visit was when my partner ordered a glass of water instead of his usual beer. When the bill came we were horrified to see that we had been charged €4,40 for a glass of water. Not a bottle brought to the table, not a pretentious, fancy Italian brand.. just plain water 'mit'.
There aren't many choices of authentic Indian restaurants in Germany, in fact, I haven't come across any but I do object to being ripped off with poor quality ingredients and obscenely over-priced water.
As locals who live a short walk from Zaika and have recently visited the restaurant on a weekly basis, we won't be going again. The hunt continues for an 'authentic', quality Indian restaurant in East Berlin.