Zaika

Zaika is an Indian restaurant in Kensington. It describes its cooking as Awadhi, offering "the vivid flavours of Lucknow". It had a Michelin star for its cuisine from 2001 to 2004, making it one of the first Indian restaurants to be so honoured. The Independent described it as cool, with an atmosphere of "glory, glamour and gorgeousness." It explained further that the restaurant's first chef Vineet Bhatia had introduced two much-copied techniques: cooking a biryani with a puff pastry lid studded with seeds; and serving a trio of small dishes linked by a single ingredient like duck or cheese.