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Zaika Indian Restaurant, London : Restaurant Review

Zaika Indian Restaurant, London : Restaurant Review

Zaika Indian Restaurant is 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 Zaika Restaurant - London 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). Butter Chicken at Zaika, London 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/

Cross-border Shopping – Why Irish people shop in Northern Ireland

Why Irish people shop in Northern Ireland … perhaps this is the reason

Why Irish people shop in Northern Ireland is something which may have an answer in the prices we pay here in the republic.
Why should people in Ireland continue to purchase goods 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

 

Why do Irish people decide to shop in Northern Ireland … well Try to 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 of 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 the next few months. Especially with a good Euro-Sterling exchange rate. 

The Irish Government says that €430m has been lost to Ireland as a result of people not shopping in Ireland. Yet the government is the ones that raised VAT by 1% to 22% yet the UK dropped theirs to 15% and is 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 meany miney mo, How do I budget, I don’t know”. 

I’m sure the Brexit changes will change Why Irish people continue to purchase goods in Northern Ireland and if they reverse their shopping habits.  Let’s wait and see!

 

This is a Blog Post from 2009 regarding the price differential at that time between Ireland and Northern Ireland and prices are correct at that time. These details and prices may have changed since. Why Irish the public shops in Northern Ireland is still being discussed especially since Brexit.

This blog post regarding why people continue to shop in Northern Ireland is an old post but is held here for reference purposes.

 

 

 

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