Zaitoon Restaurant

Great food .. excellent service.We went as a big group and they accommodated with ease . Loved the chicken biryani , chicken 65 , gobi 65 and parotta .Tea was perfect to end the meal with !! A must try !

We went on weekday afternoon; it was just us, tried their Chicken Thali & Mutton Biryani. Thali was very disappointing, a lot of rice and teeny-tiny sized sides. What do you eat the rice with? I asked the server the same question; he offered to give a side of Sambar. We used the biryani salna to eat some of our thali rice, as all vegetarian sides were below average. Chicken Curry alone, while watery, was flavorful. Biryani was mild yet tasty, meat was a bit chewy though. While I understand the intention to make it an all exclusive SOUTH INDIAN NON-VEG restaurant to appeal the non vegetarian crowd, but then you have to make the Thali exciting enough with enough non vegetarian sides in it; also, vegetarian dishes has a lot of scope for improvement. Overall, 3/5.

Coming from Chennai, and having had food from zaitoon in Chennai , this is no where the Arabian barbecue place which we have in India. They have just used the brand name but serve Madurai style food. Nevertheless coming to the food, very average to poor quality of food I must say. Took my pregnant wife here for dinner tonight and we wasted our calories. We ordered Ceylon vechu egg parotta ( medium size ) served with salna and Raita. Over priced for a medium sized parotta which came at $13.99. It was not hot as well. Next we ordered Mutton Seeraga Samba Nikkah biryani. Biryani was priced at $17.99 and served with one egg, Raita and salna. Very generous pieces of mutton but tasted very poor. Biryani was not hot enough, we requested the staff to reheat it. Biryani didn't look fresh. Ambiance was not that bad, pretty decent seating though. Ordered sulemani tea and it was decent as I had sour throat it was soothing enough. Definitely not the experience I wanted on a Friday night. Will not recommend any specific food here to try except for their salna and Raita. Wife and I came home disappointed. There is room for improvement and I hope they do justice to the original brand name.

Husband is from Chennai and he was super excited when he found out that the famous Chennai restaurant Zaithoon is opening here in Fremont nearby our house. We later got to know that they only used the name and has no affiliation to the OG restaurant. Such a let down.Ceylon veechu egg paratha (1/5): hubs used to like it a lot back home. However here it's bland, comparatively smaller sized average tasting paratha with single egg omelet on top. It literally reminded me of frozen parathas that we find in Indian store cooked with egg on top. To our surprise the dish is not even hot. Marriage style Nikah biryani (1/5): the OG Muslim biryani is made with basmati rice. Here it's made with small grain rice. Bland, flavourless, cold, lacking any taste or spice to it. Wouldn't recommend this dish either.The only item that we both enjoyed are the simple salna and Chennai style raita they served with the dishes. Sulemani tea (3/5) I did not have it. Hubby said it tasted ok and not authentic. At least it's warm and comforting The place is small and narrow. Food is way overpriced and not worth it. For 2 dishes the total is close to $40. Disappointed.

We recently did a takeout from Zaitoon, and unfortunately, it was completely disappointing. Zaitoon is a well-known restaurant chain in Chennai, India, but this location is tarnishing its reputation. While it carries the famous name, both the taste and customer service were very poor.We ordered Chicken 65 biryani, egg biryani, and Pallipalayam chicken. The biryani was well below average, with the Chicken 65 pieces being particularly disappointing. However, the real letdown was the Pallipalayam chicken, which went straight to the trash. The chicken pieces were huge, unappetizing, and looked like waste cuts. To make matters worse, the dish was swimming in at least 100g of oil.This restaurant has a lot of room for improvement, and based on our experience, it doesn't live up to the Zaitoon name. I hope they take steps to improve their quality and service.

Zaitoon offers halal, non-veg South Indian food in a simple, casual, counter-service setting, but the flavors here were truly on point. We started with the Madurai Parotta, two flaky, crispy layered flatbreads, served with salna (curry sauce) and raita (sliced onions in yogurt) on the side. But the truly impressive dish to come for was the Zaitoon Special Family Thali, a gigantic round metal platter with two servings each of rice, chappathi, papad, yogurt, rasam (a spicy pepper soup), spiced potatoes, dal (creamy lentils), and a sweet semolina pudding. The thali also came with Chicken 65 (fried chunks of spicy chicken), chicken curry, mutton curry, and fish curry, each of which was distinct in flavor. My favorite was the fish curry, which had a distinctly sour flavor and tangy spice. Each of the curries came with bone-in chunks of meat and had a tantalizingly spicy flavor, which went nicely with the plain rice and chappathis. Overall, the food at this strip mall restaurant was delicious and came at a great value too!

We ordered Mutton Thali and Chicken Thali. Both were filling and of good quantity. Chicken curry was bland but mutton was quite tasty. Both thalis came with rasam, sambar, papad, roti, yogurt, sweet, and aloo fry. I will try appetizers the nexttime. Ordered them as delivery so haven't been to the restaurant.

We ordered 2 chicken dishes. Chicken pieces in both were weird. Not entirely undercooked but probably bad quality / stale chicken. One dish had mainly bones with skin on them... like neck piece and lower part of the drumstick. The texture was weird too. Not going there again.

Their nool parotta is very good . I am a big fan of the salna too. The place is little small so have not tried to dine in yet.

Very clean restaurant and restroom. Delicious authentic South Indian food . Generous portions. Highly satisfied with the service and friendly staff.