Tried the 1/2 grilled chicken plate again. Check my entry from 2 years ago to see the difference in pictures and reviews.
This time the chicken was tastey but a little dry. Flavor was tandoori-esque. Nice and lean ... not like those greasy rotisserie birds found in grocery stores.
The chicken portions were smaller. Not a lot smaller. Maybe 15-20 % smaller. Especially the leg/thigh portion.
Still lots of yummy rice and salad and the naan was so good and fresh, I was making little chicken wrap sandwiches with garlic and hot sauce.
I will get this again ... and will probably not wait 2 years to do so.
Fried Chicken: Good, but.... When we ordered the family meal of 8 pieces of chicken, they counted the 2 wings as pieces ?!! :|. Granted, it was the full wing, but I've never heard of a wing considered to be a full piece, even though I love wings. So, we basically got 6 pieces of chicken and 2 wings.
Fries: Terrible. No one ate them, not even my little nieces and nephew who jump on fries.
Grilled half chicken: Good and worth the money. A full half chicken grilled on top of basmati rice. The plate could have used more rice given that a full half chicken was going to be eaten with it.
Overall, good experience. Probably will be going back for the fried chicken.
I've only had the chicken once so I can't comment on the size of the chicken getting smaller. When I was there, the sizes were average.
We had a Zaki's weekend and it was great! I stopped by the St Laurent location Friday for their excellent steak sandwich and the smell of the chicken demanded a return visit on Saturday. We got chicken strips and a box of 8 pieces and it was excellent. The chicken was moist, delicious, properly seasoned and generously portioned. Also important to note that it is just as good cold the next day. They also gave us a big container of garlic sauce to go with a few small tubs of hot sauce. Both sauces are fantastic and, while the chicken does not need sauce, you do it anyway. As has been previously mentioned, call ahead to place your order because while the wait isn't too long, the smell of broasting chicken is excruciating when you are hungry.
Admittedly I have been staying away from this place after people's reports that portions have shrunk. I was in the area on Sunday and was happily surprised to discover that, on my trip at least, everything was as it should be.
I got two pieces of chicken with fries, and I got the chicken literally seconds after it came out of the broaster. The thigh and drumstick were definitely average if not slightly above average in size and delicious as always. I saw a few other customers with the four piece, and their white meat pieces looked like a great size to me...
Maybe it depends on the day you're there, but I haven't been disappointed yet.
Just pointing out that a lot of fried chicken places will cut 10 pieces instead of the standard 8 pieces.
It's done to keep all pieces at relatively the same size (as well as for profit). Otherwise there's a chance the drumstick/wing will be dry and overcooked while that huge breast piece is still rawish in the center.
That said, they should totally just come clean and be all "we used to do X but we had to change to Y" instead of trying to cover it up.
One last Zaki post. Yet again, today we ordered the 4 piece chicken dinner. Again, the breast had clearly been cut in half. When asked, they again tried to tell me it was a full half, even when the nice clean cut was pointed out to them. I have a distinct memory of getting a whole half breast when they first opened? Or is my memory faulty? It still isn't a bad deal given that one meal feeds two people but it really annoys me when not once, but twice, they insisted that the breast is a full half when it so clearly isn't. Do I look as though I don't know the difference?
We were there yesterday for lunch and did what we always do and shared the 4 piece chicken dinner. I usually have the wing and the drumstick, my husband the thigh and breast. This time, because the wing was so small I decided to have the thigh. I was surprised to find that it was breast meat. It was way smaller than the thigh, maybe 2" by 3 ". I asked afterwards if they had changed their servings as what I had looked like half a breast. They said no, they always served the full (half) breast and seemed at a loss as to why my piece was so small. Good for them, they offered to cook up some more chicken for us, which we declined. Of course, by this time the detrius had been thrown in the garbage so there was no show and tell. They did say that the chickens they had been getting lately were smaller than they usually are. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt this time as the food is usually excellent and I really like the people running the place. We'll see what happens next time.
I was dragged to this place even after I explained to my buddy about the tiny pieces of chicken. We both ordered four piece meals and it took 20 minutes to get our food. Not a big deal but the temperature was turned down to 55F and we had to keep our jackets on. After about 15 minutes one of the cooks came out and turned the heat up to 66F. I have to say the chicken was juicy but not worth the $ for the a tiny pieces. Seems no place in town serves any decent sized pieces of chicken so sadly for Ottawa this is about as good as it gets. The fries were awful. I would give them worst I have tried in Ottawa so nothing has changed in that department since my last visit. They were dried out low quality flavorless fries straight from a frozen bag. To top it off the bun/roll was so stale when you tore it apart you could see a difference in color on the inside compared to the middle of it. Can you say freezer burnt. I hear there is another boaster place out on Innes Rd that is due for a visit to see if the small chicken plague will continue. Pic is a thigh. It may look average but not that much meat on it at all.
For you East End folks - from Zaki's Facebook Page:
Salamu'Alaikum Ottawa, Hope you are all well - On behalf of Zaki Boast and Grill, we are pleased to invite you all to our grand opening of the East End location this Friday, September, 27, 2013 @ 11:00am! You can find us at the Donald Plaza, off of St Laurent Blvd, our restaurant will be open until 11:00pm. We look forward to seeing you all soon Insh'Allah. Please feel free to contact us for any additional information through Facebook, or call us 613-740-1500.
Yes, it's juicy and not very greasy. On the downside it isn't very crispy. A great alternative to the fries is to get the rice instead. It is seasoned basmati and they were happy to sub it for the fries last time.
This chicken is amazing like everyone said: plump, juicy, crispy, incredibly non-greasy, and lightly seasoned. The seasoning is very mild, which allows you to enjoy the chicken flavour but it might be too mild for some. I tried one of them tossed in hot sauce, and it was nice to have variety but I prefer them plain.
Fries were seasoned and boring. I ate a few of them and left the rest. I took one bite of the unnecessary bun to see how it was -- not too bad. Go for the chicken. ;-)
I'd like to get a 4-piece meal with salad instead of fries/bun. That would be awesome.
Captain Caper
This time the chicken was tastey but a little dry. Flavor was tandoori-esque. Nice and lean ... not like those greasy rotisserie birds found in grocery stores.
The chicken portions were smaller. Not a lot smaller. Maybe 15-20 % smaller. Especially the leg/thigh portion.
Still lots of yummy rice and salad and the naan was so good and fresh, I was making little chicken wrap sandwiches with garlic and hot sauce.
I will get this again ... and will probably not wait 2 years to do so.