Review Zaitoon - Chennai (Madras)

Dined at Zaitoon restaurant, and the experience was exceptional. The flavours were vibrant, the service was attentive, and the atmosphere transported me to a different culinary world. I highly recommend trying their delicious dishes, especially [Non-veg platter]. Can't wait to visit again!

Had Arabian Lollipop, Mexican Dejaj Makli, SPL Zaitoon Barbeque, Chicken Noodles and. Kunafa and all of them were just so delicious. I personally recommend the first 2 as they were so flavourful and Tasty.... Must trys....

I visited the Zaitoon’s restaurant in Royapettah. It was mind-blowing the renovation work speaks a lot. The interiors are really good, really mesmerised with the design. The food was really there. And the service was fast and all the dishes were good. The food that I ordered was 1) hot and sour chicken soup - (4.5/5) 2) chicken briyani - (3.8/5) 3) mutton briyani -(4/5) 4) barbeque fish - (5/5) 5) dynamite chicken - (4.2/5) 6) mint lime - (5/5) 7) saucy chicken lollipop (5/5) All of them were really good. Expecting more taste in chicken briyani. Please consider and provide with more taste in the upcoming days. And, parking space is very tight there. Incase you come in car, you can park your vehicle in express avenue opposite to it. You will be very easy to get your car out once you finish your eating there.

The food was very tasty and didn’t have to wait for long to be served and was looked after well. Only criticism I had was that the food was warm but not piping hot as I normally am used to receiving.

Good non veg restaurant in Royapettah Chickenband mutton soup is awesome and platers are great everything they served was good but I didn't impreased with crab

This place is totally worth.. Yes when compared to other location in Chennai, Taste is better and worth to have dinner.

Best Starters you will get in Zaitoon. My favourite restaurant in Chennai.

Visited today for lunch. Their special platter is good. Must try After renovation I feel the place is a bit cramped and not spacious.

The ambience of the restaurant was very comfortable. Although the food we ordered came with a hefty portion, we still enjoyed indulging them. The food was delicious, and the waiters were friendly. Especially there's a waiter named Kishor whose service was top-notch and jovial. Having a memorable experience, I would strongly recommend this restaurant to others.

We went at 9 30pm and most of the food was available and we had a great dinner 😁✨✨✌

This place is totally worth.. Yes when compared to other location in Chennai, Taste is better and worth to have dinner. Only problem is car parking.. Mostly we park in EA😂 to hav dinner here .

Had dinner, food was good

Hats-off! This is the best restaurant I've tried till date, I'm highly impressed with the quality that it offers. Almost all the dishes that we ordered had hardly anything that we could complain about, all of them were cooked perfectly. This was my first restaurant try-out in Chennai and I'm blissed by what it turned out to be, and it's not that expensive. Would highly recommend it.👍🏼

A Best restaurant opposite to Express Avenue. Great food served with the quantity and quality highly worthy for the money. Hatsoff to the taste and the hospitality. Vegetable Biryani, Paneer 65 and Mushroom Masala are must try delights. Highly recommended for vegetarians too.

The starters and soups were amazing, the gravy wasn't up to the mark. The ambience was good and the service of Kishor was excellent. I had a great time with my family.

Best food one can find in chennai. I would definitely come again. Thank you all the staff for the excellent service. 👌

Raan biryani excellent

It is a great place for food. Very good hygienic and clean place. Food is of very good quality, tasty, and presentation is wonderful.

Their veg options were decent enough for a restaurant that specialises in non veg. Had naan and paneer gravy, tasted good besides the fact paneer gravy had too much paneer pieces and hardly any vegetables (only 4 capsicum slices to be precise)

Awesome food

Good

>>> Zaitoon SPL BBQ Chicken<br/><br/>One of the best ever BBQ I have had till now, usually SPL items of each restaurant would be bad as far as my experience but this one was amazingly delicious.<br/><br/>Price is too high, less quantity (i.e) 4 slices only. Trust me, you will not regret for having this delicious dish even though its cost is high. Chicken is so juicy and properly grilled, spice level was at its best and add-ons will be Kubus, Mayonnaise and Hummus along with salad. 📢📢📢 Must Try Alert<br/><br/>Taste - 5/5<br/>Service - 4/5<br/>Ambience - 4.5/5<br/><br/>Cost - Rs. 460<br/>Preparation Time - 20 minutes<br/><br/>>>> Dragon Chicken<br/><br/>Delicious dish available here at Zaitoon, Dragon Chicken seems to be less in quantity but it was in good proportion. Taste was amazingly delicious with very good sauce and toppings on it.<br/><br/>Chicken was juicy and so soft, so tempting to have it. Cheap and best for side dish items here.<br/><br/>Taste - 4/5<br/>Service - 4/5<br/>Ambience - 4/5<br/><br/>Cost - Rs. 280<br/>Preparation Time - 10 minutes<br/><br/>#foodcrush6 #foodie<br/>#gundupaiyyan<br/>#foodieslovers❤<br/>#blogger #foodblogger<br/>#foodstagram #instalove<br/>#chennai #tamilnadu #india<br/>#tags #tagsomeone #likeforlikes #commentforcomment #comment<br/>#chennaifoodspots #chennaifoodies #madrasfoodblogger #tamilnadufood #walkwithchennai #aspiringfoodblogger<br/>#foodphotography #jsrkdiaries #instagram

Good but not best. staff behave not professional.

Super taste....

Taste is Good

Loved the Non-Veg platter and so was the Mutton Rara. Even the Dragon Chicken & Paneer Kadhai was super tasty. I am waiting for a branch in Mumbai!!! ASAP please

Good service food was awesome... Ambiance was not up to the mark.... Otherwise service was good......<br/>I can't wait next visit.......................

went as a group of 10 ..had mandi ..chicken seafood platter..and noodles and fried rice...falooda to finish off..pretty crowded since near to ea..have to wait 15 mins to half hr on occasions..briyani was okeish..nothing special...platters were good..

This restaurant makes complete feel of traditional food as well starters are best here compared to other restaurants. The most special is sizzling brownie which is an amazing desert in this restaurant. I would like to prefer to my friends for an aroma special in Chennai.

Ambience place to eat delicious food. Briyani and Arabian dishes are wonderful.<br/><br/>Only cons I found in this place is, it's very costly to afford. Its not a restaurant for middle class family.<br/>

Really bad service and very average food quality

A great Bakrid lunch !! They have the most scrumptious Briyani with the most tender mutton pieces. Their speciality is that the taste is always reliable and good no matter when u visit. We had the masala kulcha and egg curry which was spicy and delicious. Service is 5/5 and the ambience is pleasing

ordered alfaham chicken and it was worst. no taste and fresh. the chicken was so hard and they dint even give mayonnaise for it. overall poor quality

Excellent food was suggested for my family today by the staff. we all went for a lunch, it was too crowd in the lunch , but lucky we got a table very quickly.<br/>We ordered Arabian seafood platter, Raan biryani,tandoori non veg platter. It has Very good stuff in all the platters we actually 15 people its really sufficient portion for us. Good place reasonable price.<br/>Will come again to Zaitoon next weekend.

Not the place to be if you are a vegetarian. Hariyali Tikka was too bland without any taste, the Veg. Biryani was decent though. Not worth the money spent.

I've been visiting here for almost a year now and still very pleased with the hospitality. this place is good in overall as regard to ambiance,food, hygiene and hospitality. just today I'd been there and ordered aloo palak but since I'm not keeping well i had informed the manger there Mr. Ganesh and he in return made the effort to get my aloo palak in a less spicy and less oily manner just like i wanted it, this makes me feel so special and a hearty thanks to Mr. Ganesh and his team. my loyalties always with zaitoon. thank you for feeding me like a mom zaitoon.

Location in a heart of the city. Their main cuisine is Arabian but they don’t know how to make hummus and pita. Shawarma was nice and the Indian breads are apt with out side dishes .They have a very good staffing to take care in busy time.

We ordered Moroccan bbq. We got rotten chicken with foul smell and raised a issue. First the floor manager came asked for details said it was just the flavor of charcoal after examing further he offered to cancel the dish. We said give rotten chicken in parcel ,we will give to food safety lab and give the bill for full amount.<br/><br/>Then asst. Manager came the same thing happened he defended it was smell of the bbq. It was such a foul smell I felt like puking.<br/>we took the parcel and paid the full bill . We have raised a complaint with fssai.<br/>I was fan of zaitoon usually I eat 2 a week in zaitoon, nungambakkam. But this branch is worst. And more over they defend it good food but I don't know y they offer to cancel the bill.

Went with my family,<br/>service not so great.<br/>Food taste ok. Ambience is nice.<br/>Their shawarma is far better than many arabian restaurant in chennai.<br/>

The ambience is a bit cramped. But, the food here is pretty decent.The flavours were good but, I wouldn't call it extraordinary. The service was amazing though.

Hopeless restaurant in terms of food taste and service.....we need to run behind the waiters literally getting up from your chair , when you are eating half way...

Was a busy day...Went to Zaitoon to have lunch.<br/>I have been here before.This branch is huge and can accommodate many customers.I was a bit early here,so they said to wait for a while.<br/>Ordered gobi manchurian and bbq chicken.They were the best Starters I have ever had.They were served with perfect taste and flavours.Also ordered egg and chicken briyani's.All tasted just great 😊

Waiters are polite but are not so efficient. I ordered dal fry phulka fish curry, chicken fried rice and grill chicken and mint lime soda. Despite asking the waiter to bring the mint lime soda in the end. Mint lime soda was the first thing I gotand grill in the end . Did they expect me to have the soda before my meal. Like Seriously

Awesome carry on my friends. Thanks for the food i would love to have your chicken noodles. See you at your restaurant. Love you guys. Bye..<br/>

Been there food was ok , soup was not really manchow !!!!!! Chicken dish was good , biryani was ok like south Indian!!<br/>But service was amazing!!!<br/>We order arbice platter as well but there was no taste on hummus .....😚😙

#ChickenDumBiriyani #AlFahamDajaj #ChickenSchezwanFriedRice #TandooriRoti #Hummus<br/><br/>#ChickenHawaiianSalad : 3.5/5.0 It tasted good. Its a SWEET salad with Chicken, Pineapple, Apple, Cherries & lot of mayonnaise... NEGATIVE is that my tongue got irritated by the pineapple, after just 4-5 spoonsfull of the salad.<br/><br/>LOCATION: 5/5 Opposite Express Avenue Mall. They provide Valet Parking, which is important !!!<br/><br/>FOOD: 5/5 Authentic middle-east flavour that you will love.<br/><br/>SERVICE: 5/5<br/><br/>This is the 4th time I am visiting Zaitoon. Have always loved your food 😊

The place is good . A selected dishes are so well cooked and the seasoning is fabulous for those particular dishes and if in doubt about any new dish, i recommend please not to get suggestion from the one who takes your order. It's obvious they would tell you for Thier marketing . So ask for something that is definitely not gonna be sweet and I guess those people can help you out with it. Dragon chicken is a big no from this place for usually it is big and long but here they serve pieces as small as mushrooms else the other dishes are nice and the place is descent. It's crowded all the time , the place is on good demand but if your hungry run first else your seat is taken !!

Star Xperiance. Ordered for Aloo, Gobi and Tandoori parata,with mushroom masala. Food was very good except for the aloo parata, there was sand in it, couldn't eat. Felt very bad and called to complain, the guy who picked up the call was sincere and said will replace it (almost midnight) and got it replaced. 1 parata replaced!!! This is what I call customer service. XCELLENT GUYS.

I had the best experience of food and the Arabian taste in the dishes ranging from shawarma to Arabian sizzlers. I had also liked the desserts for the quality and the yum of it. I would highly recommend you to try it out for sure.

Been there. Had to wait for 15 minutes. But is the food worth waiting? Hmmh not to that extent. Hot n sour veg soup was good. Just as the name Implies. Was soothing for my bad throat. Ordered a veg biriyani and Kozhi Laham. Veg biriyani was more like a pulav and nothing so spl. The Laham comes with a saffron rice and with tender mutton pieces. The rice was blunt and subtle with no flavour. The mutton pieces were good and tender. Adding kupus to the plate would have done justice. But will I order this again...? NO.Zaitoon Zaitoon

This review includes both takeaways and dine-in experience.<br/>Being right opposite to EA I've visited Zaitoon numerous times. Even when the place is bustling with crowd the staff are efficient in getting the new customers a table on time. Service is quick and prompt. Their kebabs and tikkas are so full of flavors that one can't stop hogging them :D<br/>I've personally liked eating the naans and rotis more than the rice here. Not much of a fan of the Kozi Laham. The Afghani chicken was really good and so was the tawa fish.<br/>The shewarma here are also yumm. And the chicken & mutton roganjosh were so flavorful. I'm not a big fan of mutton but did like it here!

A group of five people on a Monday evening arrived to indulge in the Arabian kitchen. The menu is so widely spreaded that you'll for sure get confused what to order and what not to, and end up ordering a wrong combination of dish as I ordered the Roti Basket. Tried and tasted the Mexican Chicken Shawarma plate. Comparatively it is not as good as the Chicken Shawarma roll. BBQ 5 in 1 Platter was not so delicious but was good and enough quantity for the pricing. Chicken Aftabi and Mixed Schezwan Rice won the table of the delicious food. Roti basket was too much of breads for such low price. Overall experience of food and dining is for 4 stars. Recommended!

I am regular dinner of ur restaurant simply superb with ur guys particularly A person named Ganesha awesome gentleman<br/>always with smiling treat and reception I think zaitoon is fortunate to have such a lovely personality hats off to him and with his humble and stupendous serving and cutomare care<br/><br/>

I used to order from this place regularly from swiggy coz their food quality is really good.. now for the past 3 consecutive orders atleast one of the item were missing .. u order 4 kerala paratha - u get 2 , u order 1shawarma roll and one plate - u get 2 rolls ... request the restaurant to kindly make sure that u send the complete order to ur customers...<br/>1/5 score for the continuous bad experiences

Amazing restaurant. All time favorite. Love their version of chicken dum biriyani, bbq special, masala papad, chicken tikka masala and butter naan!

Friendly staff good food yammy and tasty good quality great ambience service is good and I orded chicken rice and clear soup ...Its really good

Beautiful... Loved it. It was a wonderful delight and indeed a treat for my taste buds. Absolutely beautiful. Lovely service as well. Keep it up.

As a visitor in Chennai went there searching for biriyani. Good food and a very tidy ambiance .. the place was very crowded so waiting time is slightly more, must take time and go..

We were curious about this place after seeing the 4.3 rating. As we were staying nearby, decided to have a visit for lunch. It situated just opposite Express Avenue mall. From the outside it’s nothing fancy. But once you go inside, the first thing which will stuck you is cleanliness and decor. It was well lit and posivity was reflecting everywhere. We had heard about the biryani, so ordered one chicken. Also took some afgani/arabian chicken delicacies. All of them were lip smacking good. To top it up with quick service and staff behaviour. Definable a place to visit of you are staying near Royapettah.

We have ordered for hot and sour soup, arbian lolipop and chicken dum briyani.. we liked our food and also the over all atmosphere of the restaurant... Keep up the good service 👍🏻

I had a the bestest experience with zaitoon<br/>I Just visited only two times there the staffs are very cool at there work especially Mr. GANESH who was supporting me with my food good ambience Nd surrounding 😊 but Sundays its usually busy... But I said I'm getting late so they arranged me the seat soon thank for your care.. I'm personally suggest all to visit zaitoon at least once (roypettah branch opp E. A) And finally thank you for the good food especially Mr. Ganesh😊

Arabian cuisines are excellent here.Tried Shawarma,tawa fish along with finger fish.Shawarma was so good bt the fish varieties were partially cooked..Need some more care on that.Good hospitality is provided.

Service quality and ambience is good. Quality of breads is also good. There is a room for improvement as far as veg main course is concerned. Very limited options and out of those some courses like daal bukhaara for example can be a bit better taste wise. Quantity of raita provided is bare minimum. Still an overall good experience.

The location of this zaitoon branch is great!! The restaurant is a bit expensive when compared to the quality of the food.<br/>We had ordered chicken tandoori, shawarma plate along with veg starter. There chicken is cooked in pressure cooker which you can easily realize from the first bite. The tandoori was fine but not up to the mark, the shawarma was good in taste.<br/>About the ambiance, the place is jammed pack with little walkable space. The ambiance is not that good and is quite noisy.<br/>Coming to the main course we had ordered butter chicken marsala, mutton bhuna and indian breads. Whatever gravy we ordered was more of water that a gravy and the taste was pathetic.<br/>I would certainly not recommend this place as the quality of the food is not as good as their prices are.<br/>

Zaitoon keep u there standards high at all there branches,, a very tidy ambience, good service and hospitality,, wide ranges of varieties in the menu, we tried the Arabian lollipop which is a must try,, was so delightful to taste ,very crispy, we had the chicken kohlapuri which was fabulous to eat with the tandoori Rotis,,the kozi dajaj, the Arabian rice variety was also different to taste and eat,, the price is also very reasonable and worth the money,, a must try...!! They have got a valet parking at this branch,,, keep it up

We got our appetizers after 40 min of waiting, very poor service, I went to this restaurant along with my friend. Hotel staff given preference to only those who came to hotel in groups (5 members 8). They never cared about us. We called out the manager and told him that we were waiting for long a time but he never cared it too. Food is average. Overall experience not happy with the money we paid for.

Zaitoon has a warm and comfortable ambience with cordial staff..the food is really good..been here a couple of times..the food quality, presentation, taste and quantity is worth the cost !

Zaitoon located at royapettah opp to the EA mall . We had dinner at Zaitoon and it was so much fun! The ambience is amazing, The special things about the Zaitoon is cherish Kebabs and other Indo Arabian foods. The valet parking was a key point The one thing that keeps bringing me hear is their sizzling brownie ! my rating would be 4. Definitely it was a great experience.

Zaitoon Royapettah - Exactly Located in opp to Express Avenue on GP Road.<br/><br/>Firstly Wonderful Ambiance.<br/><br/>Ordered Soups: Veg clear soup & cream of chicken<br/><br/>Starters: Fish finger, BBQ Chicken, Grill Chicken, Chicken Lolipop & Chicken Hariyali.<br/><br/>Maincourse: Mutton Biryani, Fried rice, tandoor paratha with paneer butter masala.<br/><br/>Desserts: Zaitoon Special Falooda, Sizzlers & Ice cream.<br/><br/>Food and service is good.

Amazing Food, Great Ambiance and Superb Location.<br/><br/>Food : 5/5<br/>Ambiance : 5/5<br/>Service : 4/5<br/><br/>Must try : Chicken Chettinad and Shwarma<br/>Avoid sea food as this place is a master in Arabic Food.

I had ordered mixed kebabs they were so delicious and the meat was quite juicy and well marinated . And it was accompanied with kubus, hummus and mayonnaise . Overall the ambience was good and so crowded but eventually got my place and had this delicious food !

It is always immense pleasure to have food from zaitoon ... i lile their kozi dishes ..... their falooda is must try item ..... and they provide food worth the money you pay........

Nice restaurant near express Avenue mall , their was a no vallet parking and food was really amazing,,, need improve ur service standard ambience also not good

Visited last week with my family... It was my daughters birthday... Zaitoon team made the visit memorable one.... Thanks to the service crew especially manager Mr. Ganesh.<br/><br/>Food was nice with affordable costs.<br/>Decent ambience.<br/><br/>Greattttttt

Food: 8.0/10<br/>Service: 8.5/10<br/>Ambiance: 8.5/10<br/>Value For Money: 8.0/10<br/><br/>One of many outlets of Zaitoon located at royapetta opp to the EA mall. Has 3 floors of dining with take away in ground floor. Parking for 4 wheelers cannot be done though valet is available.  Zaitoon is famous for its shawarmas and Arabian cuisine. <br/>Chicken shawarma plate - soft chunks of minced meat served with hummus & kubus is a treat. Pepper BBQ chicken with seasoned topping is a delight for the taste buds. BBQ fish was the fishy affair was finger licking good.  Tawa kabab in chicken was stuffed inside with some chutney which was tasteless and surely tainted the other tastes.  Better to avoid it. <br/>Finished off with mini falooda and a royal falooda- it was marvelous and lip smacking nutty affair.

As one night layover visitors in Chennai, went searching for seafood... very strange I could not find one single stand alone sea food place serving only authentic cuisine. <br/>Visited the EA mall and bang opposite is this venue. It's huge and spread over two floors, neat and clean setting, best part is that its huge not claustrophobic and over looks the main road.<br/><br/>We ordered the prawns tawa, which was a very good dish and lots of flavour and went very well with the malabar paratha. The fish curry lacked the punch that you would normally get from a nice south indian fish curry, the fish was fresh though and it had to be had with the white rice. Was not so very happy with the fish curry or maybe i ordered the wrong dish. <br/><br/>Service is very good, too many servers milling around and assisting. Prices are normal for this level of restaurant.

Definitely a great place to cherish Kebabs and other Indo Arabian foods. Although it's a multi cusine restaurant, I would definitely suggest you to go for Indian. If you want me to rate the ambience, my rating would be 4. The food was awesome and lovely. Definitely it was a great experience.

The perfect Arabian restaurant we can found in Chennai has been on my list for a while got a chance to dine in at Royapettah branch opp to EA <br/>Reception was nice welcomeable restaurant was situated at 1st floor tables and chairs was comfortable with chilled air conditioning we placed order for BBQ 🍖 chicken ,chicken shawarma,prawn fried rice,veg fried rice and chilli panner , shawarma was the best in Chennai & BBQ chicken was 🌶 spicy though fried was regular nothing special and chilli panner has made to the perfection good food and well served that’s what we expect when we go to zaitoon 👍🏻

Have been to this place plenty of times and it's always amazing especially the prawn dish.. All time favorite place..Hemant was very kind helpful.

My Friend had suggested to visit Zaitoon for it's Shwarma. Much to my disappointment, Shwarmas were not available afternoon. I ordered Barebecue Chicken in it's Stead. And it was amazing ! The chicken was tender, the sweet yet tingly Barbecue taste ran deep.<br/>We also ordered Chinese. Which I found pretty moderate.<br/>

Went during Sunday noon and it’s just opposite to EA shopping mall.<br/><br/>Wait time would be on the higher side so please plan accordingly.<br/><br/>What we ate?<br/>Alfham (Totally different in taste compared to other restaurants)<br/>Butter roti with butter Chicken wonderful combination to try.<br/><br/>Have lot more to try in here.<br/>

This is my go to place for lunch whenever I visit EA. <br/>First of all they serve the best tandoori chicken which is well marinated, soft and precisely cooked meat. Then is the chilly potato OMG ! Sure should be a vegetarians choice of starters. The fish biriyani was not liked much though. <br/><br/>The one thing that keeps bringing me hear is their sizzling brownie ! I can bet there is no good restaurants that can provide such a cakey consistency with carefully roasted nuts and chocolate sauce to match on. <br/><br/>Over all it might sum up to ₹1100<br/>

Nice food. Staff are well behaved. Ambience is not good needs improvement. Waiting period after ordering the food is very long. There is scope for improvement

I tried pepper chicken bbq and normal bbq,both were very tasty and mouth watering,but had to wait for a while to get table as it was very 

Been there multiple times.. one of the consistent restaurant in Arabian dishes..special barbeque are my favourite.. will be soft n masala evenly distributed.. and most importantly, taste s consistent every time.. briyani s not so great here.. but kozhi rice was very good .shawarma s very good. Kuboos they provide along with barbeque s soft unlike most places where it's hard.. their mayonnaise also very good..<br/>And this place also serve good dessert.. favaco s my favourite..<br/>Iftar pack they provide during Ramadan month s vfm.

Zaitoon..Been here multiple times for team lunch..I would say arabian dishes are their specialty and must try all their barbecues and newly added goat briyani.<br/>

Disappointing. The place was jam packed. Waited almost 15 minutes just to get the seats. Food wise, everything was great but the service was painfully slow.