‘Change moves at the speed of trust’
Family Roots Greenhouse – rooted in family, friends and plants
October 13, 2025
WAUSAU – A new spot for Indian cuisine has arrived in the Wausau area.
Zaika Gourmet India – which offers a menu full of favorites, from Tandoori Tikka and lamb chops to freshly baked naan and flavorful curries – opened at 151522 County Road NN in Wausau a handful of months ago.
Owner Sohil Sachdeva, a native of Delhi, said creating an upscale Indian restaurant featuring some of India’s rich and diverse flavors has been a long-time vision of his.
Sachdeva said the name – Zaika – roughly translates to flavor or taste, with the full name meaning “taste of gourmet India.”
“I want to feed people good food that represents India correctly,” he said.
‘A leap of faith’
As with many entrepreneurial endeavors, Sachdeva said opening the restaurant was a journey.
Sachdeva said he, his wife, Aparna, and their then-one-month-old daughter relocated to Wausau from Maryland in 2018 for his other business that manufactures rubber products.
The move, he said, required some adapting.
With limited options in the area, he said they learned quickly that they would need to travel to Milwaukee, Madison or Chicago once a month to stock up on Indian groceries and dine in Indian restaurants.
“But a restaurant [of my own] was always on my mind,” he said. “We would have friends over to our home, especially American friends, and they would try our Indian food and love it. That was encouragement for me to think about opening a restaurant here.”
Initially, Sachdeva said he was hesitant to move forward, noting the area’s relatively small Indian community.
And though the idea was put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic began, Sachdeva said he and Aparna revisited it seriously a few years later.
“I didn’t want to question myself later on that I had an opportunity and didn’t try,” he said. “It’s okay to fail, but if you don’t try… that would have haunted me forever.”
When the current space became available, Sachdeva said he saw its potential right away – both for its convenient location near the highway and its ideal size.
Still, he said he and Aparna had to weigh the decision carefully, knowing the day-to-day care of their one-and-a-half-year-old and seven-year-old would largely fall to her if he pursued the venture.
“She is doing the toughest job at home, and we knew once we opened this, I’d be out the door a lot of the time,” he said.
From gathering materials to recruiting employees, Sachdeva said the planning process required significant legwork.
And with “zero experience in the industry,” Sachdeva said it was definitely a leap of faith.
“It is all born out of passion,” he said.
Committed to creating a fine dining experience, Sachdeva said they decided to move forward and signed the lease in February.
The following month, he said they traveled to India to source key elements for the space, including wall panels, furniture, fabric, dinnerware and flatware.
“Everything was handpicked by my wife and me while we were there, and it’s all premium,” he said. “We spent a lot of money to make sure they are the right products and everything is upscale.”
Flavors of India
Sachdeva said he worked closely with his chef to carefully craft the menu, ensuring a balance of traditional and diverse offerings.
The final menu, he said, has a variety of appetizers, including popular Indian street foods and chaats – which he describes as savory snack items.
It also features tandoor-grilled dishes, cooked in a high-heat cylindrical clay oven, which Sachdeva said conveys a distinct smoky flavor.
Other menu highlights, he said, include Indo-Chinese fusion cuisine, which blends Indian spices with Chinese cooking techniques; a selection of biryani, rice and pulao dishes; eight types of flatbreads baked in a clay oven; as well as a range of salads, entrées, sides and desserts.
“We designed it based on what people would like,” he said. “We have pretty much everything popular from India – from street food to things like butter chicken and chicken tikka.”
Sachdeva said they also spent significant time creating helpful descriptors of every item on the menu to give customers insight into what each dish is.
He said the items on the menu are what he considers “very staple” to what people would enjoy in India, albeit some may be served with a little less spice if requested.
“We know many people are trying our food for the first time and aren’t sure what they are ordering,” he said. “We are always here to help, but we [received] a lot of compliments that everything on the menu is described very well.”
Freshly made flavors
Finalizing preparations and opening in early August, Sachdeva said they were pleasantly surprised by the community’s response.
“I wasn’t expecting the kind of response we got – it was beyond my expectations and very overwhelming,” he said. “Most people who came in were very patient and told us that if they waited 30 years for a restaurant with Indian fine dining to come in, they were okay to wait an hour to get their food.”
Though initially the surge of customers did create longer wait times for some customers during peak hours, Sachdeva said he has addressed that by hiring additional staff in the kitchen and in the front of the house.
“We are learning every single day and managing things better now that we understand how things work,” he said. “It’s a new place, a new setup and it has taken some time to settle in.”
Sachdeva said Zaika Gourmet India isn’t “fast food” – as all items are made to order, and that takes time even when the restaurant isn’t extra busy.
“Indian cuisine takes time to cook – it’s not ready in a few minutes,” he said. “The breads and curries are made fresh after the order goes in. The bread is being rolled and baked and the curries are being made to the [requested] spice level fresh after ordering.”
Sachdeva said Zaika Gourmet India is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and from 4:30-9 p.m. on every weekday except Tuesday, and from 4:30-10 p.m. on weekends.
So far, he said customers have come not only from Wausau but also from Stevens Point, Plover, Minocqua and Rhinelander.
In addition to the restaurant’s dine-in options, Sachdeva said the restaurant is available for event catering.
“No. 1, the taste of the food should be what they expect,” he said.
