A 3-clique can be found in an $n$-vertex graph in time $O(n^\omega)$ and in $O(n^2)$ space by a result of Itai and Rodeh [1]. Basically, they show that $G$ contains a triangle if and only if $(A(G))^3$ has a non-zero entry on its main diagonal. For a long time (more than 20 years I think), the result of Nesetril and Poljak [2] was the best known; they showed the number of cliques of size $3k$ can be found in time $O(n^{\omega k})$ and $O(n^{2k})$ space. Finally, Eisenbrand and Grandoni [3] improved on the result of Nesetril and Poljak for a $(3k+1)$-clique and a $(3k+2)$-clique for small values of $k$. Specifically, they gave algorithms for finding cliques of size 4, 5, and 7 in time $O(n^{3.334})$, $O(n^{4.220})$, and $O(n^{5.714})$, respectively.

If you consider some restricted graph classes, you can solve the problem in linear time on chordal graphs. Simply compute a clique tree of a chordal graph $G$ in $O(n+m)$ time, and then check if any clique is of size exactly $k$.

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[1] [Itai, Alon, and Michael Rodeh. "Finding a minimum circuit in a graph." SIAM Journal on Computing 7.4 (1978): 413-423.](http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/eric.thierry/Graphes2009/ir77.pdf)

[2] [Nešetřil, Jaroslav, and Svatopluk Poljak. "On the complexity of the subgraph problem." Commentationes Mathematicae Universitatis Carolinae 26.2 (1985): 415-419.](http://dml.cz/bitstream/handle/10338.dmlcz/106381/CommentatMathUnivCarol_026-1985-2_22.pdf)

[3] [Eisenbrand, Friedrich, and Fabrizio Grandoni. "On the complexity of fixed parameter clique and dominating set." Theoretical Computer Science 326.1 (2004): 57-67.](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030439750400372X)