Saffron Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Burnaby

Ordered Mutter Paneer and Baingan Bharta as well as Rotis, while the food tasted decent, it seems like most of the dishes are overpriced and not as high quality in preparation or ingredients as other better Indian restaurants such as Sula, Raga, All India, Indian Delicacy, etc.

Also, one of the female employees there, she might have been the owner was immensely rude. While we were waiting for our takeout, went to take a look at the buffet selection and this woman tried to protest and say no the buffet couldn't be viewed unless we were having it. How are you supposed to sit down to a buffet without first seeing the food that is being offered? Saw the dishes at the buffet, while the female employee or owner gave numerous dirty looks, the food looked greasy and seemed like it would cause indigestion.

We wanted to sit and wait at one of the tables for our meal to go and this same discourteous staffer insisted that we wait near the front door. It wasn't as if it was busy either and they needed the tables. Yet another display of terrible customer service.

The environment of the restaurant could be refined as there is not a lot of room in between tables. Some of the dishes contain a lot of masala and little food content which is something that many Indian restaurants seem to do in order to maximize profits at the expense of providing the customer with a generously proportioned dish.

We decided to order again from this Restaurant to see if they had made improvements to their food and service and it seems as if they have, the Daal, Baingan Bhartha, and Chana Masala tasted quite good and some of the staff members were friendly and courteous. This restaurant was originally rated 1 star but because they seem to be putting effort into improving the dishes and services the rating will be...

Usually good service, but today was rather disappointing.

We arrived in the afternoon and was offered a table after a short wait. We were offered 2 adult buffets and 1 child, with my youngest child of 3 years old as a free diner.

Food was excellent.

We asked for the bill, when it came it had two children's buffets charged. My wife challenged it and was told it would be altered. The waitress whom we know as a regular worker there during the week - she knows us too, came back and said sorry her mistake both children have to pay.

She then left us for 15 minutes, served several people and cleaned some tables. At one point she looked over at us and her face dropped in horror as she realized she had forgotten about us.

Her colleague also looked at us confused as my 4 year old child was waving my credit card around waiting to pay. Her colleague came over to us and asked if we wanted to pay, I said yes but we don't have the bill with us. We then waited for her to go find a bill. $52 later we walked out, not happy having sat and waited for so long and the fact we were misinformed at the beginning regarding our buffet prices. It was only $4 each per child but the principle stands that she made no attempt to honour what she said to us on entry.

I can forgive the part about forgetting us and moving onto other tables and serving others - but not that part about making no attempt to compensate us for misinformation.

She has been working there for a long time, she is practically part of the furniture so to tell us our 3 year old was 'free' and then to say oh sorry no he has to pay, quite frankly sucks.

I probably will go back there because the food is great but i'll be asking for a different waitress, and will probably chose a...

FOOD: Some of the dishes are too salty! They are tasty but again, too salty specifically the goat curry, beef samosa, and the yellowish dish which I forgot the name. I was happy that they had the shrimp dish which was really good and the palak chicken was superb. They had fresh naans too. The dessert: gulab jamun was old, kheer was not so sweet which is good, and its rice component was soft, I could easily eat the whole big bowlful of it. The custard dessert was equally pleasant in the mouth. The fruit (cantaloupe) was a week old I think and should not have been served at all. The edges have started to breakdown.

STAFF: The filipina server was not warm, didn’t smile and feels like she hates her job. They didn’t clear the used plates off your table quickly. You need to pile them up 5 storey-high for them to take a hint that it is time to take them off your table. I feel like they should have Indian servers to add to the authenticity of experience. But I think as long as the servers are welcoming, I couldn’t care less about the authenticity of experience.

PLACE: on the dark vibe, mysterious ambiance. Enough walk space and doesn’t feel cramped. Hygienic washroom.

PRICE: around 20$ for dinner which is pretty fair considering they have chicken, beef (samosa), goat, and shrimp! And good desserts (except for the disgusting fruits).

I have been to almost all of the Indian restau and buffets places in lower mainland. If I’m craving for authentic and awesome Indian buffet with total disregard of the price (27-28$), I’d rather go to Tandoori Flame in Delta-Surrey border, or the New India Buffet in Broadway, Vancouver. But Saffron Indian Cuisine is definitely a go-to place if you only want to shell out 20$...