Saffron - Indian Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Ottawa

The food reminded me of restaurants in Scarborough and India. It's safe to say this place will become popular among diner's seeking spicy and flavourful dishes as well as an ambience for a fun social gathering. There were quite a few groups celebrating various occasions and the place was bustling, but we were still able to get a table through walk-in without the wait.

The wait staff were polite and doting at the right times. Spotted a past Uber driver - needless to say, staff are very professional and hardworking.

The bathroom was clean (one of the doors was broken but they had a sign up that it would be fixed soon). The location is set nicely next to a couple of Indian grocery stores so if you're feeling creative to recreate these dishes at home, there's that. If you found it too spicy, they've got mango lassi at the restaurant and a few dessert options. There's also a Chatime next door.

One thing that could be tweaked are the two-seaters against the really high bar wall. With the wall on one side and a small path separating it from the four-seat tables, it lacks comfort/space to one side. It might make more sense to have bar stools by the bar. Picture a young crowd coming to hangout for drinks while the families dine at larger tables away from the bar. Or the bar could serve as a wait area where you grab a drink until a table becomes available on a busy night.

My friend ordered the Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani and said it was ok - not bad but not as great as Biryaniwalla. I ordered the Malai Shrimp Curry with a Lachcha Paratha and the combo was tasty! My friend liked it too. We were both pleasantly surprised that they did not skimp put on the pieces of shrimp like other places do - it wasn't overly saucy.

We both planned to share the Fish Ajwaini Tikka, which was unfortunately not available at the time. The waiter suggested the Fish Amritsari appetizer, which was good. The batter it was dipped and fried in tasted like a spiced chickpea flour base. By the end of dinner, we were too full to finish it all, so skipped dessert and took the rest to go.

For anyone visiting Ottawa and craving North Indian food with a couple of South Indian and Western-friendly choices, and a lot of Veg options, I would highly recommend Saffron. Like the delicious spice itself, this is...

We went to saffron for a family dinner and to celebrate my MIL’s birthday. Firstly we had to wait 20 mins to be seated although the restaurant had plenty of empty tables and could have easily made us sit promptly. Secondly the service was extremely slow… from getting us the menu to getting us the bill at the end. And disaster was made at the bill too, we were charged high as the server did the mixup with another table. Thank god we caught that otherwise I would have paid for another set of people and for the food I did not order. There was no cleanup of plates after eating, no refilling of water, and no hygiene in bathroom.

They were highly understaffed for the number of customers they had at that time in the restaurant, although I do understand their situation and trust me I tried my best to help them out… I even cleaned the table myself after we ate. But there is a limit to everything. The customer is going out to get a nice experience at their outing and they expect a certain level of service from a fine dine place like saffron. But we were highly disappointed. The manager did apologise and tried to make up for everything but the bill disaster at the end was the tip of the iceberg. And to top it all off, we didn’t even get to eat the cake as there was no one to provide us the cutlery and plates for it.

I should also mention the food now, the snacks were great - we ordered indo-Chinese sizzler and crispy corns. For main course we ordered paneer methi garlic, malai kofta and kadai chicken along with garlic naan and bullet naan - which was nice.

Although the food was okay but the service was extremely poor.

I would have given them only 2 star but I am giving them another star for their food and for the empathy with...

Recently hosted my wedding dinner here at Saffron.

Its a breath of fresh air in the ottawa Indian food scene. Lets be honest there are very few options in Indian fine dining in city. After extensive research and taste trials at multiple Indian restaurants, I picked Saffron due to 3 factors Taste, ambience and service.

Dishes that wowed my 30 plus number of guests :

Gobi 65- a veg appetizer that can give any deep fried chicken its run for the money. Surprisingly good i came back after 2 days to try chicken 65 which was yum (being a hyderabadi i love biryani and chicken 65 had to come back)

Malai chicken- juicy moist perfectly done. This chicken slaps period. Cool plating with mayo. Might be catering item only not 100 percent sure .

Ambience - brand new restaurant with good taste in music and seating arrangements.

Service- mine was a south indian/ punjabi wedding dinner with my guests spreading from Canadians to folk from delhi, Baroda-gujrat, punjab, mumbai and hyderabad. Including my typical south indian aunt who’s usually picky, everyone of my guests had a blast. Its hard to pull such spice balance. I was extremely impressed.

Thank you Nikhil Sareen for making my life easy from tasting arrangements to negotiations to party arrangements.

Thank you Parth, Nirav, Manan, Meshwa and Biren for making sure every single guest is taken care of, for changing the tables to fit the social interactions as party progressed and extending the timelines to make my wedding dinner a fabulous memory for all my family and friends. You will always hold a special place in my heart. Parth your attitude, work ethic and energy lit up the party and made it special.

All the best and hope you maintain...