Zaffron - Thai and Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Christchurch

15th Feb 2019 - This is a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant that is located in Beckenham area. We my family and I) went there to celebrate my personal achievement. I didn't make any reservations but we were lucky to get a table for four as they are a busy restaurant.

P/s: I strongly recommend that you make a reservation as to avoid any disappointment.

We were not expecting too much (we came with an open minded) but since there were plenty of locals (Caucasians), we were thinking the taste must be tailored to their palate. How wrong we were. The spiciness can be adjusted to suit your taste buds (well, I love spicy food but kids don't like it, and so I asked for a side chopped chillies and man, it's spicy! 😰)

Anyway, the interior layout is well set up and cosy. The place feels kinda good vibe.

The menu is very straightforward; entrees, à la carte dishes, and desserts. The drinks are on a separate menu.

The menu is not overwhelming (which is a good thing) with choices but rather nicely balanced. They have duck, chicken, beef, pork and many more, and can tailor to suits your taste!

We ordered one entrée and four mains.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience for the first visit to this restaurant.

Good portion sizes.

This is a child-friendly restaurant.

This is a licensed (🍻🍸🍷🍾🍹🍺) eatery and not a BYO. There is no outdoor dining area.

Street parking 🅿 only.

They accept cash and EFTPOS including credit card payments (Paywave is available, for those who want to know).

Would I go back? Yes 😀. Well worth a try and you will not be disappointed. Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. It was yummy 😋. Ambience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. Relax and cosy. Price: ⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. Reasonable pricing compared to other Thai cum Vietnamese restaurants in Christchurch. Customer service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. Professional service and very...

The place is clean, tidy, modern, table spacing is great, service was good, but no customers, so they had 3 staff to service us alone, hard to confirm good service.

My order: Pad Thai chicken Pho with chicken (no beef available at 5pm?) Stirfry noodles pork Black bean beef on rice

Pad Thai, the right noodles, well flavoured meat, but the flavour of the dish as a whole reminds me of the canton jar flavour.

The Stirfry noodles also reminds me of canton jar flavour.

The black bean beef was good beef, but no but very weak black bean flavour.

I left the pho to last because it was just an insult to everything pho, it was like they added 10% broth and 90% hot water, no flavour, it had a hint of flavour, but was mainly boiled noodles and meat. If I was a Vietnamese style chef that served this, I would have to go to chef jail, it was not pho.

I gave 1 star because the meat used overall was good quality, but they lose 4 because you can't rely on quality meat to win the day, you need to make better flavours. Also don't call Boiled meat and noodles pho.

Suggestions, send the chef to eat pho from other restaurants so they can experience what flavours they need to add. Also work on the Pad Thai, these two dishes are the most important as they are the first two I expect Thai and Vietnamese restaurants to have perfected. If I Thai restaurant can't make a good pad thai, then don't bother ordering anything else, same with the pho.

Overall I would not eat here again because of the price for...

I've eaten at Zaffron quite a few times now and absolutely love it! If we want to eat at home and we’re feeling lazy, we order takeaways which are well priced and always damn tasty. They have 50+ meals in their dinner menu and not far off that in the lunch menu, so lots of choice and I'm still working through it! The new fit out is clean and spacious and the staff are super friendly and prompt. My absolute favourite dish so far is the slow cooked Thai red Duck curry, which is really delicious, flavoursome, spicy and perfect warming winter food. Close second is the Lamb Shank in Massuman Curry, which is melt in the mouth meaty and marvelous. Both the red and green curries are delicious and generous, with crunchy fresh vegetables and your choice of seafood, prawn, tofu, chicken, beef, pork or vegie! My partner adores the Larb Gai; chicken or pork minced meat and salad, with roasted rice powder, shallots, spring onions, coriander, chilli, & lime juice. They have an extensive choice of vegetarian and vegan meals, which is rare for Christchurch. Our kids love the Cashew nut stir-fry and they will cook it as mild or spicy as you want it. The staff are very good with kids and there are colouring in books and Lego annuals and stuff to entertain them, which is a bonus! The drinks menu is good, with draft beer from 3 Boys, my fav ‘Oyster Stout’ in bottles and a good selection of NZ wines. Prices are good value, the Duck curry for instance is...