Saffron Kitchen — Restaurant in London

A fallen giant.

What was once a great curry house producing great-tasting food with attentive service has now become a mediocre food experience and uncomfortable service.

The restaurant experience at Saffron is a poor one and feels more transactional, if anything.

We were a large group who, collectively, arrived approx. 15mins later than the reservation. It is fair for the restaurant to be slightly concerned, however the manager attending to us appeared to be so concerned he was letting us know that we were on a timed visit and looked visibly annoyed at us and was almost certainly implying that they are missing out on other customers because of our mild lateness. This all stems from their policy as no matter the reservation, you can’t be seated until everyone is present. We were 10+ with multiple children. Not a great start.

Concerns raised by the restaurant regarding the above is understandable, but this can be discussed in a more constructive and calm manner. We are still customers taking time out at the end of the day seeking an enjoyable restaurant experience. And every phase of the restaurant from entering to being seated, and so on, affects that experience so discussions between restaurant and customer needs to be amenable.

The orders were taken and to my surprise, food was served very quickly. Many dishes were ordered, I personally ordered pappadums, butter chicken, masala chips and tandoori naan.

The pappadums, although tasted fine, were described in the menu as a ‘basket of pappadums’. It was certainly served in a basket, however it was just no more than 1 and a half pappadums broken up.

The butter chicken gave me a mixed feeling. The sauce was good, however the chicken itself was not tender and felt a little hard so it did not seem to be cooked for the appropriate time.

The masala chips were fine, although some at the bottom were crushed, which was a bit strange.

The tandoori naan was okay, however was probably left on the tawa for a little too long.

During our time sitting down, chatting away and eating, the manager seemed to be walking into our area looking at us quite agitated. This happened several times, but did not approach us if anything was wrong.

Not all of the food was eaten, so we requested some take away boxes for them to take home. For some reason, the waiter appeared to be counting the number of boxes infront of us - strange thing to do infront of customers.

This was also a birthday dinner, so we had our own cake to enjoy where plates and cutlery was provided by the restaurant. We had a small amount of cake left and requested a small box to put the cake away. To our surprise, the waiter refused to give a box saying that this can’t be done without giving any reason.

The issues raised above may not be that serious, but you add all of these up and it does affect the restaurant experience badly. This is also in light of the restaurant’s own high reputation and quality it delivered in the first few years of business. The attention to detail and treating customers well is really not there. What was once what they appeared to aspire in best-in-class has now been relegated to making customers feel like they have a £ sign over their head.

A serious disappointment and I sincerely hope they can reach those previous high...

Unfortunately my husband & returned having had a wonderful experience here 2 year prior. One thing saffron kitchen was notorious for was consistency, however this was sadly anything but that.

Our experience started off on the wrong foot as our waiter seated us beside a heavily used area & open kitchen with BINS in our view. We reiterated that we didn’t want to sit here as we have come to dine not be distracted by the kitchen. The restaurant was empty & we suggested an alternative low traffic area as we came to dine with my child & didn’t want to be disturbed by the ongoings of waiters & kitchen staff.

The waiter alerted what seemed like the owner who refused & told us to sit in another high traffic area. Reluctantly we accepted & sat. Our neighbouring table was seated so close to us my 4 year old son joined in their conversation. They also did state on numerous occasions that the recipes had changed & the food was bland.

The chicken biryani was mushy but covered in a pilau rice on top to mask this. The chicken in it was also burnt which we complained about. The owner stated “my biryani is always mushy” not very helpful. He gave us an additional pilau rice which did little to help the matter. The “lamb” chops were also mutton chops & badly presented.

The bhuna ghosht was absolutely bland much to our surprised. It was merely doused in food colouring for presentation. The meat was also tough & frozen meat. This was obvious from the quality. The waiter also kept coming to our table & disturbing us with taking dishes away we were yet to finish. We had to tell him to leave us alone.

The large table behind us was incredibly loud & the atmosphere was a massive change from what was. We added salt to every single dish as they were so bland. The only enjoyable thing was the masala fries. We decided against packing the biryani when we found more burnt pieces of chicken. When we complained to the owner he said “it’s only two pieces of burnt chicken”. This is quality control. You cannot serve paying customers even a grain of burnt rice.

When we told the owner to take the biryani off the bill, he said “the minute we came in….” & decided not to finish. Over all unprofessional. We feel saffron kitchen no longer stands for authentic Asian flavours & quality. Sadly we will not...

I booked a table at Saffron Kitchen for a certain time however I was late by 30 minutes due to a lot of traffic. When I arrived at the restaurant I did apologise for being late however the owner or family friend (wearing glasses) that was manning the kiosk said that he cancelled our booking because we were late. I asked if there was a table available and he went on to say let the rest of you’s arrive and then we will see. At this point we weren’t promised a table so we had to wait in the waiting area. The man that spoke to me came across arrogant and rude and I didn’t appreciate the tone and the behaviour towards me and family members. I basically got told off for coming late to the restaurant and I no longer felt comfortable so I wanted to leave but because I had my elderly parents and children who were with me and were hungry so decided to stay. The restaurant wasn’t so busy that we had to wait for a table, the whole of the restaurant at the back was empty so we could’ve been seated and ordered the for everyone. There was another family waiting next to us who experienced the same hospitality. We ordered our starters and mains which was served to us half burnt so some of the kids ate burnt food! We are paying a lot of money for the food and only to receive burnt food. The quality of the food has gone from bad to awful, they have changed their recipes so many times and it is only getting worse. The only dishes that were good was the samosa chaat, dahi puri, masala chips and the mix grill was ok but not great as it was quite chewy and burnt. The mains; daal, king prawns karahi, achari gosh, masala fried fish (totally burnt) was terrible. This will be my last visit at saffrons kitchen. Please take the criticism on board as we were a big group and we weren’t happy with the food nor the service although the waiter was nice. I’m afraid I will not recommend the restaurant to anyone because I wouldn’t anyone to experience what my family and I experienced so I will give people my...