Saffron Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Charlotte

This post is long but I need to give you the whole scenario. I was given the task to pick a restaurant. After a thorough search online, reading reviews I picked an Indian restaurant called Saffron based on reviews and the restaurant's advertisement "Renu and Sunil opened the restaurant in 2008. Sunil has 30 years of experience in hospitality. He trained in 5 Star Hotels in India and worked in Ashoka Hotel, Hyatt Regency, and Kanishka. Sunil has owned restaurants in California for 10 years with his wife. His chef Raj has worked in five star hotels in India and Dubai and both are very passionate about the quality of food and providing excellent service. Saffron will set the standard for innovative Indian dining in Charlotte. The team at Saffron is committed to presenting the fresh and exciting tastes of the many regions of India, in a warm and inviting atmosphere, all designed to entice and captivate our guests." The restaurant offers dinning and buffet service. We had arrived at 1.15pm 2 of us planning to order meal and other 2 are going for the buffet service. We were greeted and taken to the table by Viney, who just assumed that we were going to have buffet and did not offer us the menu. We said that we wanted to order food and he was like we have buffet and to order it will take 35 minutes to make it. I said on your website it said we can order food too. Then Viney said ok give us 20 minutes. I wanted Chicken vindaloo spice level they offer from 1-10 I went for 7 well I wanted 8 but the Viney said I better off with 7 just in case. My husband (white American) wanted Chicken curry spice level 4 but the Viney wanted him to order 3 but my husband was adamant that he wants 4. Our friends Nick and Nams went for the buffet. When we got our food, they gave my husband chicken tikka masala instead of the curry. He was like I did not order this and the guy insisted that my husband would love it and apparently this is a popular dish. My husband took a bite and he did not like it at all, it was very bland and creamy which he did not want. So they eventually brought the right dish. My friend later told us that dish was in the buffet so we are pretty sure they did no wanted to cook so they tried to pull a fast one on us by giving us a dish from the buffet and charge the menu price. My dish wasn't great the vindaloo sauce was not really vindaloo sauce. I usually love to order vindaloo at Indian restaurant because the sauce is really yummy and tangy, something that I know I cannot replicate at home. This felt like just added chilli it did not have the tangy favor and sauce seems normal curry sauce that I can replicate it. 2.10pm I wanted to order tea and Viney said that they close at 2.30pm, he initially implied I couldn't have tea and once he saw my face (looking very shocked) he said they can put it in a go cup. So I won't be able to drink it at the table. What is wrong with these people? Why advertise that your professional, experienced and you have warm hospitality but in reality you were lazy, unprofessional, no morals, and cheap? Most of my families ran Indian restaurants in UK. My brother is famous in our town by many British customers for his service. I have worked in Indian restaurant myself too. This would never happen in our watch. We do not treat customers like this. This is an embarrassed to all the hard working Indians in UK running successful Indian restaurants...

Overpriced Mediocre Food and Rude Waitstaff --

Recently my daughter requested that we eat at this restaurant to celebrate her birthday. Of course I complied with her request because after all it was her birthday. The waiter that seated us had a completely flat facial affect and voice and simply handed us three menus. We made our choices and he then asks you what “heat” (spicy) level you want your food prepared to on a scale of 1-10. My daughter chose 5 for her lamb dish and I chose 2 for my chargrilled eggplant dish. My other daughter got a chicken dish without a heat preference offered. When the food arrived mine had no resemblance in appearance or taste of eggplant whatsoever and in fact was so hot and spicy that it burned my throat. When I motioned for the waiter to come over to the table and I explained it was too hot for me and asked him to bring me something to neutralize the hot spices he just said “NO” several times! Finally a patron at another table overheard the conversation and said “get some of the cucumber with whipped yogurt to neutralize the heat” and the manager overheard what the patron had said and she brought over a dish of the cucumber yogurt dish and it did in fact help but the food was still not tasty at all and the disrespectful manner in which I was treated and humiliated was abhorrent. There was no reason for the waiter to become so defensive of the food, it was simply too hot for me and much spicier than a “2” on a scale of 1-10. Trying to salvage the evening I then told the waiter as we were preparing to leave that it was my daughter's birthday and we were celebrating. He did not even wish her a happy birthday. He simply looked at her and said “So you want to see the dessert menu?”. She said yes and chose a Carrot Pudding dish that was actually quite good. She said she wanted to share it and to bring extra spoons. Of course he only brought 2 spoons for my two daughters as he was still angry at me for complaining about the heat level of my dish. When the bill came we noticed that they did charge for the birthday dessert and many restaurants that we frequent give a complimentary birthday dessert to the diner but not so at Saffron. Never Again will I waste my hard earned money to purchase such mediocre overpriced food and to be treated so disrespectfully by the staff. They act like they are doing you a favor to even allow you to enter the place. If you enjoy overpaying for mediocre food and then being treated with disdain the entire time this is the...

Welcoming hospitality, generous portions, genuinely authentic employees.

My husband and I were in the area a little after 1pm on February 19th where we’d just finished a 5-hour meeting. We were hungry and Saffron Indian Cuisine Restaurant on Ayrsley Town Blvd. in Charlotte, NC was literally steps away from where we stood so we decided to give it a try. There were 3 seated parties spaced out according to CDC guidelines and an employee towards the back who gestured for us to take a seat.

Seriously, this is the best northern Indian cuisine I’ve had since moving to Charlotte from Los Angeles. Our family rule when trying new restaurants is to keep it simple; order menu items normally found on a particular restaurant’s menu so that we can compare to what we’ve enjoyed previously. What a pleasant surprise to taste multilayered flavors, slowly simmered rather than heat coming from a jar of garam masala. Each dish had stood far above versions from the local competition. We couldn’t decide whether to order chicken tikka (my favorite) or chicken tikka masala so we ordered both, and we shared palak paneer, mushroom matar, the most fragrant jasmine rice and OMG the best garlic naan we’ve had in this city. I don’t want to omit this because you have to know if you’ve never tasted it, chunks of breast are used to create chicken tikka and chicken tikka masala. As you’re aware, white meat can become dry & tough but not here, the chicken was tender, juicy and so delicious that I made sure to savor every single bite. Initially we thought it took too long to get naan to the table but learned THEY MAKE IT FROM SCRATCH!! Once we discovered the delay we happily waited—and it was worth it!

Truly I could go on and on about how wonderful the meal was but putting the food aside for a moment you have to know that the best thing about the visit is that our waiter invited us to come back to taste their okra. MIND BLOWN! This was a genuine invitation; this gesture came from an authentic place of pride for the way Saffron prepares their okra dishes. Therefore, from the bottom of our hearts, we will take them up on that sincere offer. It’s a 25 mile drive from our home but with their amazing food plus attentive and friendly staff we will gladly make this one of our go to...