Saffron Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Mauldin

Absolutely delicious, authentic Indian cuisine. Highly recommended.

We've lived in the Greenville area for a few years, and I've been mostly disappointed with the food in the restaurants around town. We're from a Florida city that has some truly spectacular local restaurants, and we found most places in Greenville to be overrated. But Saffron is a GEM. The staff is excellent and very team oriented; if any server passes by your table and notices that your glass is getting low (due to your delicious spicy meal), you'll immediately get a refill without asking or offer to bring you more rice. Food is prepared when you order but is delivered very quickly. They have a large, authentic menu with lots of vegetarian and meat-based options. Their 'hot' dishes are perfectly spiced with heat that will make you sweat, and yet their 'mild' is mild enough for children or first-time Indian food eaters. Their garlic nan is excellent. I highly recommend the Vegetable Korma in medium or hot-- it's a delicious blend of sweetness and red hot spice. Their eggplant bharta is also excellent, with translucent onions and perfect eggplant. We've never tried anything that wasn't delicious there. Their sauces are the perfect consistency and yet they don't seem to use any trickery or thickening agents (some Indian places seem to use thickeners that make the food taste cloying; that never happens here). Warning-- it's addictive. You'll want to come back.

The restaurant is quiet and designed to handle lots of different kinds of patrons. We been there for quiet date nights, and we've also visited with our 2 children (both under 3 years old) multiple times. They're good/quiet kids, but most restaurants would balk if they saw us walk in the door. Each time, the staff from Saffron has been incredibly welcoming and greeted us like we were special guests, and they actually seemed HAPPY that we brought children. Though it's a quiet place, the music is the perfect background noise and allows you to feel like you're having a private conversation at your table.

They are truly good people and delicious cooks.

By far, it's consistently the best dinners we've had in Greenville. I...

I have visited this restaurant multiple times. This restaurant is simply suitable for Non-Indian customers, definitely not for a food loving Indian looking for traditional, original Indian style cooked and flavored meal. Overall this is a very mediocre place. What compels me to write this review is the "STALE" food served in the lunch buffet on 11/24/2017. I immediately recognized the bad odor coming from the buffet counter itself. I informed the lady serving us water. She went away saying she would check with the chef but never came back with an answer! I again walked up to the main lady at the billing counter to tell her that the food had gone "STALE". She calmly, smilingly confirmed it and that she had changed the food. Not one bit Apologetic! NOT a single offer to discount our Buffet price! I walked into the lunch buffet at around 1.40pm on 11/24. For a food to go STALE, it must have been cooked approximately 8-12 hours before, which means it was definitely not cooked the same day! It also means, neither the chef, nor the manager, nobody tastes/checks the food before putting it on the counter. This one long review written here is definitely not going to make a difference in their business, but I am feeling terribly pathetic for the 5-6 families who were sitting down with that STALE food on their plates when I walked in at 1.40pm and many more who could have possibly eaten it before that. A shout to Non-Indians - if you can understand between good and bad food,...

Excellent food the first time, but second time slightly disappointed! Indian food is my favorite cuisine, and I have been to many Indian restaurants. Saffron is excellent! The sauce was authentic and delicious! Everything was wonderful! The staff were friendly and provided great service. (Just visited again at the beginning of April and did not have as good an experience as the first time. The korma sauce is good. The tikka Masala lacked flavor and was mostly tomato paste. The chicken was flavorless and not marinated to give flavor before adding sauce. I have lived in the UK and have many Indian friends. I know good Indian food. I went for lunch and wonder if the lunch has short cuts like precooked steamed chicken added to the sauce for serving. Maybe the dinner menu is different, but I prefer the chicken to have flavor and be premarinated as I have experienced in the UK and when eating with my Indian friends. There was a lack of the different flavors I am used to for these sauces. But the service is good and I hope Saffron will take on board my suggestion to properly marinate the chicken before cooking and creating the different sauced dishes. Also work on getting the spice tto tomato paste ratio correct for the Tikka Masala. I am not talking about heat but about the other spices. I did not get the layers of flavor that I am used to when eating the korma or the Tikka Masala. I do like Saffrons and will eat there again. I hope to get a great...