Saffron Thai — Restaurant in San Diego

I wish that I still loved this place. Since Sui Mei sold it, the quality of the food has gone down hill substantially. For the life of them, they CANNOT COOK CHICKEN. The chicken in every single dish I have had has been both tough AND flavorless. Even the dipping sauces have lost flavor. The Sweet Pepper sauce is now a lightly flavored sweet-tart, that makes Panda Express seem Michelin-star-worthy. They killed the Southern Thai curry which was a revelation of flavors not often seen together. Even the salad rolls are now flavor-light and reminiscent of a bad airplane salad. The Brain Food was one of my favorites - it had light and subtle flavor that pleasantly seasoned the kale, which can overwhelm a dish, while enhancing the sweet potato notes with spices and a little heat. Now it is pretty much a bland sweet potato-kale casserole with all the flavor of a Sprouts freezer TV dinner. I wish they had someone in their kitchen who knew what the food was supposed to taste like. Unfortunately that's not what's happened. While the former owner was a most unpleasant woman - I personally saw her scream and throw food at her staff, dress them down and humiliate them (on more than one occasion) and holler at customers who displeased her - she developed many incredibly delicious recipes. I only wish the new and very nice owners could have preserved her recipes and flavors better than they have. I used to go there despite the owner and now I only go when I forget how disappointing the food...

I discovered Saffron in my early years of arriving in San Diego, back when next to the restaurant they had the free standing rotisserie spot.

I have had a variety of their dishes over the years and they have never dissapointed. One of my favorites is and always has been their salad rolls with peanut sauce. Soooo good.

Tonight i was craving their roasted chicken and a salad roll. Their combination plates for the chicken come with a very generous portion of jasmine rice and a thai coleslaw that is refreshing and light. It is a great value for the amount of food you receive.

I'm giving it four stars versus five only because the chicken was a bit dry, granted it was breast. Just a tad bit more of moisture would have been great. The peanut sauce, still delectable, but thicker than i recall.

They have modernized the place in terms of paint, art, and decorations. It has a clean modern feel and the rotisserie spot is no longer, it was murged into the kitchen of the main restaurant. Where the rotisserie spot was is now a ceviche and taco restaurant. The menu looked great.

Parking can be a bear as there is minimal street parking for the numerous restaurants along that street

I've eaten at Saffron Thai 3x now and the food started bad, and has become progressively more and more disappointing. I don't think I can recall going to a Thai place, being asked how spicy I want something, and having the "spice" level be measured by dried, crushed red pepper flakes. Saffron Thai feels like a bunch of non-Thai people got together and made "Thai wannabe", but not very well. Nothing tastes anything like it should. I can tell you, for sure, that they get their money's worth from Costco by dumping in literal mounds of crushed red pepper. The exact same crushed red pepper that everyone uses on pizza. It's so upsetting! I'm Vietnamese, I like spicy, but I do not want to eat HANDFULS of red pepper flakes while trying to eat my Pad Thai. I should not be CRUNCHING on red pepper flakes. Use, I don't know...maybe Thai chilies???? Like a legitimate Thai restaurant? Summary: DISGUSTING food that I ended up throwing away after a few bites. I’m Asian…this was so far from Asian food I can’t believe I paid any money for it. Not only is the food awful, this place is EXPENSIVE. It might be worth it if it were panda express priced to begin with...with a 50% off coupon. Maybe. In a pinch....