Saffron Grill — Restaurant in Seattle

Never have this restaurant cater your wedding day unless you want their staff to be 1.5 hours late and then not take any accountability for their tardiness.

Throughout the whole process with working with this restaurant was mildly frustrating, to the owner having us remind him when our scheduled meetings were to talk about the food to having to repeatedly ask them to put food labels out for guests, which they didnt even do. Makes me believe that they are incredibly unorganized and unprepared, which was definitely shown on the day of our wedding on August 29th. On August 22nd, saffron grill emailed me asking what time appetizers need to be out and what time they can arrive at the venue. This is the exact response I sent to them on August 23rd, 2025: "Hi there!

The invoice says you guys will arrive at 3pm, although we have venue access from 10am-10pm and you're free to come earlier than 3pm if needed. We were hoping to have appetizers out by 4:20pm. We're expecting our 4pm ceremony to take 15-20min, then have cocktail hour after that until 5:30pm. Then dinner service will begin between 5:45-6pm.

I hope this was helpful! If its possible, can your staff bring labels for the food? So people know what food is what.

Thank you, Anna " They responded to this email and said "Wonderful" on August 23rd. I also have an invoice from the company that explicitly states a 3pm arrival time at the venue. During the day of the wedding, my now husband had the photographer and venue coordinator running up to him a few minutes before our 4pm ceremony to tell him the caterers haven't shown up yet. Obviously this was completely unexpected as we need to have appetizers out by 4:20pm for guests and that was clearly laid out in my email. Cameras on the property show that they arrived at 4:15pm and they were banging and making a loud ruckus during the ceremony that the coordinator had them pause what they were doing until our vows were done being read. Appetizers weren't out until 5pm and we ended up having to skip our cake cutting, r ush the shoe game, and cut into the music portion of the night to make up for lost time due to the caterers not being on schedule. We reached out to the owner a few days after to let them know staff was not on property at the scheduled arrival time, food was late, and to just inform them on what happened during that day. His response to our email stated that they were told a 5pm arrival time, apps out at that time, and nothing was late. We sent a response that included the screenshots of the email response I quoted in this review and sent over the invoice that had the arrival time. There was no possible way for this amount of miscommunication to happen when we very clearly laid out the expectations for the day. After we sent evidence that contradicts his email, not once did he apologize or admit that his staff was not on site. He continued to fight us and insist they were there on time when cameras on the property and multiple witnesses say otherwise. The owners response to us after the evidence was shown was completely unprofessional and lacked accountability and a simple apology for their mistakes. I have spoken to friends and family about this issue and have shown them the email exchanges. They are completely bewildered by how this establishment treated us and are never coming back here to enjoy their food, us included. I regret ever deciding to choose them to cater our wedding and I will warn others about dealing with the incompetency of this restaurant. If the owner just took accountability for their mistakes and didnt constantly place blame elsewhere, I would not be writing this review. I give them 2 stars because the food is good but now its tainted with how disrespectful and unprofessional the management of this...

Sometimes you go to a place, and you regret why did you even come this place that is a kind of a horrible experience we had while we visited this place on December 30th, 2023. We were visiting Woodland Park Zoo for the wild lanterns, and we searched Indian restaurant nearby and Saffron grill was on the top of the list reviews are looking great. So, we decided to call in and book a table for 8 but only option was to book online, we decided just to walk-in.

Our nightmare started right from the parking lot. Parking lot was full as this restaurant and Hotel Nexus right behind it shares the parking lot. We waited for few minutes for the cars to leave even though the cars left the parking is too tight it's really inconvenient or near impossible to get out of the full-size SUV. So, we decided to park our cars in the adjacent shopping center lot and walk to this place. Restaurant was all packed, anyone can assume that is going to be good place to eat since so many people are coming in here for the dinner. We were told that there about 30 minutes wait and we waited for our turn at the entrance. The only good thing about this place is the ambience, nothing great though.

After about 25 minutes wait, we were told that they can provide two tables of four pax each, next to each other. Seating was really uncomfortable for a dining place it seems like in order to maximize the seating space they have compromised on the seating space. Luckily, we have 4 kids along with us which all seated on the inside towards the wall for an adult it will be difficult to move out of the inside seats.

Menu has very limited options of Indian food they also serve Mediterranean food (Some Combination). We ordered 4 appetizers, 2 paneer tikkas, one chicken tikka and fish tikka. We advised the food to medium spicy. I am not sure how the food was cooked it hardly tasted like an Indian food. I have never tasted a such a bland, tasteless and unflavored food anywhere in the world. Also, the portion size is really small. They have served 4 tiny sized chicken pieces in Chicken Tikka which I feel is broad day light loot for at appetizer worth $29.99. Once appetizers were served, we asked them how much time it will take for they told us kitchen is busy so it should take about 30-40 minutes to serve the food. So, we ordered the main course for our dinner. We were in middle of finishing our appetizers and within 15 minutes they started dumping main course on our table. Since we have not finished our appetizers there was hardly any place to put the main course on our tables. But somehow, they just dumped the food as if they just wanted us to finish the meal and leave this place.

The real nightmare started once we looked at our food. Butter chicken and Shahi Panner both have similar looking gravy. Color seems bit too odd. The food as completely tasteless, both the butter chicken and shahi panner tasted sweet. It was big embarrassment as a host for me since I was along with my brother-in-law who was visiting us for Surrey, BC.

Service was pathetic for most of the times. Being a hotelier myself in the past for more than 10 years where I have managed multiple restaurants and banquets under one roof, I can tell you that F & B staff is not trained at all. While refilling water waitress spilled the water into the rice. They were messy in clearing the tables. Overall, as a host it was big embarrassment and disappointment for me. This place is overly priced for the quality of food and service they provide, and they also charge 20% service charge on top of it.

I am not sure how other people are reviewing this but if you are looking for and good Indian food, this is surely not the place for it. If I can give 0 stars for the food, I would definitely...

ordered Rogan Josh with Paneer, Jalfrezi with vegetables, Garlic Naan, and a Royal Biryani with vegetables

the first thing I appreciated here was the customization

to start, the menu had many different curries - way more than what you would find at a typical indian restaurant there were 17 main indian curries, and that's not even counting the Tandoori or Vegetarian curries, or even the Mediterranean food

The part that was really nice, however, was the customization Each of these 17 curries could have 3 vegetarian options - Vegetables, Tofu, or Paneer, and also another 4-5 different meat options as well I've never really seen this at an Indian restaurant - usually the main 'base' of the curry is already given and you just have to pick the type of curry based on what's provided

Since our entire group was vegetarian, it was incredibly nice to have the option to pick any of these curries - so we weren't limited by a bunch of curries that already came with meat. In addition, different people in our group could add different 'bases' based on what they preferred - for example I asked for Paneer with my Rogan Josh, while others in my group asked for vegetables with their curry/biryani

As far as the food itself, I thought this was also fantastic

Starting with the Rogan Josh with Paneer, it's rare that the gravy is as flavorful as I saw here Normally, the Paneer will be the main focus of the curry - and here I found the paneer to be very good; it was firm and quite satisfying to bite into as it didn't get soggy from the curry like you might see in other places. It had a fullness to it However, I found the flavors of the remaining gravy to also be incredible. There was a rich, deepness to its flavor not found in other Indian restaurants where the gravy is more liquidy and just there to support the Paneer

When it came to the Jalfrezi, I really liked the vegetables in here. While I didn't find the gravy to be as flavorful as the Rogan Josh, the vegetables in this were cooked really well and satisfying to eat. I did prefer the Rogan Josh over this, though It's interesting that this and the other curry were both ordered at a 'Hot' spice level - but I found this to be spicier than the other one

The naan was also excellent. Several members of our group commented on how soft it was - and having my share of Indian restaurants where the naan is super hard - I found this softness to be excellent. This may have been the best texture of any naan I've had at a restaurant. The softness made it super easy to break apart and envelop the curry with

I also quite liked that the curries weren't overflowing with oil - there certainly was some - but it was a reasonable amount

The one downside is this place is somewhat expensive. For a curry + naan it'll end up being at least 30 dollars, and one serving of naan might not be enough. I've seen places which give you a lot more curry for a lower price, but I will say this definitely made up for it in quality

Also, I thought the naan could've had more garlic on it - it didn't quite really have much flavor

We also got a free gulab jamun (x4) at the end of our meal - which was surprising but excellent

Overall, from the many restaurants I've been to, I think this is the best Indian food in Seattle. Would highly...