Saffron Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Tampa

Honesty, if there was an option to give it zero stars, I would do that. I love the food Saffron has to offer, but their service is a complete turn off. I've gone multiple times to dine-in and the customer service sucked.

Experience 1: speaking to the manager who was our server as well manager-how is everything? me-great, except that the kofta in the malai kofta seem very stale. manager-they can't be stale. at this point I think, are you really arguing with a customer? me-they're very hard and taste weird. manager-no no, we only made them 5 days ago.

FIVE days ago? maybe its because they are so old and frozen that they taste stale! and arguing with a customer? without even offering to bring out a new dish? that's just bad for business.

my other dine in experiences summed up were just long waiting times to get the food and also be seated, when I could clearly see only ONE other family dining in. I waited for an hour to be seated. Pathetic.

Experience #2:

this was one of my many times having take out after deciding I just really despise their customer service. I order my food and am told it will be ready in 45-50 minutes, I ordered at 5pm. I like being on time so I show up at 5:40pm, 5 minutes early. I let them know I am here for pick-up and they tell me it is almost ready. I wait 15 minutes and ask again (at this point it has been 5 minutes past the time they gave me). They tell me it is not ready yet, but will go ask. I wait another THIRTY minutes because the man doesn't actually go into the kitchen to ask unit then. I get an answer at 6:25 that it is almost done. I'm getting quite frustrated now that I've been waiting for a total of 45minutes at this place when there are about 7-8 people dining in total at the time and they clearly have over half their tables available. I let the manager know about my concern and frustration, I don't even get a discount! much less an apology!

By this time there is one small family left dining in and a couple walk in to be seated. While we are both waiting, they tell me about how last time they came into Saffron they were not seated for 2hours even though was only a family of 5 eating at the time. The worst part was that servers and the manager walked past them for at least 30 minutes (both last time and this time) before even acknowledging their existence.

All in all, I got my TAKEOUT food at 7:10, NINETY minutes after I arrived on-time to simply PICK-UP my food.

Experience #3:

I got takeout. Yes, again. I hoped they would improve their ways. I show up on-time once again. I get there, and the manager is confused because apparently I picked up my food. Then he tells me that he gave my order to someone else who's name started with the same letter as mine but sounded NOTHING like mine. I'll spare you my frustrations in this story; but in short, I waited an extra hour until I got my order made. After arguing with the manager, he gave back $2.50 on a SIXTY-FIVE dollar order. Any REPUTABLE restaurant would have gave at the LEAST 10% without my having to ask, much less argue.

Overall:

I'm sure these experiences sum up my experiences with Saffron. They are no where close to all the times that these considerations toward customers have been repeated, but I can only type so much on here. I love the food but the service is SO horrible, inconsiderate, and disrespectful that I no longer wish to...

Awesome experience! We visited many many restaurants before choosing Saffron to cater my sister-in-law's wedding. Sunita was very professional, and her food was by far the best. (We grew up in Houston so we know good Indian food.) When we went to the restaurant for a tasting, she made sure to give us her undivided attention and the food was fresh and yummy! Other restaurants made us wait and didn't make any effort to prepare a variety of dishes for us to taste...even though we set up a specific time (arranged days to weeks in advance) to do a tasting. Others told us we could order off the menu to taste their food...that's ridiculous b/c we want to try a variety and can't really do that if ordering off the menu. Are you expecting us to order 20 different things to do a tasting? Anyways, back to the food. Saffron's food was unique and we essentially used them for all our wedding events. Nimesh (Sunita's husband) delivered all the food on time and everything tasted fantastic. Our family and friends were soooooo impressed with the food and even joked about taking the food back with them. Everyone loved the food! We only had one minor miscommunication (it was nobody's fault really, we were wanting a corn chevvdo that was with fresh corn and she made a dry chevvdo...no big deal, esp since we had other items that were great!)...

Some of the items we had catered were: samosa chaat (reallllly good and refreshing, esp with the warm samosa and cool yogurt), tika rolls (very tasty sauce with paneer, bundled up in a yummy roll), PBM (paneer butter masala)--it was slap-your-momma good, palak paneer (not overly creamy and had a very nice fresh flavor), malai kofta (again not overly creamy and seasoned just right), pav bhaji (soooo good, maybe better than my mom's...but don't tell her!), Bombay style Indian sandwiches (one of the best Indian sandwiches I've ever had...wish I had one now lol), gulab jammun (perfectly done...rich but not too heavy and not too sweet).

We would use Saffron again in a heartbeat...my mouth is watering thinking about the food! I'm not sure what issues another reviewer had, I can only comment on our fantastic experience. The food is a little pricey (coming from our Houston experiences), but Sunita will work with your budget and the food is awesome...you get what you pay for! Just remember you have to be patient with them, as they run a full service restaurant and may not be able to get back to you immediately...we are all human...

Run! Don’t walk! Nimesh and Sunita Chheda make food glory, and you should partake of it! I don’t know many details about Indian food, except that I’ve eaten it in Atlanta, Brooksville, Port Richey, Palm Harbor, Mountain View, San Francisco, and Tampa near USF … and I’d rather eat at Saffron than anywhere else. Tucked behind a Shell station and next to the drive-through dry cleaning shop is our little slice of heaven, Saffron Indian Cuisine.

My wife seems to have developed a Pavlovian response – as soon as she walks in and smells Saffron’s cooking, her mouth starts to water. The atmosphere is bright and inviting and it is usually Nimesh Chheda who welcomes us – his wife, Sunita, is the chef who ought to have a shiny medal for the wonders of her food. She must love what she does, because it comes through in her cooking. The staff are polite and willing to explain and recommend dishes, and tell you how mild or spicy the base version of each dish is.

Familiar dishes such as aloo gobi, butter chicken and palak paneer are aromatic and savory – somehow they have more flavor than the same dishes elsewhere. Here are other foods and drink we have enjoyed: • Baingan bharta - rich and creamy eggplant with soft layers of flavor. • Chicken masala - earthy and satisfying. • Goan fish curry - succulent, its curry tasty and delicious. • Naan - warm and buttery and chewy, garlic adds a divine component, and peshwari naan, sweet and fruity. • Salty lassi - perfectly proportioned between sour and salty. • Samosas - light and crispy with toasty outsides and gentle, delicious spiced veggies inside. • The bhel makes me a glutton – I think I could eat a gallon of it – brand-spanking fresh veggies, puffed rice, and dry little sev noodles, pulled together with full-flavored spices that keep it bright. • Their tamarind chutney - tart, sweet and fruity, contrasting well with the richer dishes. • Vegetable xacuti - a smoky gravy with each vegetable popping out with its own flavor. All items on the menu can be ordered mild – which, while highly flavorful, is not spicy-hot - medium, or hot, and we overheard a guest ordering extra-hot.

It’s about an hour from our house. We use it as our treat when we have something to celebrate or want a special date night. Portions are big enough that I always have at least one, sometimes two, meals at home. We always anticipate going back for more … go in our place, and enjoy Saffron’s many,...