No, this is not one of those Hinduism-politics posts, Saffron happens to be the name of a Mughlai restaurant in Koramangala. Amazingly, there is next to no information available about it online. Thankfully it was located in an old haunt of ours – Jakkasandra (Koramangala 1st Block), so we found it rather easily, based on a landmark given in the TOI article, where we read about it. To get there, when coming from the MG Road direction, continue on Hosur Road after Forum and take the left towards St John’s hospital (that’s the only way you can go. heh). Continue on the road, cross the next junction (with the Intermediate Ring Road) and go towards the Outer Ring Road, until you reach the junction with the road coming from 1st Block (signal – you’ll see Pinjara restaurant on the left), keep going straight until the next junction (you’ll have an HDFC bank on the right and Nous Software on the left), take a left here, and you’ll find Saffron on your right. Parking should not be a major deal, especially if you have a two wheeler, there’s a nice security guy who will help you out.
Saffron is on the first floor, and on the landing is the first theme indicator – a Mughal turban. The interior is simple, but with comfortable seating. Though the restaurant was fairly well occupied, I don’t think you’d need reservations, since there are enough seating options available. We got ourselves a nice corner seat. The menu explains the origin of saffron, from Kashmir, and its name in different places – kasubha in Philippines, kong in Kashmir, kesar in North India, and how the name is derived from the arabic ‘Zafaran’, meaning yellow. Apparently, the restaurant’s name was chosen for the splendour it exuberates. Oh, okay, we’ll get to the food.
The menu starts with soup options – cream, clear in veg and chicken (Rs. 40-65). There are starters, both in veg – french fries and various versions of paneer tikkas (Rs. 30-95) and non veg – fish tikkas, kali mirch , amritsari (Rs. 130-140); chicken tikkas – tangri, seekh, reshmi, hariyali, malai, pudina, tawa, kalimirch (Rs.95- 240); mutton – bara, peshawari, malai chaap, boti kabab (Rs. 150-165). The main course has over twenty options in vegetarian – dal, rajma, paneer, mushroom, chana (Rs.70-100), a couple of options in fish (Rs.145), around a dozen options in chicken, including mughlai, handi, achari, some of which are available in three different quantity options – portion, half and full (Rs. 110-140 for portions, Rs.190-230 for half and Rs. 350 -385 for full), and about ten options in mutton – keema egg, brain dahi, kashmeri, qorma (Rs.120-135). To go along with that, you can either have rotis (about 20 options available) or biriyani. There are also raitas and salads. There is also the concept of ‘Shahenshah meals’, basically combo meals, with over a dozen different choices. There are a few basic veg options (Rs. 70-85), a couple of non veg roll options (Rs. 90-95), the larger veg options are priced at rs. 125-130 and the mughlai chicken and mutton are priced at Rs. 150 and 160 respectively. Interestingly, there are also quick snack options in the menu – sandwiches, cutlets, samosas, pakoras etc and a couple of pages devoted to Chinese options (soups, starters, main course with decent options in soups, startes and main course).
We started off with a Cream of Chicken soup. Though it wasn’t as thick as we expected it to be, it was tasty enough. We then had a starter – fish kalimirch, which was quite tasty, but at some points left us confused, on whether it was fish or mutton. Erm, yes, strange. By the time we thought of checking it up, the proof was safely lodged in our stomach. For the main course, we wanted the brain curry, that wasn’t available. We ordered a Mughlai chicken curry (half) and asked for a boti kabab to be brought as part of the main course. To go along with this, we ordered a butter kulcha and an afghani roti. The Mughlai chicken was good, though it was a brown gravy (we’d expected the creamy white). We ordered a keema kulcha also later. The boti kabab was quite good, inspite of the bones. Must say, that the presentation of the kababs was quite unique and good. The portions are decent sized, and enough to make you feel full, but not bloated.
There are about a dozen dessert options, mostly North Indian, but had custard and ice cream too. It had a couple of items which I havent seen earlier – gud roti and mal pura (malpua, i had thought). We asked for the latter, but it wasn’t available. So we settled for the regular gajar ka halwa, which was reasonably good.
All of the above lefts us lighter by just less than Rs. 750. Though the food was decent, the service could’ve been better. The food doesn’t take much time, but the post meal stuff – finger bowls, billing could’ve been much faster.
Saffron, #5, 1st Floor, 1st B Main, 1st Block, Jakkasandra extension, Koramangala. Ph: 41317579/41468178
Menu on Zomato