Having heard good things about the lunch buffet at Saffron, I dragged Boyfriend out to Burnaby on a Monday afternoon to try it out.
It was relatively easy to find, located on Kingsway. Once you step into the restaurant you are surrounded by the wonderful aroma of Indian cooking.
There’s a bigger selection at this buffet than other restaurants (so I assume). They even have naan on their buffet menu. These are served fresh on your table, you don’t have to go get them from the buffet area. The naan was wonderful. Fluffy and crispy, and not charred and burned like other restaurants make them. This is refillable.
They have quite a selection of curries available: Curry Chicken, Butter Chicken, Chicken Korma, Mushrooms with Spinach, and probably 2 more that I don’t remember. Above are Butter Chicken (left) and Chicken Korma (right).
I really enjoyed the korma with naan, the butter chicken I didn’t like so much. It was too tomato-y and sour to the “usual” Butter Chicken I have. The Korma was creamy and had lots of big chunks of chicken in it. That goes for all the curries with meat in them.
There was also Vegetable Pakoras, Vegetable Samosas, Tandoori Chicken, Saffron Rice, Vegetable Biryani, and perhaps a few more other things. Above clockwise from top left is the Veg. Pakora, Mushrooms with Spinach, and Tandoori Chicken.
The Pakora was really good. It was very well spiced (maybe too well for some people). Mushrooms with Spinach was scrumptious with lots of spinach flavor (it’s all pureed spinach after all). Tandoori Chicken was juicy and flavorful, even the breast pieces.
There are also a variety of salads available, notibly (and weirdly) a Greek Salad. Also there were some chickpea salad and some hard-boiled eggs. The different spicy sauces and dessert were also placed at the salad bar.
Lastly there was dessert. Available were Gulab Jamun, which were the “cheese and dry milk balls deep friend and soaked in syrup”. I had this once before at another place and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it again at this restaurant. I just don’t like soggy donuts. However, the flavor was really good. I had a few more bites just for the after flavor that lingers on my tongue.
The two other desserts I really enjoyed were some Mango Yogurt with Fruits (?) thing (left), there was no name for it, and indian rice pudding Kheer (right). The Mango Yogurt didn’t really taste like mango but for some reason I still really liked it. It was creamy and yogurty.
My favorite though had to be the Kheer. It was also creamy, and spiced very well. I’ve always like rice pudding.
Boyfriend and I really enjoyed our lunch here. It only cost $11.95 per person, for a large variety of items to choose from, considering it usually costs around $11-13 for a curry dish without naan at most Indian restaurants.
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