Come taste a delightful dish at Saffron Restaurant. Come enjoy their casual atmosphere. They are open after-hours all week. Payments by American Express, Interac, MasterCard and Visa are recognized.
I've been to this restaurant many times. The food is great..! I'm persian, so I know if it's good or not. The service is slow because they cook everything on the spot. It's not pre-cooked like other places. Definitely the atmosphere to relax and have a lovely evening. Little music in the background. Strongly recommend for any occasion..!
Words can't describe how good it was. Seriously! You HAVE TO try it out for yourself. Everything was truly amazing. Food quality was top notch. If you go then DO NOT FORGET to order the KASHK E BADEMJAN! Enough said. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Can you please open a location in toronto? Pretty please???
im from montreal and im in ottawa for school i live by this resturant and im there almost everyday one of my favourite persian restaurant in Canada woow amazing food amazing hospitality i fell like im back home when im there i suggest people that haven"t ate persian food to go and try it u will know what i mean beautiful restaurant with huge party room i actually had my birthday there over 80 people and we were all satisfy
ok, so I read the reviews - mixed, so thought we'd give it a try anyways. Yikes! not too many improvements have been made - maybe they don't care about their reviews?? or customer satisfaction?? Better to go to the other place downtown - we think they have a better quality and taste for this Cuisine!
glad that we didn't bring our friends here!
I have walked past this restaurant many times and have always been intrigued by it. After having visited a few good Persian restaurants in Texas last week, I decided I needed to give this restaurant a try even though I was put off by some of the reviews I had read here. I ordered the chicken leg kabob and was warned that it would take about 20 minutes, I didn't mind since I had come there to get away from home and I quite enjoyed the ambiance. The chicken was delicious! The best I have had at a Persian restaurant. The first waitress I had was ok, I had nothing to complain about, but the second one was fantastic. She was so sweet and friendly. I really wanted to try the baghlava but I was way too full, so I will have to go back just for desert one day!
The first thing that hit me when I entered the restaurant was the stink of the carpet.
When the 'fresh' vegetables arrived the radishes where so old that they had brownish edges and were bitter. The onion looked like it was cut hours ago. On the other hand the bread was warm and the parsley seemed fresh.
Then came the Ash Resheteh. It should have stayed in the kitchen. It was obviously microwaved. The resheteh (noodle), lentils and the peas were so mushy they had almost disintegrated.
Then came the mains. I had the koobideh. Both the kabob and the rice were at best lukewarm. I could not get the butter to melt on the rice! Besides being cold, the koobideh was dry. It did not glisten at all. My sister had the barg, it didn't taste too bad but again it was lukewarm. My brother had the chicken and he liked it.
As for the service, first of all there is no tea refill -- an Iranian restaurant where they not only charge for the tea but also don't give any refills. Unbelievable!
Secondly the bathroom is dirty.
And finally the low point: Because we were 9 (six adults, three children), they charged us 15% for service, although there was no mention of this on the menu. When we asked what the 15% is for, the waitress (or whoever she was) proceeded to completely flip out and stared to lecture us about tipping etiquette, and how some people leave 30$ tips on a 90$ bill, how restaurants work in Canada and how instead of supporting Iranians businesses us Iranians.... I told her that since the menu did not mention anything about a 15% extra charge then the amount of tip is left to my discretion. To which she replied: 'this is the best Iranian restaurant in Ottawa' and that you can't possibly have any complaints about the meal. This prompted me to tell her about my old vegetables and cold rice and kabob. This put her over the edge. She actually went to the only table with customers in the restaurant and complained to them!
All in all a very horrible experience. Avoid this place at all costs.
Come here for the food, not the decor or the service.
It's not a restaurant to impress your picky date with, but the food is consistently good and always hits the spot. I've been to this restaurant well over 25 times with friends and family over the past number of years. We don't go for the ambience, and we don't go for the servers, a couple of whom, admittedly, are often cranky. We go for the food, which is always a good bang for our buck.
Was told by a Persian friend that this was a good restaurant. Walked it to see an... unappetizing decor. We didn't get welcomed, so we took a seat. We then waited for 20 minutes for a drink order, which worked to our benefit because we were waiting on a friend. Drinks were decent, a little bigger than the usual, can't complain there. Then the long wait for service. Finally got our kababs, mine was almost luke warm, the others seemed okay though. Service really took a nosedive when a group who looked like they knew the waitress walked in. Guess I should start to rub shoulders with the waitress too. Maybe then we'll get the service that the other group got. I don't recommend for large groups, they can barely handle a group of 5 ordering. Good for gettng a drink though. Wait until you get home to use the facility though. I'll take my kabab with a side order of health inspection please. Overall completely unimpressed, spend half the money and get twice the meal in your backyard on the bbq..
Read online that service was poor and our experience can only echo and affirm this. The one woman is working the entire restaurant, including bar and handling money. Don't see her ever washing her hands thru this. We sat and waited about 10 minutes before drink order was taken, 20 mins for appetizers, 5 mins later for main dishes and then 15 minutes after being done before she returned apologetically. We were two in an area with two larger groups but that shouldn't matter. The food was average, nothing spectacular and the flavouring on the cucumber/mint/yogurt thingie was moderate (have had better from President's Choice). The kicker was our drink - served in a slightly larger than regular shot glass (cost $4.50) the coke was flat and less than half the glass size. We asked about this at the end of our meal (she hadn't returned before then), she raced off to the bar to produce the can of coke as evidence that it was a new can, not flat. Therefore, she thinks we're making it up? We weren't finished with paying our bill and she scooped up the tray with enough cash for the tab but no tip, so we figured she didn't care for a tip, so we left none. The restaurant ambiance is 'fair', but honestly, they need to hire people with better customer service skills and at SOME experience as a server! Won't go back, won't recommend to others...
Food is Ok but its not as good as Boof. Decoration sucks. Definitely its not a place to date someone, I wouldnt recommand it to anyone. I had 3 bad experiences there. Its not the greatest.
First experience was when my non Persian girl friend went to pick up 2 kabob orders. She got the stare down by the lady behind the counter. When she received the food, the lady just put the food on the counter and left. Very arrogant and unprofessional.
My next experience with saffron was on 09/28/07. I picked up 2 orders of kabob with doogh. When I got home I went to open the doogh and noticed that the cap had previously been opened. I didn’t think of it too much until I took my first and last sip of the drink. The doogh was extremely sour. I was extremely upset and not I'm seriously contemplating of ever going back to that restaurant. I would choose boof for my next kabob visit.
Definitely one of the best deals in the city. Great prices, big portions, delicious food and friendly sevice. Definitely recommend it, if you are not a vegetarian, and you want to try something new.
The comment by DcLee, does not seem to be about this restaurant, Saffron!! It is not a Thai restaurant!!!
Little Thai take out or sit down place. Lunch special consists of two choices from about 6 items - pad thai, general taos chicken, veg delight, curry chicken - rice and a veg spring roll for about 7.50 with taxes. The food is not going to win awards, but for lunch it is better than most. Fast and effecient.
