Saffron Indian Bistro

A Bistro is defined as a simple restaurant and it is as advertised. Saffron has all of your Indian food hits with some unique specialties. Staff is friendly and fast with service. Ordering took time because they were out of all Indian beers and the wine I finally settled on was skunked which will be a loss of a star for them. It usually happens when bistro's don't seek much wine and they record a bottle without a special preservation stopper. Here's my three things:1) Saffron has plenty of seating for large groups, and kitchen works fast so probably no problem serving a group. Great location helps with downtown lunch traffic too. 2) Prices are in line with all Indian Restaurants I have eaten at lately but an appetizer, main and glass of wine will put you around $45. 3) I had the veg samosa with a cilantro sauce that was fantastic 5/5. Main was my favorite Rogan Josh with lamb 4/5 (dry lamb and rice had toasted cumin but it didn't come through probably sat for a while). Good food!

Ordered DoorDash lunch today (Saturday). I'm a huge fan of Indian food and often cook it at home. I ordered chana masala, paneer korma, and garlic naan. It was all pretty good, but not the best I've ever had. Almost lacking in key flavors that I would expect in those dishes. It would have been nice if there was some fresh cilantro included as well. The prices are a too high for non-meat dishes, but I'm not sure if that's because of the restaurant location. I would order from them again and try something else, but I'd definitely be including some special requests.

Went here on a Sunday during the downtown Norfolk restaurant week. The inside of the restaurant was nice and calm. It was pretty empty inside, just a couple other people were there that day so the atmosphere was quiet and enjoyable. The $35 dinner menu came with a choice of drink, appetizer, main course, and dessert. I selected a mango lassi, vegetable samosas, butter chicken with mild heat, basmati rice, and kheer dessert. My friend ordered a mango lassi, chicken pakora, butter chicken with medium heat, basmati rice, and kheer dessert. The food was absolutely delicious and filling. After we had our mango lassi drinks and appetizers, we could only eat about 3 bites each of our butter chicken and had to ask for to go boxes because we were already so full. The food was very filling. Everything was hot and tasted made to order. The staff were all friendly and nice as well. Definitely happy this spot was featured for downtown Norfolk restaurant week. Will be going back again! My overall rate of experience: 9.5/10

Amother great experience at Saffron Norfolk. We had 25 people there for my twin daughters surprise 23rd birthday. Our service was outstanding, the food, as always was excellent! The staff was so accomidating to what we wanted to do, it made the evening even better. Sometimes when you have large groups, especially this rowdy bunch, there are mistakes, delays, you almost expect them. None of that took place. Could not have been happier! Thank you so much to our server and all of the great people at Saffron, I cannot recommend enough!

I was staying at The Main and was craving some Indian food. My husband were having a date night and we saw that Saffron was participating in Restaurant Week.The place was clean when we walked in. Nice and Neat. The host sat us down, and handed us our menus...their customer service could be better. The waiter literally asked us what to order after sitting down. We hadn't even picked up the menu. We asked if could get a minute....yea...about thirty seconds later he was back asking what was our order. So we rushed and ordered. My husband ordered the tandoori wings. They were so bland. It was terrible. Literally no flavor. I ordered the mango lassi beverage. It was delicious! I loved it.I ordered the butter chicken and my husband ordered the mixed tandoori for our meals with the garlic naan and the cool cucumber raita...after tasting the tandoori wings...we were very worried the main tandoori dish would taste terrible...but it was actually pretty tasty. I was happy with my butter chicken. You cant go wrong with garlic naan, but the raita was terrible. We got the dessert platter and all of it was delicious. The food was good but not off the charts and the waiter could have been much nicer. He was very pushy and seemed very grumpy.I didn't hate but I didn't like it enough to come back.

Really, really good tikka masala served at the perfect temperature with the right balance of sweet, savory, and spicy. And the garlic naan was some of the better naan I've had.The lamb biryani was also ordered mild but had much more spice added and I couldn't eat it. It was also pretty wet; the lamb was stewed and added to the rice before serving. I wouldn't order the biryani again.The booth tables were very cramped and uncomfortable. My feet kept getting stuck on the table legs when I tried to get out and I only had a couple inches between me and the table's edge.But the service would relatively quick, and given how good the tikka masala was, I would definitely order takeout from Saffron the next time I'm in town.

The food here is amazing. Restaurant is very charming and the service was excellent. This is our favorite Indian restaurant.

We walked in and was asked if we have dinner reservation, but they were able to accommodate. There's only one server working that night, not sure of the reason, and he was quite busy taking orders and seating people. The ambiance was great and cozy. We sat there for a good 15 minutes before asked to take our order. We had the lamb tikka masala, meat samosa, mix grilled platter, and mango lassi. The tikka masala was packed with flavors and the spiciness was bearably good. The mixed grill was a bit dry but packed with spices. The food was great but the lack of service was disappointing hence 3 stars for the food and zero for the service.

If I had to pick a last meal, Saffron might just be it!I love a great Indian restaurant, if you're vegetarian you'll always have great options. Vegans, be on the lookout, because many dishes are served with cream, butter and other animal products even in dishes with no animal protein. Most days I eat vegan, but I have my days where I have dairy, so I'm flexible on that front and have no qualms with vegetarian meals. With that said, they do have some vegan options, just check the menu and ask your friendly server. My sister and I had a Thursday night out and started here. We started with Gobi Manchurian, which is their cauliflower - this dish was so amazing, it's worth the flight into town just by itself. I've had many versions and forms of cauliflower wings, cauli bites, crispy cauliflouretts, you name the version and I've had it from somewhere. Don't let the menu description fool you, I assumed we were getting a roasted or baked cauliflower dish because the description doesn't describe how they're cooked, but these came out crispy and delicious AF. I keep saying this with every new experience, but these cauliflower were the best dang version of a crispy cauliflower that I've had in my life. If you're my friend and want to give me a gift that I will cherish, these cauliflower are what I want for my birthday, my Thanksgiving, my child's kindergarten graduation, my "hey it's Tuesday and I was thinking about you", my last meal on earth - no matter the occasion, just give me all of these cauliflower! Just the right amount of spice, I'd say these are a level 1 out of 5 on the spicy spectrum and soo tasty!Veg Samosa Chaat was next on the list, a little sweet, a little minty, a little bite from the onion and spices, earthy and hearty potato and peas. This dish was well rounded and super delicious! Chana Masala as a main dish was so good, I do love a good garbanzo bean dish. The garlic naan, it's your standard garlic naan, but damn it was good paired up with all this amazing food. Eat the naan by itself, dip it in your masala, put some cauliflower on it and eat it like a taco, I'm drooling just thinking about this place and it's been a couple weeks since I dined there!Saffron, you will live in my dreams until the next visit; which hopefully, will be very soon.

I had dinner last night.The food was a absolutely Delicious. Service was great!The ambiance was great epic. Janice Thrasher