Saffron Quarter

Visited Saffron Quarter on Saturday 14^th May 2011. There were 8 of us and we had booked earlier on n the week through their website. On arrival around 7.30pm, the place was absolutely buzzing. We waited for a couple of minutes at the bar and then were taken to our table.
The staff were very friendly and offered us a tour around the different food offerings as we were first timers. There is a salad section, starters, Continental, Indian, Oriental and a couple of Mexican. There is also a section where the chef cooks a stir fry whie you wait. This was my favourite bit as the noodles were fantastic!
Overall, the food was way above par of other buffet restaurants, not as good as some fine dining restuarants but that was not the expectation. For the value, variety, taste, décor and service, I’d give thsi full marks. Definitely worth visiting I’d say!

Ewww, on first visit, I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant. To be fair we arrived early on a Sunday night — about 5.45pm. I think what we saw was left over from lunch and there were baked hard foods under heat lamps and the heated containers had dried out most of the foods.
The concept is really good though with a variety of cuisines a la ‘Jimmy Spices’. That said, Jimmy Spices it was not.
There is an open area where the chef will make you something original but having witnessed the dried baked offerings, I wasnt happy to trust that the prawns and the beef strips (which were on ice) hadn’t been there since goodness knows when.
All of the sauces, mint raita salad cream hoi sin all had a ‘skin’ on them and even the most hungry of my tribe were not tempted by the offerings on display.
It was relatively quiet, which is not a good time to go to a buffet as so many dishes have to be kept topped up and if no one is eating it, then they are not going to be in fresh cooked condition.
I did complain to one of the waiters who called a supervisor. He was wonderful and apologised profusely before signalling to one of the chefs to make me an indian dish from deep down south. The staff were all lovely and couldn’t do enough to help.
Maybe its a sad reflection of the economic downturn that not enough throughput in the restaurant meant sub-​standard food. Quite possibly at busy times it could be a cracking little place serving great dishes.
Since my visit, I have heard one raving review and two reviews sadly very similar to my own.
It’s not a place that I would return to in a hurry, unless I could see that it was bustling with people meaning that there would be more chance of freshly cooked foods on offer.