Saffron Grill

For me this is the best indian food in SF. The place is tiny bini mini, even if I dont want my hidden gem get explored and packed with hungry patrons, I really want their business get expand, and increase income. They do to go’s, so maybe you should call them and get to go: D
Food: everything in the menu is absolutely delicious. My favorite one is coconut curry lamb. I cant describe its taste without drooling. All the other appetizer and entrees are tasty and portions r generous. If you get in, u should definitely try the garlic naan.
Service: they r the nicest people on earth. Attentive and professional.
5+ in everything!

The owner is really awesome. Love the service and overall vibe of the place. Will definitely come again for the VIP experience! Excellent across the board.

I had the paneer makhani here which was stellar, and I thought that their garlic naan was also pretty good. I would come back for that dish. Unfortunately, the fish curry we got was not as good. The fish used was salmon, which I think was the wrong type for this dish as it was too strong and ended up tasting off. I overlooked it though, since the paneer was really delicious. They also bring out one complimentary papadom after they take your order, which was nice (although the papadom was slightly soggy — I prefer the crispier one at Indian Oven).

I had food delivered from Saffron Grill twice. The food was great. The delivery does take close to an hour.

The flavors are too mild for me.

Hands down the best Indian food I’ve had. Korma and tikka are delicious and the staff is great as well. Would highly recommend go out of your way for this place

I ordered the chicken Tiki Masala, Chicken Tiki kabob,
Vegi Biryani, and Vegi Samosas. Service was ok, I ordered to go, the waitress seemed very pushy on items I wanted to order. While I was trying to make up my mind between two dishes she was trying to tell me to order a different item. I don’t like places that try to tell you what to eat. Other than that spices were delicious and the food was not heavy on grease.
Tiki Masala was very good. Chicken was tender and had authentic taste. Only disapointment was it just was not as spicy, I ordered medium spice.
Chicken Tiki kabob was very good and worth the price. Again chicken had great flavor and was juicy and tender.
Vegi Samosas were great as well crisp outside, but flavorful and soft potatoes on the inside. Worth buying.
Last, is Vegi Biryani, I was not impressed at all. I had better. This lacked flavor and the rice was a little undercooked. I think this is what made my meal 4 stars other than that I would have gave this place 5 stars for its flavor & presentation.
Fyi: this place is small; tight seeting, probably can only fit 12 people max. Also if you are ordering to go make sure to ask for the sauses that are supposed to come with your order. If I did not ask if my sauces were inside, I would not have the sauces for my samosas or the yogurt that came with my meal.

This place was sooooo amazing. Probably my favorite Indian food in the city but they changed the owners and now the food is really different and I hate to say it but not as good. Used to be a 5 star spot. Now it’s one to miss.

Did this place change ownership or something? They used to have really great indian food, but I just stopped in and took home the worst tikka masala I’ve ever encountered. Dry chicken, watery sauce (the sauce actually separated), not even remotely spicy and lacking flavor. Such a shame, I used to really like this place. :-(

This place was amazing and run by a wonderful family. It seems like they sold it or expanded and let someone buy in and run this place as the new staff is all asian and the flavor profiles are off for Indian food. I could always count on this place for giving me properly spicy food and not treating me like a white boy, but the new cooks seem to be using ginger as the primary source of heat. My stomach felt pretty bad afterward. Maybe the owners were on vacation, but based off the latest reviews and fact that nobody else was in the place I’m guessing not.
Really sad to see this place go south because it reminded me of the charm of this neighborhood in face of all the whitewashing yuppification going on.

This charming little restaurant is a wonderful refreshing delight in our little neighborhood.
If I were put to the task, I would leave the deathbed of my wife for a taste of the chicken tikka masala. The flavor is a fonder memory in my mind than any she afforded me in her time.

I’m leaving this 5 star review to offset all the doofies who left 1 star b/​c they couldn’t figure out rice is optionally ordered. Some funny reviews where it seems the lack of rice shattered their world! San Francisco first world problems! Learn how to order food, noobs.
The food is really good too!

This is not a very good restaurant. My wife and I were very excited to go here because we love Indian food and this restaurant is very close to our home. While the restaurant location is nice and convenient, that is about all it had going for it.
We ended up ordering a Pakora Appetizer along with Chicken Korma and Navratan Korma entrees. The Pakora ended up being very salty and overcooked. Both entrees were pretty bland and unappetizing. None of this food had the spicy kick or flavorful qualities of typical Indian food. It was very disappointing.
On top of all of this, I ordered a cup of chai to go along with my meal. It ended up coming out lukewarm. When I asked the waitress for a hot cop of chai, they simply microwaved it and handed it back tome. Chai is not very good microwaved.
Overall this restaurant was a huge disappointment and I don’t think we will be returning.

Ordered delivery — it said food would arrive in up to 75 minutes,
It’s now 100 minutes later and not only has nothing been delivered (the order was confirmed, I was charged!), but nobody picks up — I’ve called 4 times and it just rings. Scam. Will never order again.

I would give this place 4 stars for the flavor of the food. It’s a solid Indian food joint with very authentic food. However, the service was slow, it was a pretty small/​cramped restaurant, and the waitress struggled to answer our questions regarding the drink menu.
We got two chicken tikka masalas– one regular and one «medium hot» and a chicken masala. I got the medium hot tikka and it was plenty spicy for me and I can handle spice. My boyfriend on the other hand got the regular tikka and was dying of heat — to each their own :)
I took a bite of the chicken (no tikka) masala and it had great flavor too. Not as hot as the tikka.
I did get an awful stomach ache after this meal. I don’t blame the meal preparation, I believe it was a combo of overeating and spiciness. Regardless I think I’ll take a break from Indian food for a while.
All this plus 2 sides of rice, garlic naan for 3, and 3 beers it came out to $ 75 + tip.

I had the Chicken Tikka Masala (boneless chicken in a moderately spiced, garlic and tomato base sauce) and the Lamb Achar (pickled boneless lamb with hot and tangy sauce — in house specialty) and they were a good time. They look just like the pictures. The flavor and seasoning was great and I recommend them and would definitely order them again. The place is casual and there isn’t much eye candy in terms of interior design, so make sure you go with friends and/​or chatty people. The staff were attentive and friendly.
The only slight that occurred was I asked them to make my dishes super spicy and it didn’t happen. After the tikka masala came out and it wasn’t the spice level that I asked for, I really impressed upon and communicated to them that I want the lamb achar to be extra extra extra spicy. The waitress & waiter took my order and told the chef/​cook in the back about my request and… it’s not clear too me if the chef/​cook refused or they didn’t have the spices to make it spicy because there was some yelling in the back. It seems my request made someone mad… I’m really not sure. Anyhow, it wasn’t the spice level I wanted, but it’s fine. The above paragraph is my preference and shouldn’t be interpreted as a negative as everything else was lovely. I really liked the dishes the food was served in.

Def not greasy, but missing some of the thick, hearty, spicy, rich flavor you get at places like Pakwan. I wanted that, minus the grease factor. Denied. My arteries thanked me, but my taste buds protested.

I have no clue how this place got the rating it has. It may even qualify to serve the worst Indian food one can find in the entire Bay Area.
They have this one basic under-​cooked «Makhni» gravy that they use to make almost all dishes except lentils.
You can order Chicken Tikka Masala, or Paneer Makhni, or Malai Kofta or anything else with gravy — they ALL taste the same!
And this Makhni gravy is not cooked well at all — you can almost taste the raw tomatoes! All the above dishes have very different gravies if you understand Indian cuisine — it is downright criminal to use one standard gravy for them all ! Alright — maybe you want to save time — but at least make the standard gravy right !
This is far FAR away from good Indian food — please don’t eat here. Even the ambiance, just like that food, is bland. But if real Indian food is too spicy for you, you might find this place worth 4 stars because it has no spice at all.

Les pains sont excellents, les plats sont très épicés même lorsqu’on les demandent en version «soft». Attention donc de né pas y aller franco au moment de faire son choix — on est pas en France. Ici on relève les plats +++
Les portions mériteraient quand même d’être un peu plus généreuses.

I love how the restaurant fits into the vibe of the Hayes/​Haight culture. Very small restaurant seats probably around 20 – 25 people. This restaurant has one of the most flavorful indian food but it is not greasy at all. They do a really good job in making it health conscious and tasteful.
WATCH OUT the spicy level tend to be much higher than an average restaurant in SF. The medium level is quite spicy and will keep chugging few glasses of water.
Please get the garlic naan if you are there it is so good and blends well with the food. The chicken tikka masala was great and not creamy (perfect combination).
Enjoy great food and service!

My friend really liked this place so I had high hopes for Saffron Grill. I had more gripes than praise though so let’s begin with the praise:
PRAISE:
Their prices are very reasonable for Indian restaurants. The curries were around $ 9-​$ 11 which is not bad. I’ve definitely seen places charge like $ 15 for curries.
The mango lassi was a good flavor (although a bit warm).
The lady recognized regulars and was really friendly.
GRIPES:
Well this place is extremely tiny so I would recommend not bringing more than 4 guests total.
The navaratan korma didn’t have enough sauce. Also it was obvious that they used the frozen vegetable medley of green beans, corn, and carrots. Also the korma I like tends to be orange while this was a bright yellow. I think I wouldn’t have minded as much except there really wasn’t any sauce.
The lamb vindaloo was spicy to the point that my tongue was numb. Others at the table felt the same. I like spicy but then this was maybe a bit too much and caused the rest of my food to not taste like anything.
Also, they charge extra for rice. But who eats curry with nothing?!
We had three dishes that never made its way to the table: two naan and a drink, yet they still charged it to the final bill!