Ssaffron – Shangri-La is one of the award winning North Indian restaurants in town.  It has received the coveted award for the Best North Indian Restaurant in Fine Dining category in Time Food Awards (TFA) for 2017.  I have wanted to taste the food at this place since a long time, but the opportune moment did not come.  My birthday (24-May) was almost round the corner, then I thought that this is the perfect time to treat my family and relatives to a fine dine experience at Saffron.  I visited the restaurant for dinner on my birthday.  Let me share my experience.

Ambiance

Shangrila is one of the latest and the best 5 star properties in the city.  Every restaurant inside – Shang-Palace, B-Café, Caprese, Ssaffron have wonderful interiors.  Especially, the lighting arrangement is quite eye-catchy.

Ssaffron is location on the 18^th floor is quite special in itself as we can great view of the city.  We can see the greenery as well as traffic ridden streets.

Seating arrangements are quite comfortable.  The tables and seats are spaced out quite well.  The shades used in cushion is quite soothing, tables are setup with good selection of cutleries and tables are quite large.

A special note on the roofing inside the restaurant, which is quite unique as it has got special dome effects and beautiful chandeliers.  At the ground level, I must mention that the carpets also quite exquisite.

I personally feel that the interiors in this restaurant is one of the best in town.  It’s a wonderful experience being inside the restaurant.

Food

The Executive Chef of this restaurant at Shangrila is Chef Lakhbir Singh Chahal who is very skilled and talented.  He has experience working in multiple hotel and his last stint was with Hyatt @ Hyderabad.  All the accolades the restaurant has got, must go to him.

It was a special day I was celebrating the restaurant so I did not want to burden selecting dishes.  But I wanted to have a 6-course Vegetarian with variety of dishes in each course.  Chef was glad on hearing the same and told me to sit & relax while the food is served.  Let me share my experience.

Chats – This is the best appetizer before the heavy meal.  We were served individual portions of Dahi chaat, Paapdi chat and Masala Puri.  Every dish part of the chaat platter was very tasty.

Soup – We were served the Zafrani Bhunne bhutte aur lehsun ka shorba.  The taste of the soup was quite good and left a lasting taste on tongue.

Starters – A selection of Paneer Tikka, Cheese/Malai Brocolli, Beetroot kebab and Hara bhara kebab were served.  My favourite among these was the beetroot which is similar to hara bhara kebab but had the unique taste due to presence of beetroot & ground-nuts.  The Paneer starter was tasty as the Paneer was quite soft, it has cheese on top & stuffing inside.

Main Course – This surely is the most important part of the meal.  The items we had were Paneer Kurchan, Subz sunehri handi and Daal Makhani.  Paneer subzi was quite amazing as the the tomato based gravy was tasty.  A special mention of the Daal Makhani which I think is the best we can get in town.

Selection of breads served included – Chilli Flaked Laccha Paratha, Butter Kulcha and Tandoori Roti.  Chilli flaked paratha was quite awesome as the flakes were adding extra spice & it went along with the less spicier gravy subzi. I could not resist myself and ended up taking 2 pieces of it. 

Dum Tarkari Biryani was another item in the main course which had the right amount of spices/masala and basmati rice was perfectly cooked.  There was plenty of masala which gave all the flavours to the biryani and also the aroma was superb.  Biryani also tasted good with the thick raita that was given.  The portion size of the biryani was sufficient 3 people to share.

Deserts – This is one of the sections of the meal for which I would either reserve or create space when needed in my tummy.  The desert was served in a beautiful wooden plate and multiple items were served– Jamoon, Kulfi with noodles, Gulkand, Double-ka-meetha and Jaggery based kheer.  Jamoon had khava/thick-milk-skim inside which was one of the my favourite.  The other deserts were also yummy and I cleaned up the entire plate.

Drinks – We wanted something refreshing and the bartender made us a ‘refreshing mocktail that had lemon grass and basil leaves along with sugar’.  It was very refreshing drink that all of us enjoyed.  We also took a portion of Chocolate Milkshake for my son, which he enjoyed.

Chocolate Mousse Cake – This was a pleasant surprise by the hotel staff for my birthday.  The mousse cake was quite yummy with the chocolate sauce & whipped cream.  Icing was so tasty that it was hard to stop myself after taking a bite.

Overall Experience

This was one of the Best Fine Dining experience of eating North Indian food.  Every dish was well made and tasted very good.  The presentation of the dishes on the plate was also quite exquisite.  Full marks go to Chef Lakhbir and his team for putting this all together to giving a wonderful experience on one of my most memorable days.  The staff were always quite courteous and ready to help whenever needed.  Everyone in my family as well loved the food and service.

I rate my current experience at 4.5/5.  Rating in other departments.

Food – 4.5/5

Service – 4.5/5

Ambiance – 4.5/5

Drinks – 4.5/5

I recommend this restaurant to anyone and everyone in this city.  It’s the best place for travellers to try out the best North Indian food with great ambiance @Ssaffron.

Picture with my family at the restaurant.