Ssaffron

This restaurant, which really is spelt this curious way, is on the 18th floor of the Shangri La hotel. There was open-air dining in addition to the indoor dining room, and there was an open kitchen. Given the kindly climate of Bangalore, open-air dining on the 18th floor is entirely practical even in January. There were heaters available at the tables if needed. Head chef Pankaj Kumar had been here for five years, was previously in Cologne and before that at Leela Delhi. The menu is mostly North Indian. There was a short wine list, but no vintages were shown.

Aloo nazakat was a set of six little nests of potato strips enclosing peas and cashews. It was a little bland but pleasant enough (12/20). Chicken tikka malai was easily the best dish of the meal, generous chunks of tender chicken that had absorbed their marinade well, served piping hot (14/20).

Mangalore Prawn curry with tamarind sauce was very oily, with a thin sauce. The small prawns were cooked well enough, but the sauce was disappointingly thin and one-dimensional (barely 11/20). Lahori kadhai murgh had pieces of chicken in a spicy sauce cooked in an iron wok. The chicken pieces could have been more tender, and the sauce was moderately spiced but one-dimensional in its spicing (12/20).

A chickpea dish (pinto chole), essentially a channa masala, was decent enough, the chickpeas reasonably tender (12/20). Pea pulao rice was fine, and the garlic naan was very good, supple and hot with a decent kick of garlic. Indeed, it might be argued that then naan was the best thing that appeared in the entire meal (easily 14/20).

Service was chaotic, and that is a polite description. One of our starter dishes arrived, but not the other. Instead, a little later, one of the main courses turned up, which we declined as we still had no sight of the other starter. Even the cutlery was confused; by the end of the starter course, I had an impressive four forks put in front of me but no knife. Eventually, the main dishes arrived pretty much together, but this was shambolic service. There were plenty of waiters, but getting their attention to order an extra drink was a project in itself; they were mostly chatting to each other or looking at their phones. I can’t recall such poor service in a smart restaurant for a long time. 

The bill was 15,127 rupees (£124), so £62 each with beer to drink. To be honest, it is hard to recommend this restaurant other than for the nice view over the city.