Balbir's Saffron Lounge

After a few weeks of quite a lot of hecticness Ann and I decided to have a night off and go out for dinner. We decided to try the Saffron Lounge which is part of the Balbir's chain of restaurants. I'd been before and had found the food delicious but I had noticed the other day that they are now offering home delivery and have a banquet dining offer to allow you to try lots of different dishes.

The Saffron Lounge is pretty huge inside but is divided up into lots of different areas and spaces which mean that despite its size it still feels quite personal. In a previous life the restaurant housed the Urban Grill and quite a lot of the decor has been retained which is good as its quite modern, clean and comfy.

We were given a little two seater booth near the front of the restaurant and the waitress brought over some drinks and the menus. We asked about the banquet and the waitress said she would get one of the head waiters to come over and discuss our tastes. We were a bit worried about that but we needn't have worried. The extremely friendly waiter was full of information and asked us all about what kinda of food we liked and what had we tried before. When he heard that Ann was a vegetarian he listed off a load of different options he could make and then suggested would she like to try a little fish which is something she has been trying small amounts of since our trip to Japan. In the end we agreed to go for Bhel Poori, Bhatura Chana and Salmon Tandooi for starters with Mixed veg pakora, Chicken Tikka Chasni, Veg Tava, Palak Paneer, Peshwari nan and rice for the main course. (Not bad for £14.50 each)

Just before leaving the waiter asked, "Is there anything you really like or dislike Sir?" and I replied that I really wasn't a fan of fresh coriander. Doh I should have kept quiet.

I think the waiter must have missed heard me - because every single dish came garnished with huge amounts of coriander. I kept laughing every time a new dish came out, as the levels of coriander kept growing. I'm not sure why I don't like fresh coriander - but for some reason it tastes like soap to me. Thankfully it was just a garnish and I was able to move it to the side and it didn't effect the delicious food. I've never had fish in an Indian before but the Salmon Tandoori which is one of the speciality dishes at Balbirs is very tasty and a perfect light starter before getting tucked into some of the heavier main course dishes.

We opted to mainly have veggie dishes so that we could both share but I did get one meat dish all to my self and I was very glad too. The Chicken Chasni sauce was amazing and to be honest I'd quite happily just eat a massive bowl of that with a large sweet peshwari nan.

Despite the fact we were both pretty stuffed from just the starters we forced ourselves on. I almost did my self an injury, I was so determined to make my way through the whole bowl of chicken. It was just too tasty - not too would have been an insult.

It would have been nice to get a try of some of the deserts but sadly that was a bridge too far.

They do a pre-theatre menu for £9.95 but the banquet deal is brills and is £14.50 during the week and £17.50 at the weekends. We suggest getting along and having a good chat with the waiters and allow them to draw up a tasty sounding meal based on your own tastes.

All in all an excellent meal in a very relaxing and spacious restaurant and highly recommended.

(PS - anyone notice that nearly all our food reviews are for Indian food? Where else is good we should try.)