Saffron Restaurant

[saffronnj]

Hi Everyone,

I am the website designer for an Indian restaurant (Saffron Indian Cuisine) that openned recently on Rt. 10 East in East Hanover (Morris County). I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to tell you about the restaurant's new website.

The restaurant's website offers Online Takeout Orders and Online Reservations. You can just visit the website (http://www.saffronnj.com or http://www.saffronnj.com/takeoutMenu.php to go directly to the order page) and place your order from there. It makes ordering takeout super easy, especially from work.

It's especially helpful if you have difficulty pronouncing the names of the dishes, or you're concerned about the restaurant getting all the details of your order right. You don't have to worry about reading an order over the phone. Just click off the things you want, fill in any special requests (spiciness, etc), confirm your order, and submit. Off it goes.

Give it a try. I'm curious to hear thoughts on online takeout ordering in general. Especially for the local restaurant market. Let me know what you think.

Thank you for your time everyone.

P.S. Saffron's food is really really good. I know I have some affiliation with the restaurant, being that I am the website designer, but I'm being completely honest here. The food is great. If you love Indian food, give this place a try. If you've never had Indian food before, they have a lunch buffet, which is a great way to get familiar with the dishes.

Thanks again.

[Rachel Perlow]

Sounds good. And thanks for being crystal clear about your affiliation with the restaurant. We may check it out next time we're down that way.

[Rosie]

The review in the Star Ledger 4/4 said "Saffron worth a taste, despite poor service.." 2 1/2 stars.

After reading about the abominable service I plan on waiting a few months before even thinking of trying this restaurant.

[dflylilkid]

Interesting. I'm thinking that review was an isolated incident and shouldn't be used to judge this restaurant.

I've been to Saffron 3 times now (2 Lunch, 1 Dinner) and I have yet to receive poor service. I will admit that it does get busy during lunch but that is because their lunch buffet has great food at a great price. The service when i've been there has been pretty good. I found the wait staff to be friendly and the manager an expert on service.

I have yet to order online. I'll have to give the website a browse.

This post is making me hungry.

[bigdawg33]

I would have to agree. I've eaten there several times and haven't had any issues myself. I would even say the service is above average in my experiences.

I think the food there is fantastic and can't wait to go back.

[Rosie]

dflylilkid--Welcome to eGullet. Do you live in NJ? Where else do you like to dine in the East Hanover/Livingston area?

bigdawg33--Welcome to eGullet and thanks for the posting. Let us know where else you like to dine.

[pete ganz]

dflylilkid--Welcome to eGullet. Do you live in NJ? Where else do you like to dine in the East Hanover/Livingston area?

bigdawg33--Welcome to eGullet and thanks for the posting. Let us know where else you like to dine.

Praising this restaurant was the first post for both and both signed up on the same day...what are the odds?

[pbrodsky]

Unless they know each other, in which case it's not a coincidence.

[mongo_jones]

it is a fairly fancy website as indian restaurant sites go, even if the menu itself seems like more of the same.

i'm intrigued by two items on the menu:

1. the murgh methi--which is chicken with fenugreek, spinach and spices

and

2. chicken saag--which is chicken with spinach, fenugreek and spices

somebody in new jersey needs to order both these dishes and compare them. and also find out why one of them gets to be murgh while the other remains chicken.

[dflylilkid]

Hello Again. I see I have spurred some interesting discussion on Saffron.

I am a resident of East Hanover, but I go to school in Boston. My friends/family and I dine frequently around the East Hanover area. As far as Indian restaurants go I've been to Palki (in EH), India Palace (Parsippany), and Moghul (Morristown) and I have found Saffron to offer the best food and service. We are also big fans of the chinese buffet at Royal Garden (EH). My favorite by far is a small place in Florham Park called Garlic Rose; now these guys definitely know how to cook Italian!

Yes I do know bigdawg33, his family first recommended Saffron to me. After reading the forum, I thought he might have an opinion on the service.

Murgh and Chicken are the same. My indian friend tells me there is a difference in usage due to the British. They changed "murgh" to "chicken" back in the day, and now indians are trying to change it back, slowly. There could also be a difference in the way the sauce/chicken is made. Make sense?

[Rachel Perlow]

Garlic Rose is in Madison.

[Rosie]

"My favorite by far is a small place in Florham Park called Garlic Rose; "

There is a Garlic Rose restaurant in Madison. Is this a different Garlic Rose? If so what's the address and is it BYO?

[mongo_jones]

Murgh and Chicken are the same.

no shit

My indian friend tells me there is a difference in usage due to the British. They changed "murgh" to "chicken" back in the day, and now indians are trying to change it back, slowly.

eh?

There could also be a difference in the way the sauce/chicken is made. Make sense?

so one would hope

[dflylilkid]

Sorry, Garlic Rose is in Madison. If you live in EH, you would know that all the towns are intermingled and that it can get confusing sometimes knowing where you are.

Forgive me.

[dflylilkid]

My indian friend tells me there is a difference in usage due to the British. They changed "murgh" to "chicken" back in the day, and now indians are trying to change it back, slowly.

eh?

My indian friend tells me the following:

British ruled over India for many years and changed the spelling of many Indian words to make it easier on themselves. India is now in the process of changing the spellings back to the originals. For example, Bombay is now called "Mumbai".

[mongo_jones]

i think you might want to stop relying on that particular indian friend for information about things indian.

chicken/murgh has almost no connection to bombay/mumbai--indians say chicken when they speak english and murgi/murgh or something else when they speak a different indian language. and to some extent chicken has also become a word in the lexicon of speakers of other indian languages in the same way that "telephone" has. these people would be very surprised to hear that they're supposed to be "changing back" to saying murgh, since only north-indians would say "murgh/murgi" to begin with.

[scott123]

I've been to Saffron once for the lunch buffet. The decor is very impressive - especially the marble floors and the intricate tile work. I was initially going to say that being a buffet, service was not that much of an issue, but upon further reflection, I do recall a problem receiving our bread. We placed our special request for "no butter/oil" naan with the manager when we walked in the door. 20 minutes later, no naan. Only after reminding the manager that we had yet to receive our bread did any arrive.

Beyond that, the staff seemed somewhat pretentious to me, at least when compared to the average smiling staff of the many buffets I frequent. The air was not of suburban NJ but of NYC.

The food, except for one barely inedible dish, was superb. Best chana masala I've ever had - a subtlety of flavoring that you generally don't find in buffet food. Great bread. Excellent dal. Good saag (another rarity). The only glitch was the chicken. It tasted like someone dumped a whole container of black pepper in it by accident. Although it was barely edible, I did notice one thing about it. The quality of the chicken was top notch - again something you don't find in your average buffet.

My biggest fault that I can find with the restaurant is that the buffet closes down very early - 2ish. Compared to the 2:30/3:00 of other places in the county.

Regardless of the pretentious atmosphere, forgotten bread, black pepper accident, and inconvenient hours, the food, for me, is all that really matters. The food showed enough promise to warrant a second try. I will be returning soon.

Edited April 14, 2004 by scott123 (log)

[scott123]

it is a fairly fancy website as indian restaurant sites go, even if the menu itself seems like more of the same.

i'm intrigued by two items on the menu:

1. the murgh methi--which is chicken with fenugreek, spinach and spices

and

2. chicken saag--which is chicken with spinach, fenugreek and spices

somebody in new jersey needs to order both these dishes and compare them. and also find out why one of them gets to be murgh while the other remains chicken.

As far as the chicken naming inconsistency, I've seen menus listing both murgh makhani and fenugreek chicken as well. I think this stems less from ignorance and more from a desire to portray a greater variety of food.

I'm curious, are you equating chicken methi with chicken saag? Although I have seen variations of both dishes that share common traits, I do think there are subtle differences between the two. The dryness of the chicken methi is one thing that comes to mind. The proportion of ingredients is another.

[saffronnj]

Wow... I didn't really expect such a flurry of replies about this.

I'm a little biased because I'm the website designer, but I can say this. I've eaten there many many times (probably 8 or so), and the service has always been fantastic.

I will however bring this topic up with the owner. I'm sure he would love to hear any feedback people have. He has a couple of restaurants and cannot be at both restaurants at all times, and he may be unaware of some of what goes on. If anyone has any other suggestions for Saffron, please email feedback@saffronnj.com. I will bring up anything you have to say with the owner. I am sure he would be very grateful for your feedback.

Please note this however, not everyone has had bad experiences with the service, but everyone does seem to agree that the food is some of the best around.

Thanks again!

[mongo_jones]

As far as the chicken naming inconsistency, I've seen menus listing both murgh makhani and fenugreek chicken as well. I think this stems less from ignorance and more from a desire to portray a greater variety of food.

I'm curious, are you equating chicken methi with chicken saag? Although I have seen variations of both dishes that share common traits, I do think there are subtle differences between the two. The dryness of the chicken methi is one thing that comes to mind. The proportion of ingredients is another.

scott,

1. i am more amused than anything else by the things on the menu that caught my eye

2. i think a restaurant might want to decide which language it wants to use. interestingly most north indian restaurants call the dish "butter chicken"--it is restaurants in the u.s that trot out the formal sounding "murgh makhani". but if you're calling the chicken in one dish murgh, i find it a little amusing that somewhere else it is called chicken--it isn't as though these distinctions connote anything about the dishes themselves.

3. i'd resist the urge to fix the characteristics of chicken cooked with spinach (i've rarely encountered chicken cooked overwhelmingly with fenugreek/methi in india--which doesn't mean it isn't there--so won't speak about it). it is a rustic punjabi dish and doesn't have a set recipe. by a curious coincidence i made chicken with spinach tonight--in our house growing up we ate this preparation more with goat than chicken and we called it "saag wala meat"--for what it is worth. perhaps we hadn't received the memo about changing names back to indian ones once the british left.

4. as for this place's murgh methi and chicken spinach (or whatever they call them) i am again amused that their descriptions of the two are inter-changeable. you'd think on an online takeout menu (where a customer can't ask a waiter the difference) there might be a little more distinguishing information.

regards,

mongo

[saffronnj]

mongo_jones,

The website menu is an exact copy of the printed takeout menu. I apologize for your confusion regarding the names of dishes.

I will check with the restaurant and see if I can clarify the descriptions of those two dishes for you. My guess is that it has something to do with the preparation or the type of sauce. I think Chicken Saag may be a creamy spinach sauce, but I am not sure, so I will check.

If you have any other suggestions for Saffron or its website (saffronnj.com) please email feedback@saffronnj.com. The restaurant and the web designer (me) are open to suggestions.

Thanks again.

[Rachel Perlow]

The administration has decided to remove some posts from this thread. Please do not resort to personal attacks, and if you have a relationship with a restaurant please disclose it fully.

Thank you.

[saffronnj]

Hi Everyone,

I spoke with the restaurant today. The descriptions on the menu for those two dishes are correct. The difference between Murgh Methi and Chicken Saag is the type of spinach (Chicken Saag is a creamy spinach, Murgh Methi is dry spinach) and the amount of fenugreek leaves used. Murgh Methi has more fenugreek leaves and has more of a bitter taste to it.

I will update the website later today with this new information.

Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming.

I agree with Rachel. Please try to keep this thread (and the whole message board system) as polite as possible.

Thanks.

[bigdawg33]

After all this talk on the forum I got a curry craving yesterday. I went there for the lunch buffet, which I thought was amazing! For the price and quality of food, its a lunch buffet second to none. I honestly, had no problems at all with the service and would easily rate it above average. Granted it was a buffet, but the staff was quick to refil my water and to bring my party some new naan bread. The Vegetable Korma was absolutely phenominal!

Hope this helps!

[Curlz]

Just curious, as I can't tell from the web page...is the buffet lunch available 7 days a week? If so, I'm going to give it a try this weekend!