Saffron Valley

(Disclosure, I went to the Sugarhouse location but there wasn't a Zomato for that one.)

Google Maps is a lovely tool when it works. It gets us places and helps us find one of the two places you buy that thing that you need in the middle of the afternoon on a Wed when you totally forgot you needed the thing for the unrelated thing. A universal human experience I know.

But it also lets us find random spots we otherwise would overlook or forget about too quickly. Such is my experience with Saffron Valley Sugarhouse.

I am a fan of Indian Cuisine. A huge one in fact. Both in intensity of my fandom and in fandoms per cubic ounces. The mix of spices and combinations of flavors, the vibrant colors, I don’t know people can’t be willing to give it a try at least.

So anyway armed with a random craving and friend willing to give it the old college try we stumbled across this place. As we entered we were greet and immediately lead to our table. The decor was rather striking, to the point that I find it worth noting here. It had a hominess with wooden tables and decorations but was also sort of modern and stylish. They had stainless steel cups that I was tempted to ask where they had bought them.

But I digress. Amongst the Indian restaurants of this valley there is a pretty common take of doing a buffet for lunch. The general idea being that people come in, try a number of things, and then come back and have those same or similar things when you come for dinner. It’s practiced enough that I had assumed it to be some sort of industry standard.

However there is a different philosophy at play here at Saffron Valley which I found rather delightful.

The Thali.

Basically it’s a scope or a bunch of stuff. Each day they have a series of specials and you pick which Thali you want. Mine had a chicken, a lentil, a veggie thing, a paneer thing, a curry thing, some Nann, some rice, and a Gulab Jamun.

It. Was. Awesome. I was less then dilligent about getting all the names for the everything but it was astounding. Two of the dishes, (one a mushroom and pepper dish, the other a lentils one) are not things that I enjoy. In fact I may actively dislike them in most preparations.

But boy howdy. The lentils started tasting as I expect and then literally blossomed with flavor in my mouth. It was fragrant and lovely and deeply savory and so entirely unexpected. The mushrooms and peppers in the other dish were a delight. Earthy and rich and flavorful sort of everything a mushroom can be. I was on cloud nine there.

There was a also a Tikka Masala Paneer that was just perfectly on point and really just about everything was delicious. I was, if I’m honest, a little disappointed in the Pakora. The coating on the outside of the vegetables was a little cake like. It wasn’t as crispy as I like that to be. But once more the flavor was absolutely on point. So minor things.

This place is good. Go there. Eat there.

See you in the Chow Line,


-The Fat Kid