SAffRON Restaurant & Lounge

SAffRON Restaurant & Lounge

123 N 3rd Street

Minneapolis, MN 55401

http://www.saffronmpls.com/

SAffRON Restaurant and Lounge is located on 3rd Street N right in the heart of the warehouse district of Minneapolis, across the street from the 112 Eatery. SAffRON specializes in contemporary Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine. I had been wanting to dine there for some time but had difficulties coercing my wife and friends to try Mediterranean or Middle Eastern style food. In this case the reward definitely outweighed the risk.

We arrived at the restaurant without a minute to spare with our friends waiting patiently at the table. The decor and sleek style of this restaurant is definitely befitting of the location. You can choose to sit in the comfortable lounge area or at the bar as you wait for your table. That is, if there is a wait. The restaurant was only half full most of the night. Could be the economy but it was defintely not the food. The dining area has high ceilings and a moderate amount of seating for its patrons. Not stuffy like some of the higher end restaurants in Minneapolis, the atmosphere here was warm and inviting, as was the staff.

The menu at SAffRON has three sections. A MEZZE section which consists of small plates to give each person at the table a taste. Then a SMALL PLATES section in which each plate serves approximately two people, kind of like a salad course and finally the ENTREE section which consists of your main course and a side. Per the recommendations of our waiter, we chose two items off the MEZZE section. The sheep's milk feta with marinated peppers and capers and the kofta meatballs with tomato-harrisa sauce and mint. The feta was amazing and the meatballs went along quite nicely. For the SMALL PLATE course I chose the beef carpaccio with truffled brown butter vinaigrette, hazelnuts and tarragon. It was really good, my wife even ate some and she is not a fan of raw meat. Our friends raved about the goat cheese croquettes with romesco, frisee and sherry vinegar. Kind of like a fried cheese balls on steroids. For an entree I chose the chicken with eggplant lovash, exotic spices and tahini. It was the best damn chicken I have had in a long time, cooked and spiced to perfection. The burrito looking eggplant lovash and the tahini really was so good it could have been the main course. My wife and our friend Susan both chose the salmon and clam "tagine" with saffron, peppers, olives, fennel and potatoes. Both enjoyed but said it could have been made with less sauce. Susan's husband Chris had the three course tasting menu and all I can remember from his was that the appetizer and duck were awesome. For dessert my wife and I split the blueberry trifle which consisted of passion fruit curd, vanilla cake and white chocolate ice cream which my wife talked about in the car the whole way home. Susan had the chocolate "Napoleon" which consisted of chocolate custard, chocolate phyllo and spiced chocolate ice cream which seemed to go over well.

The service was excellent, our waiter was patient with us, made great recommendations and was really passionate about the food and wine. They had booked the restaurant our for a private party that evening starting at 10pm and the owner Saed Wadi welcomed us to stay if we desired.

We all really enjoyed our meal and the atmosphere of SAffRON. For me, it was the most satisfying dining experiences I have had in some time. Chef SamehWadi and his brother Saed have a great thing going here. Our waiter told us to keep eye out on the food network because Chef Wadi will be making a visit there soon. Although he was not very clear about the details. I highly recommend checking SAffRON out, whether its date night, a business dinner, or a night out with friends you will not be disappointed. Even if you have a picky eater in your group go there and tell them to order the chicken.

Ratings from 1-10:

Food 10
Atmosphere 9
Service 10
Noise 7
Price: Moderate to High