Zaffron Kitchen

My husband and I enjoy a good butter chicken with naan. Having been in Asia for two weeks, we wanted some Indian food at some point so our last night in Singapore, we went to Zaffron Kitchen. Zaffron is located on East Coast Road across the street from our hotel and is a Michelin bib gourmand eatery. Once acknowledged, we were seated promptly without a reservation. We satisfied our craving by ordering the butter chicken with rice and garlic naan. I also added the passion fruit lassi to the order. The food took more than a few minutes to come out and we were hungry. My husband and I devoured the chicken, rice, and naan. The lassi was refreshing and cooled my palette. We brought our own bottle of water so we didn't have to pay for it. Service was okay. Definitely worth a go, if you're a fan of Northern Indian food.

Been here many times especially when we are in an indian cuisine fever. I would have gladly given a 4 star but today we discover there is no free flow of water!!! Now that is a BAD chicken tikka for the management. Otherwise we had our usual package chicken tikka, garlic naan, mutton curry, two types of rice and a mixed veg curry. Finishing of with teh terik and were happy as usual.

as usual they are understaff :). patience is key here. clearing table is slow. getting out teas after meals takes 15 minutes.

Nov 20th '16
Back again for an Indian fix. Unfortunately this time round instead of the service staff being a mess the kitchen too was a mess. Post putting in my order at 7:40pm there were at least 4 tables waiting for their food. In fact one table with a party of 8 walked out. Come on management wake up!!! Get a hold of your wonderful business before it get hold of you!

Feb 2nd '19
Back again and they never fail as usual.

Zaffron Kitchen was pretty good Indian fare. Sure, the iPad ordering substitutes for friendly service, but the food comes out fast.

The Tandoori (and meats generally) were fantastic. Succulent, high quality and tender. The Biryanis were a bit of a miss - still good, but not great. The Butter Chicken was silky smooth and the Naan were reasonable.

6 people plus 2 bottles of wine worked out to be $50 each - which, by Singapore standards, is still kinda pricy.

I think Zaffron has heard our cries, because I found the service here was insanely fast and incredibly friendly.

Loved loved loved the atmosphere. Chill and buzzy.

The chicken tikka starter was unreal. In comparison, the chana masala (chickpeas) and mutton rogan josh were just ok - good, but not *amazing*. I also couldn't stop dipping everything in the the mint chutney. Amazing.

Will almost definitely be coming again for the good food and great vibe.

This is a 3.5 for me, but because I do like the food, I'll give it a four.

Don't get me wrong- I like Zaffron Kitchen's branding. Their ambiance is great, they have iPad menus that are easy to navigate and work, and it's kid-friendly. Their service could use a little more work, though.

The first time we came here, it took almost half an hour for our food to arrive. The second time, I was one of the first to arrive for lunch and it took a little under 20 minutes. To echo the other reviews, the servers are a bit distant, but I get it- you don't need to remind me where I am.

I was surprised about their naan lunch sets- it lives up to it's name as it comes with 4 large pieces of fluffy naan! Very filling. I also liked all the sides that came with it, and my butter chicken hit the spot. If you're looking for a good veggie side, their aloo gobi is my favourite!

Service may not be the best, but I know I'll be back.

This was my first time trying "actual" Indian food and i'm not disappointed.

Our order:
I came here with my mum for lunch and we ordered 2 set meals - available now weekdays from 1130am - 2pm, if i remember correctly.

I got the Tandoori Naan set which included 2 pieces of chicken; naan; biryani rice and the sauces + curry

Mum got the Vegetarian naan set which had basically the same things except for the chicken

Taste:
Tandoori Naan Set:
The chicken was coated in some yummy goodness (i actually don't know what it was marinated int) which tasted ahmazing. To my surprise, it wasn't really spicy as I thought it would be - how stereotypical of me!

The naan was hot when it was served and tasted absolutely spectacular

Biryani - i've never had biryani before but according to my mum, it was one of the best ones she's had and trust me, she's pretty picky about her food.

Yoghurt - this was one of the "sauces" (not sure if that's the correct term) in the set and i really liked it

Curry - ahaha i personally found this a tad spicy but nevertheless it was superb

As for the Vegetarian naan set, once again, mum said it was the best.

Portion:
We were initially a bit skeptical to order 2 sets because we though it'd come out huge, however, the portion was just enough for one person.

Service:
Because it was our first time there and it was my first time trying Indian cuisine, I didn't really know what to order. The waiter tried recommending some things to me but I didn't quite grasp what he was trying to say...
Nevertheless, service was fast and the staff were friendly

Price:
This place is definitely a bit pricey and is not one of the places you'll visit every day. However, for the food served, it's definitely worth it.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first real Indian cuisine of my lifeeee and i've fallen in love with Indian food... hehe :))

OH AND SET MEAL CAME WITH A DRINK!

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I second my fellow Yelpers that Zaffron has excellent food, but service / food delivery is poor. Thanks to the Yelp app, via Check-in, I discovered that it took 27 min! for the food to be served. Fortunately, it was the entire order, which consisted of Butter Naan, butter Chicken, Basmati rice and aloo gobi. When the attendant delivered the food, we didn't have any utensils at the table and had to kindly ask the diners/table next to us for their unused set. (Hint: the service staff should've done this for us).

Despite it's suspect service, Zaffron delivers excellent Indian Cuisine within a modern restaurant exterior. The butter chicken was definitely my favorite dish of the ones I ordered. Not as good as my favorite North Indian restaurant in Novena, but good nonetheless. The sauce was thicker and darker in colour and a tad less sweet.

Overall, Zaffron delivers 4-star food with 2-3 star service. If you are craving for great Indian good in the Katong area, but are happy to wait just a little longer than normal for food, then Zaffron is an excellent choice!

The food is great, but I'm leaving it at 3 stars because twice I've had really bad service and it spoilt the whole experience. Long queues, forgotten orders, rude waiters and such. Other reviews cite good experiences though, so maybe I just caught them at a bad time or something. Anyway.

If you're vegetarian most Indian places are full of options and Zaffron is no different. My favs are the Tandoori Gobi or the Tandoori Mushrooms. In the curries section, their Dhal Mahkani is probably the best I've tried anywhere. Ever.

Their naan is pretty spectacular as well, but the curries go really well with rice, so it's a tricky decision. I'd say go with lots of friends and order lots of things.

What really adds to the experience is the presentation of the food, which is pretty and quite stylish. The waiters aprons also have clever food-based slogans on them which is fun to read.

Do make a reservation as it's quite crowded usually, and every time I walk past at dinner time there's a long queue.

There's also a play area for children which looks like so much fun I've always been tempted to sneak in. Also, popcorn machine!

The Zaffron Kitchen had a décor and ambience that doesn't seem to resemble an Indian restaurant, but perhaps more of a usual European restaurant. Anyway, we sat down quickly and ordered our food because we were rather hungry. The service here was prompt with smiling waitresses.
We tried a few of their dishes such as the fish kebab, chicken tikka, butter chicken, chicken biryani and chicken chettinad. The chicken chettinad was very spicy and I really liked the taste. We dipped the naan into the curry and it was simply perfect. The chicken was also very tender and the meat came apart easily.
The chicken tikka was another of our favorites. There was a distinct and nice grilled flavor to the chicken, and the meat was succulent and tender.
Overall, we had a great Indian meal here and would definitely be back.

I dropped in for a quick dinner last night at 9.30pm with my husband. The restaurant was buzzing and there were only 2 servers running about fulfilling orders. However, they got to us as quickly as they could and within 10 minutes, we got our food. They were also really apologetic to us for being short-handed for the night.

We ordered the butter chicken, palak paneer, fish tikka as well as the biryani rice. We loved the well-seaoned fish tikka and palak paneer, that came with lusciously thick spinach gravy. We did think the butter chicken gravy, however, was a tad too sweet for our liking. The biryani rice was fragrant and light on taste but it could have come in a bigger portion for $5.50.

The price came up to around $70 for both of us, which is admittedly pricey for a quick dinner but at least the food and service made up for it. We'll definitely be back the next time we're in Katong looking for a spot for late dinner!