Saffron Garden Opens Monday (Photo: QueensPost)
April 29, 2011 By Christian Murray
Saffron Garden, an Indian restaurant located at 46-11 Skillman Ave., is holding its grand opening on Monday, May 2nd.
The new owner, Shekh Noman, bought the business from Alim Maruf, who had operated it under the name of Basmati Table. Maruf sold the business and left Bliss Bistro, a French bistro also on Skillman Ave., due to financial difficulty.
Noman said the menu will be different to Basmati Table, which was a Bangladeshi restaurant. He said his restaurant will be offering Indian food, tailored to an American palette.
Noman is no stranger to the business. He has partnership interests in 19 Indian restaurants throughout New York and owns 23 Halal carts. He is also a Halal food distributor, based out of Woodside.
Arif Islam, well known as a waiter at three former local eateries, Bliss, Bliss Bistro and Basmati Table, will step up to be the new on-site manager of Saffron Garden.
The menu offers a vast array of dishes: from chicken, vegetable, lamb and seafood, which all range in price from $6 to $14. However, Noman is offering a package deal: an appetizer, entrée, basmati rice and naan bread for $10.95.
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21 Comments
The food was wonderful and the staff were absolutely delightful.
Finally! Decent Indian food in our neighborhood! You can ask for them to make your dishes mild, spicy, or do as I do and ask for EXTREMELY spicy 🙂
Something Bothered me when people laid to be a nice.But They did
not think if i tell them truth it could be better for their business.
Dorthey morehead said place was full but i was there too. It was not.
Food was excellent . Service was shaky. I was thinking they just open.
I hope they will be fine .
I got some take out last night. They have a take out special. One appetizer, one entree and one plain naan bread and it comes with rice and sauces for $ 10.95. Free delivery. The food came quick and it was good. Not a bad deal. There was a decent amount of spice that gave it the right kick. There was enough left for the next day. Will try it again ! Good luck
I never understand what it means when we say some food is authentic since food ranges in taste from one area of a country to another.In my experience, food preparation, ingredients, flavour, etc. can be vastly different within a country or even a region of a country and can vary even more in expatriate communities and in home cooking.
No matter if we’re talking about Italian, Indian, Mexican, French, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc. the range is enormous. In fact, the way one family prepares a dish in the same town even can be vastly different than their neighbor’s dish, so which is authentic now?
To me the term “authentic” as it refers to cuisine is just silly unless we’re more specific about what authentic means.
My family had dinner there Monday night. It was very busy, with only one table empty and a steady flow of carry-out orders. We shared two appetizers and three different entrees and they were all good. Plus, there was enough left for lunch the next day. We’ll definitely be back.
Good luck to them. It’s a nice addition to Sunnyside’s own Restaurant Row.
Just wanted to give my opinion on my dinner last night at Saffron Garden. Finally, good indian food in the neighborhood. My food was delicious. I had chicken kabob as an appetizer. I loved it. It was tender and juicy. I had chicken tika marsala for my entree. It good and spicy. The service was good. The place is pretty and everyone is friendly. definattely will go back
Got delivery last night. Was worried that the food would be dumbed down for the American palette, but thought it was delicious with a good amount of heat.
Going to have dinner at Saffron Garden tonight. The place was quite busy last night. The place looks really pretty and interesting. Welcome to the neighborhood.
I had dinner at Saffron Garden last night. I thought the food was great. I had the lamb biriyani. The dish was excellent. The lamb was tender and they use basmati rice. I also had the chicken saag. The chicken was tender and juicy and the spinach was spicy. Needless to say, worth a second trip. Welcome to the neighborhood. Great Indian cuisine.
I’ll be stopping by this week to give it a try! Good luck and welcome to the neighborhood!
Halley screamed “INDIAN FOOD CAN BE VERY SPICY.”
Wrong. Many dishes SHOULD BE very spicy.
A restaurant serving authentic food will do better than one serving bland food. it will never survive if the owner is trying to depend solely on local customers who can walk over.
Oh, and stop screaming, Halley.
Good luck! I am sorry for the previous owner. People have dreams and they don’t come to fruition.
GOOD LUCK ! SOUNDS INTERESTING. NEED A GOOD INDIAN PLACE.
I LIKE THE TAKE ON “TAILORED FOR THE AMERICAN PALETTE” IT’S GREAT WHEN THE CHEF KNOWS HOW TO PREPARE FOOD AND ADD JUST THE RIGHT LEVEL OF SPICE. INDIAN FOOD CAN BE VERY SPICY. CAN’T WAIT TO TRY IT
Good Luck!
hope he reads the comments
“Tailored the the Amercan palette”
Let me translate: we provide bottles of Heinz ketchup.
Agreed. Basmati was yuck. And “tailored to an American palette” also makes me nervous as this is often the reason why Indian food is so terrible in New York.
“Tailored to an American palette” always makes me nervous, but the prices sound right.
Good luck.
I hope it is better than Basmati. That was Yuk.