I went to Saffrons with my boyfriend and a small group of friends for his birthday.
On arrival the waiters were mumbly and seemed confused, even though we'd booked a table. We were a few minutes late but they didn't seem to remember our reservation at all. We were basically left at the front desk while all the wait staff vanished into the kitchen before someone came back to push tables together.
On being sat down we were handed menus but, unlike other reviewers, I didn't think the staff were friendly at all. No smiles at all which I think is the most basic thing a front of house team can do!
We were offered some popadoms and dips while we waited and we thought this was a great extra! OR NOT. We were given a large selection of dips, which were not described to us at any point, and then charged £10 for the privaledge at the end of the meal. NOT impressed. If you're going to offer people 'nibbles while they wait' it has to be on the house, if we order it we'll pay for it. If not we're going to be irritated. Lots of restaurants do this free of charge so £10 for a few popadoms and dips we didn't personally pick is a bit steep.
The food, when it arrived, was nice enough. But I couldn't eat all of mine and neither could the rest of the group so we decided to have it boxed so we could enjoy it the next day. I asked the waiter if we could have it all boxed up to take away and he nodded and walked away before I'd even finished talking.
When we got the food back I had my food and one of my friends' in the same box and that was it.
I am a vegetarian and had ordered a Sag Aloo and a veg curry while my friend had lamb. This was all in the same box and thus uneatable for me, so my meal was almost totally wasted.
After this poor service for myself I was rightly annoyed and didn't want to tip highly. My friends were similarly frustrated for myself and as the drinks order was VERY difficult to make we decided to tip, but not very much. Probably around £2.50 for 5 of us.
When we were walking out we were accosted and told we had to pay the 10% service charge. You do NOT have to pay it. We said we'd tipped the waiters the amount we wanted to. Paid the bill in full and we were leaving.
The waiter said the service charge went to the manager and we would have to speak to him. He wasn't immediatly understanding and tried to guilt us into paying almost £10 serive charge for a meal I had barely been able to enjoy, for passable front of house service and apparently for the privalidge of him alone. Eventually he huffed and puffed and said we could leave. Which we did. And we will not be returning.
Overall the food was great, but my night was marred by standoff service, a mean manager who is clearly stealing tips from his staff and the way he tried to force us into this too!!! read more