Royal Saffron

It is quite disappointing to read the last review about Royal Saffron as my experience was quite different. We too had a groupon deal to visit royal saffron in Otley just after christmas and went up there on a Wednesday evening.
It wasn’t too busy and we were quickly shown to our table and ordered drinks. My mum is a bit of a spelling and grammar nazi so reading the menu caused great hilarity. I think my favourite description is the Masaledar; «The recipe is modern explosive flavours it will change your perceptions of our food so you will contemplate eating.»… I have no idea what this means but one of our party ordered it and it was a damn good curry! I ordered the gulbar kofta which was full of flavour and perfect consistency.
I will admit the service was a bit slow, particularly given that there weren’t many people in the restaurant hence it getting 4 stars not 5 but if you’re not in a rush my experience is that the food is worth waiting for.
I am not sure I would regularly travel over from Leeds to this restaurant as I think you can get curry as good closer to home (e.g. bengal brasserie, burley) but with so many voucher deals for this place, if you’re closer to Otley why not give it a go?

So, I’ve heard good things about this place so was excited when it was featured for a KGB deal & I hastily snapped up.
I don’t mind a nice drive out to try somewhere new but sadly, I feel this time it was a waste of petrol money!
We had booked in for 7.30 pm & arrived at 7.20, even though there were 3 spare tables we had to wait until 7.35 to be seated but this gave us the opportunity to see & smell the food they had to offer and we were quite looking forward to eating.
We were seated with our menus despite already having chosen while we were waited and had to sit a further 10 minutes for someone to come and take our orders.
The menu is plentiful and features a lot of old favourites and some new and exciting sounding dishes.
We waited a further 10 mins to get my lemonade (which was flat) and Mr still had to wait a little while longer for his mango lassi.
Our starters came out within the next 10 mins and these were very nice– the Mr’s was slightly different to how it has been described but it was tasty.
There were 4 staff on and the restaurant is smallish yet the service was ridiculously slow.
We eventually got our main course at 8.55– 1 hr and 35 mins after we arrive is ridiculous! We couldn’t get any of the staff attention to find out what the delay was either and there was no apology when we did finally get the food!
And, it was disappointing. My beef was full of gristle and the ‘curry’ taste more like a stew. The Mr’s chicken dish was also bland. the garlic naan was nice and crisp yet the garlic on it was raw!
The initial voucher was £14 for 2 starters/​mains & kulfi desserts each yet upon eating as much of the main as I could manage (not due to the portion size but due to it’s uninspired flavour!) we asked for the bill and I went to get the car.
We’d had 2 lemonades, a mango lassi, 2 poppadoms + an average tasting pickle tray, boiled rice ans a garlic naan and they has the cheek to charge £15 on top of the voucher– good job Mr had been left with the bill or I would have told them to stick it!!!
9.20 when we left! 2 hours for what I can say was a total waste of an evening.
It’s been a while since we ate anywhere that the service was so slow and the food was less than average.
We’ll be sticking to Leeds curry houses in future!
We’d ordered–
Chicken Chaat, Lamb Purée for starters
Chicken Jobbar & Beef shatkora
Boiled rice, garlic naan accompaniments

I visited this restaurant with a Groupon Voucher. I am very glad that I wasn’t paying full price. The food was average to say the least. Only saving grace was the Garlic Naan.
The service was beyond poor. The staff never smiled during our entire meal and it came across that they were serving us because they had to not because they cared about the experience.
The décor inside the restaurant is very OTT, lots of neon and a TV in the window display.
Unfortunately there are better Indian restaurants for the money so I won’t be going back.