Used to be a good Indian Cuisine option, still doing alright!
Rating – 3/5

The first time I had a lunch buffet at Saffron was way back in 2008 when I was visiting the lovely city of Vancouver. Back in the good old days the food items did have flavors like somewhat close to authentic Indian cuisine.

However over the years what I found is the taste has watered down considerably and is now mostly devoid of any Indian spices.

I understand the local people don’t eat too much of spicy food but being amply spiced doesn’t mean that it should be overdosed with chillies. One could have good spicy food without it being chilly and I wish someone can remind them that they used to serve some really good authentic Indian food.

Lunch buffet during the weekdays is an economical option and usually Tandoori chicken is alright but is devoid of proper marination. So once you’re done with the outer roasted covering of chicken whatever is left in the rest of the layers is completely bland. However you will do alright by having this with their awesome green chutney (mint sauce preparation)

Their butter chicken is too sweet so please don’t have any high hopes and all the people getting introduced to Indian cuisine, this is not how the butter chicken is supposed to taste.

Their onion pakodas are usually nice and good to have with the mint chutney.

Another good item on the menu is the Samosa, I have never failed to have atleast a couple of them during my numerous outings.

My favourite items from their once authentic Indian Menu were chicken vindaloo and Paneer gravy preparations, these dishes are still the best compared to the rest of the buffet fare.

In desserts, they usually have Gulab Jamuns which are always better if served hot.

Their kheer (rice pudding) is quite alright but is a little less sweet. Their other fruit custard like dessert is fairly ok as well. They also have fruits like pineapples and melons to accompany the desserts.

There is also an assortment of veggies/cold chicken cuts along with dressings available to make up for that Okayish salad preparation.

It’s best to have the lunch buffet during weekdays (around 15 CAD) due to the offered price in comparison to dinner or buffets on the weekends.

It’s definitely not the best Indian restaurant in Metro Vancouver or in Burnaby for that matter.

However for a slightly above average lunch buffet that doesn’t quite burn a hole in your pocket this isn’t a bad option at all, but beware this is not exactly close to authentic Indian food.

A Biryani to die for!

Rating – 4.5/5

The name is Krishna’s Dosa Grill – a typical South Indian Restaurant in Surrey, BC. As the name suggests you can expect authentic south indian food like uthapam, dosa, idli, sambhar etc which I kind of like but not a die hard fan however my wife absolutely loves her dosa & idli so I can’t argue with the headquarters and so I relunctantly went there for the first time a couple of years ago.

However I am glad that I did because in doing so I discovered the Best Biryani (Goat Biryani) I ever had, I come from India and I can vouch that it’s an amazing rice preparation of it’s kind and is a Tamil (Chettinad preparation) variant of my favourite dish 🙂

It’s totally a VFM place and the owner “Rajan” is absolutely a gem of a host ! Do give a visit if you like South Indian food, other than Biryani my all time favourites are Chicken 65, Chicken Vindaloo Dosa (spicy) and the old school Masala Dosa.

I used to visit this place every alternate week or so when I was in Canada.

For all the locals that are still out there, please go for this as you have an absolute gem right there and I don’t get food of this taste and quality back here in India as well, go ahead and have fun 🙂

An amazing place for Desi Chinese food!

Rating – 4/5

Well if you’re from India and if you miss the Indian Style Chinese food served back home, this is one place you should definitely be and relive that great taste.

The owner himself is Chinese who was born and brought up in India and most of the Staff speaks both Cantonese and Hindi so beware what you say in your local language while you Order 😉

Speaking about the food items, Chilly Chicken in starters is crunchy, spicy and very tasty. In main course one can order Masala Fried Rice (Chicken/Veg) with Chicken/Veg Manchurian. Prices are reasonable and portions served are generous.

There’s an additional 15% off for takeaway orders and the servers are attentive and courteous.

One word of caution – this place can get awfully busy during the evenings and especially during week-ends.

So if you don’t let them know in advance you may end up waiting for 30 minutes or more.

It’s always a good idea to call them first and give your name, you may still have to wait for 10 minutes or so but it’s still better than waiting forever so an advance reservation is highly recommended.

It needs to be your lucky day !

Rating – 3.5/5

In 2013-2014 when I was in Vancouver for nearly an year for an office assignment I visited Gulberg around 3-4 times. I loved what was on offer in my first visit, an all you can eat buffet lunch on a Saturday for about 14$ which was a real steal considering it had Tandoori chicken, mutton curry, Paneer tikka masaala, onion and potato pakodas, mix veg curry and my all time favourite chicken Biryani.

When you consider the Biryani alone can cost atleast 10$ on an average at competing restaurants it was indeed a very good deal to find a quality Biryani in a buffet like this.

Now coming to the luck part of it, I could have rated them atleast 4.5 based on a couple of encounters however based on another couple of outings it would be difficult to even rate them average as the preparations were so ordinary.

So its like rotating a wheel of Fortune, if you’re lucky enough when you visit you might have a very good time and at other times it may turn out to be an average experience. In a nutshell the quality is not consistent here but it’s worth taking a risk and giving it a shot by all means atleast once.

The Ambience is fairly Ok and the service is workable most of the times.

It’s basically a Pakistani restaurant with almost all of them being of Pakistani descent including the cooking staff and it really surprises me that not once I felt that I am eating anything different from the Indian food I usually eat. This is to underline that Indian and Pakistani food is so similar in taste and preparation especially the Non vegetarian items.

A number of times I saw their Arab speaking Patrons enjoying the same food fare which just shows that the Indian/Pakistani food is famous and loved by all if prepared the right way. A lot of times I see people completely washing down the food with hardly any spices to suit the local taste but then it gives rise to a serious identity crisis where the food authenticity goes completely out of the window!

In Gulberg you won’t exactly find a typical spicy Indian Style food but you can take comfort from the fact that it does have spices, a little on the milder side but the preparation is more or less fairly authentic.