Saffron Pre-Dining Expectations

For my restaurant review, I have decided to eat at the Indian restaurant Saffron.  Because of some conflicts with timing that I’ve run into, I will be eating the lunch buffet at Saffron rather than ordering off the menu at dinner time. 

I have only been to an Indian restaurant a few times in my life, and all of them were so long ago that it is hard for me to remember exactly what they were like.  My dad talks a lot about how we used to go to a Sunday lunch buffet at an Indian restaurant once in a while, but I only remember one of these times and have little memory for what the place was actually like.  Thus, going to Saffron will definitely be a gateway for a new and mostly unexplored culture for me.

I have never been to India, or any other country in Asia at all for that matter.  I have very little experience with the Indian culture, though I have always found it interesting, and I am excited for what this meal will be able to teach me about Indian culture.  One of my best friends in high school was Indian, but I learned little about the culture through her.  She did not embrace her heritage very openly, and tried to assimilate into American culture as much as she could.  Thus, while I’ve been in some sort of contact with Indian culture in the past, I feel surprisingly uninformed and uneducated about most aspects of the culture, including the food.

Because I am not very knowledgeable about Indian culture, I am not really sure what to expect from this meal.  I have never been to Saffron before, and I therefore have no knowledge or expectations about what the inside of the restaurant looks like.  All of my expectations are pretty random and irrational, but I might as well explain them at any rate.  I’m expecting the light to be dim for some reason, and for the interior to be filled with deep, warm colors.  I know that it is a buffet, so I imagine one wall will have the buffet table along it and the dining tables will surround this.

I don’t really know what to expect with the food, either.  I have heard that Indian food is spicy, and I am a little bit nervous for this.  I am not the biggest fan of spicy food.  Rather, it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I do not have a high tolerance for it.  I’m nervous for how the buffet aspect will affect this, because I know it will mean that I won’t be able to ask for lower heat, but I am sure that I will be able to handle it.  If nothing else, this will be another entryway into the Indian culture that I will be able to get from this experience.  All in all, I am very excited to eat at Saffron, and can’t wait to learn and experience all of these new things through this form of cultural tourism!