Saffron Cottage, Ford, Shrewsbury

11th July 2009

In the first of our monthly interviews, we spoke with Jarina from the Saffron Cottage Indian Restaurant which recently opened in the village of Ford, on the edge of Shrewsbury...

Welshpool Road
01743 850167
saffron-cottage.co.uk

How would you best describe the food from your restaurant?

Our menu is unique to any other in Shrewsbury. Our food is prepared using the finest ingredients to create the perfect mouthwatering dishes.


You are located in the village of Ford, just outside Shrewsbury. Being a new restaurant, are you finding that most of your customers are being attacted out of the town to give you a try? Or are your customers more local and passing trade?

Our customers are from all over the place. We are attracting customers as far as from Welshpool and Newtown. Most recently we had a family passing by on the way to the caravan park in Barmouth who stopped for lunch and were from Nottingham. As Saffron Cottage is different to any other Indian restaurant in Shrewsbury we are finding that a lot of our customers are coming out of town to us as well. As for our locals,well, their support has been amazing!!


Would you say the 'curry scene' in Shrewsbury is in good shape?

The curry scene lacked something a bit different, but we feel that Saffron Cottage makes up for this now.


It is probably difficult to recommend a dish as everyone has different tastes, but if your Chef could eat any of the dishes on the menu, what would he or she choose?

It is always worrying if the Chef doesn't eat his or her own cooking...our chef recommends everything on the Menu as he prepares and cooks it all from scratch and has tried and tested all the dishes beforehand.


How does Saffron Cottage differ from the other Indian restaurants in Shrewsbury?

The style of food is a combination of traditional Indian dishes with a selection of 'fusion' dishes.


Do you have any unusual dishes that people may not have come across before?

We have fusion options which people may not be very familiar with, but they are proving to be very popular...alot of our customers like 'Modhu Minty Lamb Aloo' which is tender chunks of lamb fused with honey, sweet mango and fresh garden mint, then slowly cooked with baby potatoes in a medium thick sauce.


Here at eatShrewsbury HQ we grow our own chilli peppers. What is the hottest dish you offer at Saffron Cottage?

Here at Saffron Cottage we do not like to overpower a dish with one particular flavour...however our hottest dish is probably 'Garlic Chilli' available with Chicken or Lamb. This is a very hot and popular North Indian dish prepared using garlic and fresh green chillies in a hot sauce.

Thanks Jarina, Saffron Cottage is already getting some good reviews here on eatShrewsbury, we look forward to eat there soon, the Modhu Minty Lamb Aloo sounds delicious!