"Chef is Saffron's standout",  by Greg Cox, Restaurant Critic, Raleigh News & Observer
"Time and again, chef Rawat demonstrates that talent. Sometimes the demonstration takes the form of a dish you've never had -- corn and mushroom shammi, for instance, in which the star ingredients are minced and formed into chile- and ginger-spiked patties, then gently pan-fried into cakes exotically reminiscent of polenta. At other times, it takes the form of a revelatory new twist on a dish you thought you knew well, such as the haunting musky note in a mulligatawny soup. Still other times, it takes the form of such comfortably familiar flavors that you could almost imagine it on a Thanksgiving table -- Bombay chaat salad, for one, a subtly seasoned melange of roasted potatoes and tomatoes.

Another telling indication of Rawat's skill is the fact that he doesn't limit himself to the standard three or four curry variations to sauce every dish on the menu. Instead, he tailors each sauce to complement the central ingredients of that dish. In an appetizer offering of Rajasthani solay, for instance, he pairs skewered ribbons of lean, tender grilled lamb with a sauce of roasted red bell pepper, lemon and garlic.

A more substantial dish calls for a more assertive sauce, and a lamb shank entree gets just that: an intensely fragrant brew studded with whole green and black cardamom pods. Smoked lobster tail, on the other hand, gets a creamy, gently perfumed tomato sauce - somewhat reminiscent of that in a chicken tikka, but sweeter - which accents the flavor of the shellfish without upstaging it. And chicken Chettinad envelopes succulent breast meat in a brassy, Southern Indian-inflected sauce spiked with curry leaves."
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