Safran French Vietnamese Cuisine – Chelsea, NYC
Safran
88 7th Avenue
Near W. 16th St.
(212) 929-1778
Safran Restaurant
Safran is located in the heart of Chelsea where the restaurants are chic, creative, and very down to earth. I have always loved this neighborhood because it is very diverse with all different types of people of all ages, more so with the younger crowd, and they all dressed so fashionably — yes, creatively fashionably. Besides lots of unique restaurants and people here, there are a lot of clubs and boutique shops that you will love to visit. Only in Chelsea will you find some of the most creative, yet down to earth people and restaurants here.
Which brings me to my visit to Safran.
My friends and co-workers alike have constantly urged me to eat at this fancy establishment. To my amazement, I probably passed by this restaurant maybe hundreds of times when I take my trips to Lohmann’s or to the eye doctor. But never once thought about eating there because I am accustomed to having Vietnamese cuisine in Chinatown. A Vietnamese fusion restaurant sounded interesting to me so one day I decided to gather some of my closest friends to meet up here for dinner.
Let’s get started with the food shall we?
Saha Thai (Hidden Gem on Centre St.)
Saha Thai Cuisine
227 Centre St. (Btwn Grand & Broome St)
(212) 966-7886
This little hidden gem of a Thai restaurant is on Centre St. right between Chinatown and Soho. FineChinaGirl’s friend recommended a get together here and it did not disappoint at all! The owner of the restaurant will make sure your food tastes great and you enjoy it. She even cooks the food as she started it originally by herself. Dishes ranged from $7-9 and Chef Specials at $12-15, it is fairly cheap and you won’t be regret. Now onto the pictures!
Saha-Thai Crispy Vegetable Dumpling (Fried) w/Sweet Soy Sauce
Doesn’t that look delicious? It tasted delicious too. I’ve never had dumplings that looked like this good. Lots more after the jump!
Chickpea Restaurant
Chickpea
23 Third Ave
(btw St Mark’s Pl & E 9th)
New York, NY
For delivery: (212) 254-9500
Chickpea is, really a place to get a quick bite at relatively inexpensive prices. It’s a Fast food joint like Chipotle. Serving mainly middle-eastern food, Chickpea is known for its falafels, humus, and pita breads. It’s funny how I haven’t noticed this sooner seeing how I pass this place a trillion times. At first I thought that this place was too foreign for me, but I figured, why the heck not? Well, it was really softrice that nagged me to death to go, so I figured, why not? I like middle-eastern foods like Gyros, so I thought I’d give it a try.
As you can see, this chickpea restaurant isn’t that big, but it can get really packed at times. Luckily when I was there, it wasn’t as packed as usual so that worked in my favor. People usually do not stay here to eat as you can see with its limited seating arrangements, and they do come in by the bunch to order out for dinner. I must say, food here seems much healthier than your McDonalds, Wendys, etc. Of course there was middle-eastern music that played in the background, which I thought was much too loud, but I guess it adds that to needed ambience.
To start things off, I ordered a falefel combo w/hummus and pickles that came with a choice of lentil or chicken soup, which I chose the lentil, and a soft drink for $7.30 including tax. This is cheaper than Chipotle, but the gigantic burrito makes up for it’s price. Also you can add in your own toppings like pickles, cucumbers, etc, like how it is when you’re at a Subways.
(sorry for the blurriness)
When you eat there, you’ll see two bottles on the table: white and hot sauce. Being how I’m not a fan of hotness, I drenched my falafel with the white sauce. Mm…you’ll need it otherwise it’ll taste kind of bland.
The rest of the group, softrice, miss eggrolls, kimberly, and a new guy Francis, ordered pretty much the same thing except that Kim didn’t order the Falefel and just had the chicken soup that came with a warm pita bread for $2.25.
First: The Lentil soup.
I’ve never had lentil soup before, but I liked this one. It’s creamy and has a tastes of green peas, since it also comes from the legumes group. It can come as a little bland, but I like it that way because it’s soothing and creamy to me. This tastes especially good when you’re coming out from the icy cold weather. I would recommend this.
Second: The Falafel.
I enjoyed having the falafel which is composed of fried ball of chickpeas/other spiced beans served with a pita bread. Great thing about this is that it’s vegetarian and it tastes good. Softrice did not like it one bit, but he needs to understand that for a fast food restaurant, this is not bad. Really having a falafel can be counted as having a snack, you know a comfort food. I enjoyed it, but you really need to add toppings like pickles or onions to make the falafel tastes good otherwise it’ll taste dry and bland. And also don’t forget to use your choice of white or hot sauce.
Overall: It was an interesting trip coming there. Softrice didn’t like the food at all and would give it a D-, but I think this place is better than that.
Rating: 3.5/5
1 – Unsatisfactory
2 – Subpar, it’s edible and lacking taste
3 – Good, the taste is OK but nothing too special
4 – Very good
5 – Excellent
Health Inspection Results
23 3 AVENUE, MANHATTAN 10003
212-228-3445
Current violation points: 14 – PASSED
Inspection Date: 12/20/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) “Choking first aid” poster not posted.”Alcohol and Pregnancy” Warning sign not posted. “Wash hands” sign not posted at hand wash facility. Resuscitation equipment: exhaled air resuscitation masks(adult & pediatric), latex gloves, sign not posted. Inspection report sign not posted.
2.) Toilet facility not maintained and provided with toilet paper, waste receptacle and self-closing door.
3.) Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
4.) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
