The tasting menu
Twelve courses across four hours, from the market that morning. £145 per guest, served to the whole table.
Winter tasting menu, now serving
Twelve courses,
one long evening
A thirty-seat room in the old spice quarter, where the menu changes with the market and dinner is meant to take four hours. Reservations open on the first of each month.
- 12
- Courses
- 30
- Seats nightly
- 9yrs
- On Bridge Street
Michelin GuideWorld’s 50 Best: DiscoveryGood Food AwardSlow Food AllianceTerroir PrizeHarvest Table
Bridge Street, 2017
Our story
A kitchen built around what the market has that morning
Saffron began in 2017 as a supper club in the back of a spice merchant’s shop, cooking for whoever turned up. The menu was whatever the growers on Bridge Street had left at closing, and it changed every night out of necessity rather than principle.
Nine years later the room is our own and the principle stayed. Chef Amara Idowu writes the menu each morning after the market, so no two weeks taste the same and nothing travels further than the county line to reach the pass.
- Menu rewritten daily, printed at four o’clock
- Every producer within sixty miles, named on the card
- Whole-animal butchery and a zero-waste larder
The menu
Four ways to spend an evening
Every seating is a set menu. Tell us about allergies when you book and the kitchen will write around them rather than remove a course.
The garden menu
The same twelve courses, drawn entirely from the kitchen garden and our growers. Vegan on request, never an afterthought.
Cellar pairing
Nine glasses chosen by our sommelier, weighted toward small growers and older vintages. £95, or £45 without alcohol.
The chef’s table
Six seats at the pass, cooked and explained by the team in front of you. Wednesdays and Thursdays only.
The room
Why people come back
Four things we decided early, and have not been talked out of since.
One kitchen, one seating
Thirty guests, all seated within half an hour. Nobody is rushed for a second turn, because there is no second turn.
Growers on the card
Every producer is named beside the course they made possible. If it is not from within sixty miles, we tell you why.
Service without theatre
Our team explains a dish when it helps and steps away when it does not. No scripts, no performance, no hovering.
A table that keeps
Booked for something that matters? Tell us. Anniversaries, birthdays and first dates are written into the evening.
Visiting
Before you book
Reservations for the following month open at 9am on the first, and the weekends usually go the same day. Midweek tables are often available a fortnight out, and we hold six seats each night for walk-ins at the counter.
Yes, and gladly - tell us when you book rather than on the night. The kitchen rewrites courses around an allergy instead of removing them, so nobody at the table eats a shorter menu.
None. Come as you would to a good friend’s dinner. The room is warm, so most guests leave a jacket at the door.
Between three and a half and four hours for the full menu. If you have a train or a sitter to relieve, say so when you arrive and we will pace the kitchen accordingly.
Up to eight in the main room, and the whole restaurant for private dinners on Sundays and Mondays. Write to us and Amara will plan the menu with you.
Reservations
Come and eat with us
Send us the date and we will confirm within the day. For same-evening tables, please telephone the restaurant - the inbox moves slower than the room does.
- Address
- 14 Bridge Street, Old Spice Quarter
- Telephone
- +44 20 7946 0312
- Dinner
- Wednesday to Sunday, from 6pm