Safran

Safran

Owner

Safran welcomes you to try a Vietnamese cuisine like no other. A style one could perhaps call Viet-chic, Safran serves contemporary, Vietnamese cooking evolved to include influences and elite techniques from around the world.

Executive Chef Laura Lam (formally of the Rainbow Room and Monsoon Restaurant) was raised in Vietnam, but through her education and travels, has developed a cooking style like New York has never before seen. Her dishes are prepared using an array of spices, fresh herbs and seasonal fruits.

The drink menu is filled with house-concocted specialty drinks made from fresh herbs like ginger, lavender and mint and exotic fruit mixed with premium spirits (flavored vodka, sugarcane rum etc.) and carefully chosen accents such as Perrier Jouet.

The modern, upscale setting of Safran reflects the restaurant's unique qualities and is ideal for groups & intimate evenings.

Justin Hartung

Citysearch

The Scene
Paralleling its border-crossing menu, Safran's main dining room puts a Chelsea polish on Asian restaurant basics. Pale green and beige stripes line the walls, with bright splashes of orange provided by high-backed chairs. A steel bead curtain extends past the staircase to the downstairs, where a tiny pond is cut into a raised wood floor. Throughout, golden statues peer from wall nooks at the crowd.

The Food
Though the menu's billed as French-Vietnamese, a few creative side-trips occur. A tasty dim sum sampler includes an abalone dumpling, while sushi-style chunks of tuna in seviche get a tangy jalapeno dressing. Entrees follow more familiar Indochinese routes, with varied success: Tender cubes of beef anchor bo loc lac, but duck breast confit, priced on the French side, is sinewy and paired awkwardly with honey-glazed foie gras. A nut-shaped pistachio and almond dessert syncs perfectly with the decor.