Gold Standard

Saffron NOLA brings upscale Indian cuisine to Magazine Street.

- Jennifer Odell

The large, high-ceilinged dining space at 4128 Magazine Street has had ax rough few years. As Baie Rouge, it struggled to fill its perhaps overly open floor plan. When Chef Dominique Macquet took it over as Saveur, having given up his former restaurant’s home to what would become Shaya, it lasted less than a year. A week after Saveur closed, the more casual Tryst opened in its place and shuttered almost as quickly as it appeared.

Now, thanks to Arvinder Vilkhu, his wife Pardeep and their children Ashwin and Pranita, the space may have finally found its true calling. Last month, the family finally opened Saffron NOLA after months of buzz about their plans to take their enormously popular, one night-a-week Indian restaurant in Gretna—an offshoot of their catering business—across the river for full-time dinner service. The initially announced March opening was delayed as the Vilkhus renovated, transforming what had been a cavernous room into a sleek, warm interior inspired by the aesthetic of the Indian city Chandigarh.

When Saffron NOLA was ready for business, their devoted following took note, and fast.

“The soft opening was not a soft opening, it was opening hard from day one,” Arvinder said with a smile a few days after the restaurant’s August 10 grand opening. “It’s been nonstop ever since.”

Seated in one of the dining room’s plush, burgundy chairs, his eyes flitted briefly toward the kitchen, where a server inspected a steaming silver tray of curry leaf, garlic and onion-broiled P&J oysters.