How many indian restaurants does the main line need? Apparently, there’s no such thing as too many. With the plethora of tiffins and ektas around, here we have a proper sit-down indian restaurants, with tablecloths and everything! Saffron Indian Kitchen, in Bala Cynwyd, is a BYOB. They’ve got a serious yellow theme going on… could it be because saffron turns things yellow? Well, it’s adorable, warm, and happy. The servers wear bright yellow polo shirts too. And foregoing fancy computerized reservation systems, they use a yellow legal pad instead. You have to admire their old school ways.
Some hot piping naan. Is there a point to eating indian food without it? To me, I eat indian food because I want to eat naan!
J got the kadai paneer makhani, his favorite dish in the entire menu. It is homemade cheese with green bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and freshly ground spices. I can see why he likes this so much, except for the green peppers. Get rid of them and it would be so much better! I was feeling a little spicy so I got the lamb vindaloo. But you never know what you’re going to get with that stuff. Sometimes it can be freakishly spicy. Not in this case. This vindaloo was only mildly spicy and the lamb was super tender and practically melted in my mouth. Good stuff.
We got the ghulab jamun for dessert. But man, the server really was trying to push the rice pudding on us. Did they have a giant bucket of rice pudding that was just about to turn? Were they going to get a bonus by selling tons of this stuff? In any case, we resisted. I remember having these before at a friend’s house. These are warm dumplings in a sweet rose water syrup. And when they say sweet, they mean it! The service was just fine, if not a bit pushy! There’s even a parking lot in the back, a sweet plus!

How the hell did I end up at JR Monaghan’s? I can’t even get into it, but I can tell you about these cheese steak freakin egg rolls which were about some of the greatest appetizers I’ve ever eaten in m life. It is an egg roll wrapped stuffed with grilled chipped steak, sweet onions, jack and cheddar cheese, and served with a spicy ketchup. Ok, it might sound kind of gross, but it’s totally not. They’re totally amazing and I’m dying that I’ve never had them before until now. Who cares that these are obviously beyond terrible for you. They will knock your socks off. I’m in love with these.
R’s Black and Bleu Burger, cajun spiced with crumbled bleu cheese. The cajun spice sounds fine, but I hate anything with stinky cheese. That sure is a lot of bacon!
I got the french onion burger, so it was like french onion soup topped onto a burger. This was a good burger! And it was a tuesday night, so it was buy one burger, get the other half price. So for all your suburban recessionistas, here you go! The fries were only alright. But who cares, because this place is awesome solely for their cheese steak egg rolls. I’m sold!

I got H/A to pick me up at the airport and I rewarded him with a meal of his choice. Except, it was really my choice, and I chose Pho & Cafe Anh Hong, which is one of the few vietnamese places in the burbs. I’d gotten take-out from there a few times, but this was my first dining in visit. It’s a few doors down from H Mart. It’s the closest place to home where I can get pho.
H/A got the rice plate with charbroiled chicken, shredded pork, and egg quiche. He liked it, but the shredded pork stuff did not appeal to me. Note to self, do not ever order that.
I wasn’t feeling bun or pho, so I got something I haven’t tried before, the rice flake with charbroiled pork and steam pork roll. I’m not sure where the term rice flake comes from, because it’s not flake shaped or flaky. It’s just wide flat rice noodles that are rolled up and they put the meat stuff on top. It’s basically like a vermicelli bowl except the noodles are different and it’s served on a plate. I was not a big fan of the pork roll. I made H/A eat it because he grew up with that stuff and likes it. Or even if he doesn’t, he’s like a personal food garbage man. This tasted fine, but I think I’ll stick to bun. It was a little bit more difficult to eat.