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Last night, I had one of my most disappointing dining experiences in a long time. So many things just went wrong that it became comical. It all started a few months ago when Moody and I were having lunch somewhere over on the ASU campus and spotted a new restaurant caddy-corner to Sun Devil Stadium. Named Saffron, for some reason, we assumed it was a Spanish or Tapas restaurant.

Looking to eat out last night because our kitchen wasn't usable (back splash remodel in progress), I gave our friends Moody and Catherine a call to see if they might be interested in joining us out. Moody suggested we finally get around to trying Saffron, so the location was set.

The night we ate there just happened to be the night before the Fiesta Bowl, so downtown Tempe was an odd mix of pre-game college football fans, and city and school staff preparing for the game. I was worried that the restaurant might be packed, but that wasn't the case when we got there. Upon entering, the first thing we noticed was that there was no real indoor seating. Not that there weren't any tables available inside - there wasn't really an "inside" to speak of. Being the end of December in the Phoenix area, it was chilly outside, but not at all brutally cold. With the patio heaters going, it was relatively comfortable to be eating outside. It looks like the place had sliding glass doors that they could close and possibly have a handful of tables inside, but we weren't sure if that was the standard procedure or not.

Other than the four of us, there were two people sitting at the bar, and a private anniversary party of about 15 people or so setup with their own buffet seated next to us. There was a single waitress on duty. She promptly dropped off menus, which were designed like paint deck fans - so that each page rotated around a spindle through the corner. The design told me that regular menu changes probably weren't in the cards for Saffron. The waitress asked if we would be interested in a wine list, which we were. She headed off to get the list while we looked over the menu.

The first thing I noticed was that the menu was neither Spanish nor Tapas oriented. There was a separate page for appetizers, salads, Asian bowls, entrees, and desserts. The menu was all over the map. Some items were Asian, some India, there was Italian, French, and "American" as well. I couldn't find a unifying theme. What was really bizarre (at least to me) was that there was only a single dish on the menu that even mentioned saffron in the ingredients.

Before we had decided on anything, the waitress returned with the wine list. She mentioned they were out of a few wines on the list, but not which ones. The list was very small, consisting of about a ten or so each of red and white varieties. We were all in the mood for red, so Moody chose something I can't remember from the list. The waitress was sure they had it, but when she returned a few minutes later, she informed us that she was mistaken and that they were actually all out. Moody made another selection, which this time they had.

She came back a few minutes later with the wine, poured us each a glass, then took our orders. I asked what the soup of the day was (the menu said ask your server). The waitress said she would have to check and headed over for the bar. She was back a minute later to inform me that they had no soup today. My initial idea of appetizers and soup was shot. So instead, we started off with an order of samosas. Pere, Catherine and I all ordered the grilled pork tenderloin with smashed potatoes, creamed spinach and almond saffron curry sauce. Moody opted for penne with chicken, bacon, basil and marinara. Not two minutes after we ordered, our waitress returned with a scared look on her face. I was about to make a smart-ass comment about them being all out of the pork when she beat me to the punch. Apparently, they had no pork. This was strike three for the evening, and we hadn't even gotten our food yet. We all went back to the menu to come up with alternatives. Pere opted for chicken breast with corn and pepper over potatoes, Catherine went for fried tofu something or other, and I decided on the same penne Moody had ordered as I really couldn't find anything else that interested me.

The samosa arrived a few minutes later. There were four pieces to the order, which was great since there were four of us. One of my biggest restaurant pet peeves is when you order an appetizer and it's not evenly divisible by four people. I can understand needing to order two orders when you have a larger party of six or eight, but when you have four people and the appetizer has three pieces, it drives me crazy. We were all pretty hungry by this point, so we made quick work of the samosas. They were well prepared and tasted very good.

A few minutes later, our entrees arrived. The first look I had at my dish told me I had better brace myself for disappointment. The bowl contained a generous portion of penne smothered in red sauce. There was nothing else discernible (by sight) within the dish, except for a little parmesan which was quickly becoming absorbed into the mass of marinara sauce. The first bite didn't prove any better. There was barely any chicken to be found, and I was never able to find any bacon, nor even a hint of the basil from the description. The dish was completely ordinary. It tasted like jarred sauce, dried pasta, and parmesan that had been thrown together in one big glob. There was way too much of the red sauce, and (I can't believe I'm saying this), it had way too much garlic. The excess of the red sauce caused all of the parmesan to congeal resulting in something that was just barely edible. Moody had similar comments about his dish. Pere and Catherine were less than thrilled with theirs too.

In the end, we skipped dessert and headed back to Moody and Catherine's for after dinner drinks. I was really bummed that Saffron disappointed the way it did. I was hoping we were onto something and had discovered another interesting independent restaurant, but alas, all we found that night was indigestion.