Saffron
About Saffron
Saffron Restaurant & Lounge is a modern Persian restaurant at 1107 North Palm Canyon Drive in the Uptown Design District of Palm Springs, California. OpenTable diners voted it Best Overall for the Palm Springs and Palm Desert cities in 2026, on a 4.9 rating across 340 reviews. We serve dinner Wednesday through Sunday from 4 PM, with happy hour from 4 PM to 6 PM. Reservations are recommended and walk-ins are welcome.
mehmoon-navazi, the honoring of a guest
Saffron opened on North Palm Canyon Drive in 2024, in a stretch of the Uptown Design District that had mid century furniture galleries and cocktail bars but no Persian kitchen. That gap was the whole idea. Palm Springs knows how to do desert modernism. It had never been given a room where saffron rice arrives with a lacquered crust of tahdig and a stew that has been on the stove since the night before.
Chef & Co-Owner Sev Nazarian trained at Le Cordon Bleu. He puts it plainly: Persian cooking is roughly 2,500 years old, and it sits underneath a great deal of what the rest of the region eats. The point of it is not the individual plate. It is the table, and mehmoon-navazi, the honoring of a guest.
Two years in, the dining room is regularly full of people who came for a kabab and stayed for the stews. In November 2025, Ashley Stein, co-owner of Saffron, was recognized with a PALM Award for Visitor Experience at the Greater Palm Springs Champions of Hospitality Awards, which honors guest service above everything else. That is the part we would most like to be known for.
You will find us most nights behind the bar or walking the floor. Come hungry. Nooshe jaan.
In the kitchen
za'faran · زعفران
Every thread is a hand picked stigma from a crocus flower, which is why saffron is worth more than gold by weight. We bloom ours in hot water rather than dropping it dry into rice, so the color and the honeyed aroma carry through the whole grain instead of staining a few of them.
the bottom of the pot
Tahdig is the bottom of the pot, the crisp golden layer that forms under whatever is cooking, and the most fought over food in any Persian household. It is not only a rice dish. Ours is made with thin lavash, crisped flat, and it takes a slow, patient hour over low heat that cannot be rushed or reheated, which is why the Flatbread Tahdig Trio is limited to a set number of orders each night. When it is gone, it is gone.
khoresh · خورش
Ghormeh sabzi and fesenjoon are cooked overnight, not for theater but because the herbs and the pomegranate molasses need that long to turn from sharp to deep. Nothing in this section can be made to order, so we cook for the day and the kitchen closes a dish when the pot is empty.
Slow cooked overnight. Tender filet chunks, sauteed herbs, kidney beans and dried lime, over saffron rice. The national dish of Iran, and the one we would ask you to order first.
$32
Sweet and tart walnut stew in pomegranate molasses with roasted chicken and saffron rice. Persian cooking at its least familiar and most rewarding. Contains tree nuts.
$32
Slow roasted saffron chicken over barberry saffron rice. The chef's favorite on the menu, and naturally gluten free.
$32
Sev Nazarian runs the kitchen. The chicken, beef and lamb are stewed for six hours or more before they reach a plate, which is why a Persian menu this size takes a full day of prep rather than a service window. The flavor is sweet and savory rather than hot and spicy, and much of the menu adapts to gluten free and vegetarian without being rebuilt. The full list, with prices and dietary tags on every item, is on the menu.
Press & recognition
Three write-ups sit below. The full record, with what diners say, is on the press page.
Visit Greater Palm Springs
PALM Award, Visitor Experience
Ashley Stein, co-owner of Saffron Restaurant & Lounge, was recognized in the Visitor Experience category at the 2025 Champions of Hospitality Awards, the region’s annual honors for guest service across all nine Greater Palm Springs cities.
Palm Springs Life
20 Must-Try International Restaurants in Palm Springs and Beyond
“Bringing Persian delights to Palm Springs.”
Saffron was the magazine’s Persian pick in its roundup of the valley’s international dining, with ghormeh sabzi singled out as the dish to order.
Palm Springs Tribune
Saffron: A New Taste of Persian Cuisine in Palm Springs
“More than just a restaurant, it’s a cultural experience.”
Eric Gray covered the opening on North Palm Canyon, walking through the mezze, the grill and the stews that anchor the menu.
The short version
Before you visit
Saffron serves modern Persian cuisine in Palm Springs. The menu covers mezze such as hummus, dolma and kashke bademjan, charcoal kababs including kubideh, filet, chicken and salmon, and slow cooked Persian entrees such as ghormeh sabzi, fesenjoon, zereshk polo and lamb shank. Most plates arrive with saffron basmati rice.
Saffron Restaurant & Lounge is at 1107 North Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262, in the Uptown Design District. Free parking is available on the side and rear of the restaurant, and the Kaiser Parking Structure sits directly across the street.
Walk-ins are welcome at Saffron. Reservations are recommended on weekends and during Palm Springs event weeks, and can be booked on OpenTable, by phone at (442) 268-5558, or by email at info@saffronps.com.
Yes. Vegan dishes include the hummus plate, dolma, salad shirazi and gheymeh bademjan. Vegetarian options include kashke bademjan, masto kheyar, grilled zucchini and the watermelon tower. Every kabab is gluten free, as are zereshk polo, dolma, salad shirazi and the flourless chocolate cake.
Dietary tags appear on every item on the menu page.
Happy hour runs from 4 PM to 6 PM every day we’re open, and all day on Wednesday. The bar pours craft cocktails built on Persian flavors including rose, saffron, pomegranate, chili and citrus.
Saffron is open Wednesday through Saturday from 4 PM to 9 PM and Sunday from 4 PM to 8 PM. The restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday.
In June and July the schedule narrows to Wednesday through Saturday, 4 PM to 9 PM, and Saffron closes for the month of August.
Yes. The private dining room seats groups around a single marble table under warm edison lighting, and is regularly booked for birthdays, anniversaries and business dinners. Email info@saffronps.com or call (442) 268-5558 to arrange a group booking.
There is no formal dress code. Most guests arrive in Palm Springs smart casual. The room is dark, intimate and lounge leaning, with tufted banquettes, a large mural and low warm lighting, and it suits both a date night and a long table with friends.
Yes. Corkage is $20 for a standard 750 ml bottle and $40 for a magnum. Those are the only two sizes we charge for.
The dining room and restrooms are on one level with step free entry from the North Palm Canyon Drive frontage. If you have a specific access need, call ahead at (442) 268-5558 and the team will reserve a table that works for you.
Nooshe jaan
Dishes made with love that will touch your soul.