SAFA
Freshly-ground spices, locally-sourced ingredients and authentic recipes; they’re what you’ll get at this con Located in a historic building above Kelly’s Cellars, SAFA is sleek and contemporary and the food is the real deal. By that we mean there are no artificial additives or nasty dyes. Everything is cooked from scratch and it’s all DELICIOUS.
Owner Ali Askir was brought up in Northern Ireland but has strong links with Bangladesh. A trained chef, he has 25 years’ experience in the industry and he always wanted his own place. He also wanted to keep it local when it came tp ingredients, so, the lamb in the Jalfrezi comes from Newry, the chicken in the Chettined is from Antrim. That’s our favourite, by the way. It’s a fiery South Indian dish infused with fresh coconut and curry leaves.
Unlike the typical Indian restaurant, the wine menu is full of decent choices and the desserts go way beyond the bought-in ice-creams and sorbets. They make their own Kulfi (Indian ice-cream) and traditional sweets as well as doing a divine Devil’s Food Cake and cheesecake.
Prices are unbelievably reasonable. Ok, that’s where SAFA DOES resemble a typical Indian restaurant. It’s cheap enough to eat there as often as you like. Lunch is just £6.95 for one course and £8.95 for 2 between 12 and 4pm.
