Saffron Indian Restaurant

About Saffron Indian Restaurant

Saffron opened on North Cache Street on May 15, 2025, as downtown Jackson's first restaurant built around traditional Indian and Nepalese cooking. Owner Bir Raut, co-owner Sanjaya Dahal, and chef Lila Yonjan brought the concept over from two sister restaurants — Durbar Nepalese and Indian Bistro in Cheyenne and a related restaurant in Steamboat Springs, Colorado — after Raut spent roughly two years looking for the right Jackson location. "People can expect authentic Indian food," Raut told the Jackson Hole News&Guide at the time. "We are all from Nepal or India."

The 122-seat restaurant sits at 225 North Cache, across from the Home Ranch parking lot, and serves lunch and dinner seven days a week. The menu runs through the core of North Indian and Nepalese cooking: biryani, rogan josh, and korma built on a creamy cashew sauce, alongside masalas built with cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon. Saag dishes bring spinach-based sauces to the table, and paneer shows up in several preparations. Naan comes in butter, garlic, cheese, and coconut versions, and papadum — a thin chickpea-flour cracker bread — rounds out the table. Every dish can be ordered at one of five spice levels, from none up through extra hot, so the kitchen isn't guessing at how much heat a table wants.

Lunch and dinner are served as two distinct windows rather than continuously through the afternoon, with a break in between for the kitchen to reset. The restaurant can be reached at (307) 264-1001.

Saffron arrived in Jackson as part of a small regional expansion rather than a first-time venture — the team already had two restaurants running in Cheyenne and Steamboat Springs before committing to a Jackson location, which took roughly two years to find. That track record shows up in the menu's breadth: it covers rich curries, tandoor-style breads, and biryani rather than a narrowed-down, tourist-facing sampler menu.