Steps in the right direction
Dining, dancing and connecting with the menu at Glendale’s Sabor Cantina
By Erica Wayne 10/21/2009
When I first heard of Sabor, its full name was Sabor Latin Fusion Cuisine; by the time I got there, it preferred the subtitle Mexican Restaurant y Cantina. Why the change? I’m not sure, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt its popularity. When we arrived on Friday evening, the four of us found a slew of happy diners — several in large family parties and one company celebration that took the entire south side of the huge dining space.
Although it was only about 7:30, many of the clients were there for the long haul; a deejay and dancing were scheduled to start at 10. In the meantime, loud (perhaps a touch too loud) music encouraged a few couples to take the floor for a pre-game mambo. Nary a mariachi to be seen — the music was Havana and Rio.
After ordering our drinks (selecting from mojitos with rum or tequila, daiquiris and other tropical concoctions), we checked out the menu. We decided to try some empanadas with pico de gallo ($6.25) and Peruvian-style ceviche, made with fresh halibut in a three-citrus marinade ($9.25), to start.
The mojito had adequate mint but rather less sugar than usual. A Miami Iced Tea was appropriately lethal. The Tanqueray my husband (a traditionalist) ordered was $10, $2 more than the mixed drinks. The empanadas were among the best I’ve had, the chicken filling well-spiced and the pastry light and flaky. The ceviche, unfortunately, never arrived; but we made do with chips and salsa.
Two of our entree choices were from the Mexican part of the menu: a double selection of crab enchiladas ($13.99), served with green salsa, sliced avocado, sour cream, rice and beans de la olla. And two of us picked from the section titled “Habana Favorites”: Sabor grilled chicken ($14.99), sautéed in a house sauce with grilled onions, served with white rice and sautéed vegetables; and churrasco latino ($16.99), skirt steak served with white rice and black beans.
Once we’d tasted everything, our conclusions were unanimous; if the enchiladas are indicative of the quality of the Mexican cooking, perhaps we’d be better off further west. The main problem was the crab — it tasted canned, probably snow, and was minutely shredded. But most important, it was so salty that it tainted the enchilada — even the beans (refried, not potted) and rice couldn’t mitigate the saline excess.
I noticed later that the dish was supposed to come with a choice of soup or salad, but the waiter never mentioned them. The menu listed albondiga and chicken tortilla soup, both of which might have been worth trying; and the house salad supposedly includes tomatoes, bacon, eggs and croutons. Too bad.
The chicken dish was good, with a moist plump breast nicely sauced and a huge heap of mixed veggies. However, it paled in quality beside the tender steak — ordered rare and so delivered, despite the thinness of the cut.
There are lots of other dishes at Sabor that sound promising. Mexican jambalaya, with shrimp, chicken and spicy Italian sausage in a Cajun white wine sauce ($14.99) seems intriguing. Rabo encendido (ox-tail cooked criollo style, $14.99) is a traditional Cuban treat, as are ropa vieja (shredded flank steak in a tangy tomato sauce, $13.99) and bistec empanizado (sirloin — breaded, seasoned and sautéed with Cuban spices — $14.99).
And, if we came back, I’d probably order the crispy calamari appetizer ($7.25), some more empanadas and a dish of vaca frita (grilled shredded beef sautéed with onions, served in a plantain flower placed over fufu, $14.99). It’s a pleasant surprise to see fufu on the menu, since the African-based dish, found in Caribbean cooking and usually made from yam or plantain, rarely shows up in mainstream Cuban cuisine.
Because our enchiladas went largely uneaten and because the ceviche and soup/salads never made it to our table, we definitely had room for dessert. Our menu said the flan de coco and the arroz con leche were both $5, but our bill said each was $6. No matter; the flan was a large rich square — the coconut was a nuance rather than a major player — and eminently satisfying. Ditto the rice pudding — a perfect finale.
Well, not exactly. We also had some Cuban coffee — strong demitasses of night-dark espresso, almost as rich and satisfying as the flan and pudding. And as we left, we had the pleasure of watching more and more dancers take to the floor — samba, tango, bossa nova. They were having fun and, despite the flaws in our dinner, so did we.
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