Sabor

“She'll bite you… If I tell her.” being slightly intimidated by a toothless man wielding a lhasa apso wasn't how I'd planned to spend my Saturday evening, and I was lucky at this point that we shared a common language, ‘slightly pissed’, enabling me to smile and gurn my way out of trouble. Granted, he was slightly more fluent than I, elevated only slightly from the level of street drinker by dint of the pub bench he sat at. Sat outside the New Rose, next door to Sabor and a glimpse of the other Islington. Only a mile from but a million miles removed from the gentrified surroundings of Islington Green and Upper Street.

Essex Road has sidestepped most of the ill effects of recent gentrification, with the odd outriding bar or restaurant gradually spreading the money down from Upper Street and Islington Green. As you head further down, these become fewer and further between, replaced instead with a scattering of old style cafes, blacked out pub windows, bottle shops and the more colourful side of street life. I like it, but then I live in Camberwell.

We weren't here for the salty locale though, we were here on recommendation, punctuating an evening's drinking with a bite to eat at the relatively upmarket ‘Nuevo Latino’ cantina Sabor. It's a thin, bright space with white walls, primary coloured tables and an eclectic selection of South American objects scattered across the wall, somewhere across between a child's playgroup and gap year returnee's bedroom.

The food was well meaningly authentic but fairly scattergun, starting with a warm but too dry cornbread. I went for a seemingly Peruvian style of potato known as Papas Rellenas, essentially a thickened mash with a spiced minced meat filling, served with a tomato ‘foam’ on the side. It wasn't disastrous, but watching others plough into hot flakey empanadas and surprisingly solid vegetarian quesadillas I did have a little pang. There were some great dishes among the starters in the group, sadly mine wasn't one of them.

For my main I went for a rib-eye. Well cooked and a great bit of meat to boot. Unfortunately the balsamic glazed plantain that it came with was a little eye-watering for me though. It's an interesting idea, but the al dente discs of banana's bigger brother just didn't take enough of the marinade on, leaving it darkly slick across the plate. It clashed with the over-garlicky chimichurri like two rival gangs on my palate.The lettuce accompanying was just pointless. A classic piece of menu Tourettes. I regretted my choice watching across the tiny toy tables as one of the party ploughed into a Cuban shredded beef brisket and rice dish with a wonderful piquancy to it. There were similar positive murmurs about the red snapper. It certainly smelt good, though the sample I tried got mugged on the way to my tastebuds by that chimichurri.

Desserts followed the theme. My chocolate tres leches was a classic three milk brownie, dense and sticky, a perfect balance of texture, sweet and bitter. Two of the party went for what seemed like a sweetened, poached tomato, served disingenuously with a spoon of highly alcoholic rum and raisin.

It's a fun, friendly and fairly good value night out. I don't see myself back here at any point in the near future, but that's more the area than the restaurant. It's worth popping in if you're nearby.

What a ghastly experience!

After reading the reviews and looking immensely forward to an evening out with good friends and scrumptious food, I was extremely shocked. Right from the beginning the whole experience was something I would rather not remember in a hurry.

The restaurant could not find our booking, the waiter was rude, we were served the wrong wine and the food was appalling. When we complained, the manager (or owner – who knows) shouted at us and worked himself in to such a frenzy he expressed ‘humiliation’ and kicked us out, after dumping the bill on our table. We were given no chance to explain our disappointments. I have never been treated this badly in a restaurant.

They clearly did not want to listen to critique. Well I'll give it now; their food was sub-standard, a starter of sweet corn fritters which was like dough and a tough, grizzly, fatty piece of rib-eye and most certainly NOT cheap, shoddy service and arrogant staff.

All I can say is don't even bother trying with this restaurant, it's a complete disappointment.

Last week I visited Sabor with friends for Sunday lunch. To begin with we had the duck quesidilla, which was a tasty and substantial starter, and the scallops which were delicious – however no need for the dry and unappetizing corn bread that is served with it. The chorizo was full of flavour but very tough and the accompanying sides were bland and tasteless, however the sweetcorn fritters were a great veggie starter. All in all lovely beginnings… Unless you ordered the fillet steak – which was outstanding, the mains were a huge disappointments.. the chicken and saffron mash was moist and enormous, but fairly bland in flavour, the seafood stew tasted bizarre, kind of earthy… and the beef brisket was a let down, and once again bland. If we had all ordered steak we would have left delighted and as the food bill was reduced by 50% (a deal that we did not know was on) we should have all had 2 steaks each!!

It is a bright and cheery restaurant, however quite chilly… The service was very friendly, when challenged they were not the most helpful with the menu, the (delicious) cocktails took a while to arrive, they sat on the bar, nearly within our reach, waiting for a waiter to serve them.

Will certainly return for scallops and steak, whilst the 1/2 price deal is on!

Every meal we have had at Sabor has been of a high standard and we could not fault the food last night. The duck quesadilla starter was a great twist on a classic dish and the steak dishes stood out as being particularly tasty. Desserts were a little limited and very sweet, but typical of Latin America and beautifully presented. However, there are a couple of things that let down the overall dining experience. The service, albeit very friendly and pleasant, was extremely slow; although the place was lively it was by no means full. We have noticed this before when it was busier and assumed the kitchen/waiting staff were just a little overstretched. The acoustics aren't that great either, probably owing to the fact that the restaurant is one, long corridor in a very sleek and modern minimal decor with the tables closely lined up down the side. There is a funky bar which runs down the majority of the other side which looks great but is a terrible waste of space. There were six of us and it was a real struggle to hear the conversation around the table even though the tables aren't huge and you are sat close to one another. This was a shame as it took the edge off what was otherwise a very reasonable priced (thanks to the ongoing offers) and pleasant meal. When we return, we will definitely request a table at one end of the room!

Sabor is a real treat! The dishes are consistently of a very high standard and the owner add that touch of Southamerican ambience to a great dining experience. The pan fried scallops were plentiful and deliciously spiced up with a passion fruit butter and the cancato de chiloe, seabream stuffed with chorizo and tomatoes was great!
The residents of Islington have a gem of a restaurant on their doorsteps. It is not so far away from Upper street and well worth the effort