Sabor - delicious seafood and vino in the heart of downtown

Posted by Its been a while since we hit up Sabor Divino, now with its name truncated to just Sabor.  We went back several times last year and when the downtown construction got to be a bit much, we meandered off to other restaurants for dinner.  (You can click here for a previous review - we didn't take pics of things we already tried this time around)After it expanded to take over a small spot next door to open up its vino-tapas based Bodega, happy to say the food is still top notch at its parent restaurant, name truncated or not... onto the food!
The service friendly and informative, and our waiter patiently repeated specials as we had a big table and people dropped in, in spurts as they found parking (there's an impark covered parking across the street and surprisingly a good amount of street parking around the area.  While we waited for everyone to find parking – luckily, there is a convenient covered parkade just across the street (construction woes always seem to be a problem in any downtown core), we nibbled on complimentary green and black olives. The crusty bread dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil wasn't present, but the olives were still tasty!

the DRINKS
The Sabor Caesar made with piri piri, Clamato, vodka and a skewer of proscuitto was delicious - unlike bacon that's sometimes used in other restaurants, the proscuitto didn't get mushy!

The Sangria, made with the traditional house recipe was declared yummy by my girlfriends that ordered it and loaded up with a good amount of fruit.

the APPETIZERS
The Clams and pork belly were done simply in a tomato based sauce

We couldn't leave without having the lobster risotto, which while having more tomatoes pureed into it than the original recipe, was still an indulgent rich dish with several good sized pieces of savoury lobster in it.

We also had the Grilled sardines.  On the right was the  Portuguese style with Molho verde and on the left they were topped with Spanish style salsa romesco.  Loved the fresh herbs in the verde that worked really well with the gently grilled sardines.  The romesco topped sardines while tasty too, was outshone by the bright fresh verde.

The Steak tartar with capers had a nice sweetness to it, and was made with very fine grind, lending a silky texture to it.  It was oddly served with fries instead of the usual crostinis or toasted/fried rye bread, so asked for more bread to eat it with… blurry pic sorry!

One of my girlfriends had the Grilled piri piri prawns which had a nice bit of heat to every succulent bite.

One of my other girlfriends had the Tomato and bocconcini salad with red wine vinaigrette and multicoloured tomatoes bursting with flavour. 

Dal and A had the Para Negra, purportedly the best ham in the world and quite enjoyed it (no pics sorries!), and they both enjoyed the  Smoked Duck Carpaccio was plated with an arugula salad tossed in a mustardy vinaigrette, and drizzled with lime and truffle oil. 

the ENTREES
Dal devoured the Steak Frites - a 12oz striploin cooked in a tarragon and sundried tomato butter with home cut fries (no pic).  A few of our fellow foodies went with the Seafood Paella  that was super loaded with prawns, scallops, calamari, mussels, clams, veges and just a bit of fragrant saffron rice.

KimChee and her hubby shared the gargantuan Seafood Platter for Two- medium sized lobster along with huge pile of clams, mussels, with a generous portion of seared prawns and scallops, as well as tender calamari to the side (no pic - I left them dig into the mountain of food without having to wait for me to snap pics lol).  I went with the Chilean Seabass - Patagonian toothfish with grilled artichokes, cherry tomatoes, black olives, bay potatoes and fermented black garlic swirl.

Cooked to perfection, the sea bass was melt in your moth buttery tender and moist.  The veges almost tasted like they were tossed in a tangy pickled artichoke juice, but tasty none the less.  Would have loved some couscous instead of the potatoes to soak up the flavours.

the DESSERTS
Our waiter kindly gave us a Sabor Cheesecake with port cherries on the house as we were celebrating a birthday. Its also available in passionfruit coulis.  We loved how incredibley fluffy and light the whipped cheesecake was and it disappeared quickly.

Most of us shared dessert or went with their temptation/ taster size of their in house made desserts as we were pretty stuffed from dinner. Their temptation size turned out to be about half the size of their full sized portions.  Some of my girlfriends (and guy friends) had the Tiramisu… can't remember which one was the full sized vs temptation size as they were both pretty big!

L went with the lightest dessert: Leite Crème "Dona Irene". Its a light and airy Portuguese cream custard topped with caramelized sugar and a dusting of cinnamon. (no pic) while A and Dal went with the Chocolate cayenne mousse, a light as a cloud and not overly sweet airy mousse with just a hint of heat.

the VERDICT
Overall, still a delightful place for a special evening out, delicious food with excellent execution of their seafood!

Sabor Divino
Address #109, 10220-103 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 4A1
Phone 780-757-1114
Hours Lunch Monday-Friday 11:30-2pm, Dinner Mon-Sat 5pm onwards, Closed Sundays
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