Sabor Long Branch NJ

Regional Dining Discussions New Jersey
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Here’s another place I’ve seen discussed a dozen times on this board but doesn’t have its own thread so here we go.

I’ve heard about Sabor numerous times between here and chow from my pals @seal, @joonjoon, @VikingKaj and @corvette_johnny have frequently mentioned my need to give this spot a try. Tonight it was just my son and I so I decided to give Sabor a try. First for those who have never been, this isn’t a place to bring a first date, unless she is a true carnivore. Casual best describes the buffet setting which consists of an average fruit and salad bar along with a hot buffet of about 18 different items. This leads over to an open grill pit with skewers of rodizio rotating over the fire, unlike normal rodizio where they go table to table you go to the counter and they cut and serve you there.

They offer two payment options the first is by the weight of your plate, the second is $25 all you can eat which we chose.

Neither of us touched the fruit/salad bar content on just attacking the hot buffet and meats. The buffet has rice, chicken cutlets, ox tail, mixed vegetables, cut chicken on the bone, chicken wings, sausage, speghetti, potatos, corn, thick fried bacon and many other items I’m either forgetting or couldn’t identify. I sampled: rice, chicken cutlets, chicken wings, ox tail, sausage all of which were fine. Nothing stellar nothing bad, the ok tails I would have had more of if not for the meats awaiting me.

The had, skirt, sirloin, brisket, ribs, sausage, bacon wrapped chicken, chicken hearts, roast beef. (Maybe a couple others that’s all I recall.

The skirt was the best, the brisket and beef ribs a close second. The ribs had crispy fatty bits which were fantastic with the fall off the bone (they actually cut it off the bone for serving) was sooo good. The worst thing was the bacon wrapped chicken was way over cooked and too dry. The brisket was cut with a fork tender, also very good. Overall I put the quality slightly below Fernandez however the fact you can immediately request exactly what you want rather than wait for the rotation is a big plus.

Only true negative is they don’t offer “free water” bottle only and the salty nature of the meats makes you consume multiple bottles. Also on my last trip up, my 3rd or 4th, they just re salted the skirt steak so the large salt crystals hadn’t melted into the meat and was WAY overpowering and pretty much puckered my mouth so I called it a night.

Certainly worth going back on a non-90+ degree night knowing now what cuts to stick with. I don’t know if it was an off night (Tuesday) but they had maybe 10 total offerings as opposed to 18+ at a Fernandes style rodizio.

I don’t know what the price per pound/plate was but that seemed to be the majority of the sales I witnessed while there.

Definitely a good find!

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I too love this place - spent my last birthday there with a big group for all you can eat. (I brought in a gallon jug of water)

Love their skirt steak, sirloin, chicken hearts. The salad bar is pretty weak but obviously not the star of the show… usually stick to fried plaintains or flan on the salad bar.

It can be annoying to wait a while when it gets busy for more food when going all you can eat, but that’s the cost of coming here vs. table-side rodizio.

One warning is that if you do go by-the-pound pricing, the pricing tier is pretty strange and I haven’t figured it out. From what it appears, the price depends on whether you have salad items on your plate, and what quality of meat you get (top picanha costing more), and day and time of day…

I’ve found that they do often resalt the meat on subsequent trips up… not sure if it’s a measure to stop us from eating or just the normal cooking method.

They have excellent menu items as well such as sandwiches, burgers, smoothies, and desserts. Love their tres leche cake.

On the way out make sure to grab one of those delectable looking chocolate balls, called brigadeiros for $1.

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I find this problem in several authentic Mexican restaurants as well. In these, at least, I figure it is a cultural thing, where consuming tap water is not something that is done. At Sabor, it just sounds like greed.

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I’ll respond a little more later but they definitely have free water at Sabor, you just have to ask.

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Well here’s the thing. We ordered two waters when we were “checking out” (not paying you pay when you leave but this was telling them if you were doing the pay per weight or all you can eat) when they take your drink order. So we sat with our two bottles, but my son chugged his immediately, so he asked the waiter for “regular water” and the waiter returned with another bottle. (perhaps language barrier, perhaps misunderstanding, perhaps thinking he was being an excellent server by bringing him a refill of what he had). After that though I wasn’t going to insist on tap water and create a scene in case it wasn’t their thing. It was never offered to us, but again we were already drinking a bottle of water.

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All my friends think I’m weird when I bring my own water bottle into restaurants.

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{{nodding in agreement with friends}}

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My solution to that problem is to always bring a six pack of beer when I eat at Sabor Do Brazil.

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@seal

Great problem-solving skills!

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Gp, I’m pretry sure it is the skirt steak they charge you more for, not the sirloin. And yes, once they cut off a slice of top sirloin it goes back on the grill and is tradiontally salted again .

Jr, have you been to rodeio grill? I am a bigger fan of that place. I’m not a salad bar guy really so I can’t compare the two but rodeio has more meat selections and it is table side. The fries come out blazing hot from the fryer which I like and their rice and beans are tasty. The fried bananas are good too. So the offerings are far less than the sabor buffet but I think the quality of the meat and few sides win in my book.

On a side note I finally had a rodizio experience I didn’t really enjoy as I’m down here in fl. Boi Brazilian in orlando…what a half ass place and 36 a head. The only decent cut was top sirloin and everything else was pretty bad. Im glad it’s on my expense account. :smirk:

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For what it’s worth it was the skirt steak specifically that they had re-salted which puckered me into quitting. My first two trip up were sampling what red meats they had to offer. (so no chicken and sausage) By my 3rd and 4th trip I had narrowed my selections to skirt, brisket and beef rib, so it was 100% the skirt steak they had re-salted.

I have been to rodeio one time over 10 years ago. It was a bachelor party there were a group of us 15+, we were drinking and loud I’m sure and our presence was not appreciated. There was a small “incident” which was most likely our fault, however I just never felt a welcomed to go back.

Does anyone remember when the old Hanna’s on 35 in Eatontown across from Fort Monmouth (Star 50’s / Jersey Girl/ now the Calvary Chapel) was a rodizio place? It was short lived but it was a Brazillion BBQ with an awesome buffet and table side rodizio and it was AWESOME. Only lasted a year or two, this was when smoking was still allowed and they had a “safari” themed cigar room which was so cool. I wish they lasted.

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I liked this place a lot and missed it when it was quickly gone.

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I’ve never seen them resalt skirt steak in my life…weird. They always resalt up the outside of meat they vertically slice like top sirloin, brisket, tri sirloin, etc.

As for the fort Monmouth place, did the shooting have anything to do with that place shutting down?

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No the shooting was during the Star 50 / Jersey Girls phase, it was the rodizio place for about a year + then a decent Italian place for a year + prior to closing.

Listen I like Sabor and I will be back, I don’t know what the story with the salt was but it won’t deter me from returning.

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Glad you finally got to try this place - I actually enjoy the salad bar quite a bit here. I love those shredded collards and the bell pepper salsa thing they got going. Oxtails are always a good time, and on the weekends they have feijoada which I love. Crispy pork belly is good and I need that beef jerkey yucca powder thing in my life for things to be right!

As for the meats, the slow roasted ones can be hit or miss - like the short rib. I’ve had some incredible fall apart tender ones but it’s also been really tough.

As @goodparmesan expertly noted, at the end of the day the only 3 cuts that matter here are sirloin, skirt and chicken hearts. My friends seem pretty firmly divided between sirloin and skirt - I am team sirloin myself.

Their pricing used to be all over the place but I believe now they have standardized to 9 bucks a lb or whatever, as long as you get a reasonable amount of other things on your place. The secret is to load your plate with the collards which takes up a lot of volume but very little weight and then pile on the meats. Try some of the oxtail juice on the greens, they go great together.

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Yeah, obviously for my first time I wasn’t looking to waste my time on the salad bar so I just glanced at it between the plates and hot buffet. (didn’t spot any hidden gems like the seared tuna at Fernandes!!) Even with the hot buffet I wanted to sample a few things but didn’t want to curb my appetite so I could enjoy as much meat as possible. I caught the short rib on a good day it was fall off the bone tender. Without a doubt it was skirt,short rib, brisket (actually the first time I ever had brisket like this and I’m in love) sirloin for me.

Great find sorry it took me so long to get there.

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I was trying to figure out how long it had been since I was at Sabor, according to this thread it’s been 7 years. Went yesterday with my son and it was as good as I remembered, maybe even better. They re-did the place it looks “nicer” then I remembered, and the salad bar / buffet seemed to offer more items.

Still only about 8 skewers of meat to choose from and I had the: short rib -= garlic steak - brisket - chicken all were very good.

$35 for AYCE or you pay per plate weight. I would certainly go back, hopefully not in another 7 years.

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