Sabores landed in the Yelp list of Top 100 Restaurants in the US. No mention of how this list is compiled, and perhaps there is even a ‘pay for play’ element to this list. I suppose it is no more ridiculous than the Michelin system.
The menu features traditional Spanish tapas that you can find at many other places as well as South American influenced tapas that you won’t find elsewhere.
Tried six tapas:
Patacones - Green Plantains with shredded chicken and salsa golf.
Arepitas - Topped with shredded beef
Feijoada - Black beans in beef broth
Grilled Asparugus with Romesco sauce
Mushrooms with garlic and olive oil
Argentinian sausages with sofrito
The overall quality was high. The arepitas were very pillowy, and the plantains were made into a cup filled with the chicken. Salsa golf has a mayo/ketchup base, here served thin. Nice little bite of deliciousness.
The star of the show was the bowl of feijoada, really nice texture and flavor.
Mushrooms were serviceable, you can surely execute this at home. Not like Jaleo.
Sausages and sofrito were very nice, but skimpy even by the standards set by the ‘precious tapas’ committee.
Asparagus was not quite at the level of Jaleo, though this dish sometimes falls off the Jaleo menu.
I will go back to check out some of their Happy Hour deals. Overall, I am more inclined to go to Barca in Alexandria for Spanish tapas that have a middle eastern influence. Bigger portions and more deliciousness.
Interesting to see this on a Spanish menu. Being from New England, I associate this dish with the Portuguese/Brazilians. And it ain’t tapa-sized, typically.
Toni and I ate at Sabores Tapas Bar a few days after you, for the same reason as you – we were curious about the high Yelp ranking. Reader rankings are highly unreliable (the popularity of the Cheesecake Factory should be proof enough of this), so we were fully prepared to hate Sabores.
But, while the idea that Sabores is one of the 100 best restaurants in the US is ludicrous, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the meal. And I can see why it’s popular, with its affordable but delicious mix of a few traditional Spanish tapas (the patatas bravas were exceptional) and more pan-Latin dishes. The customers around us were loudly appreciative of the food and I can see why.
That’s the Peruvian ceviche. It was very good, but not quite as good as the best Peruvian restaurants (like Pisco y Nazca DC). The only dish I wouldn’t order again was the Argentinian chorizo. It was a little dry.
