Sabor Of Spain

After several evening visits during happy hour, I’m a fan. I can’t add much to what the other reviewers have said; my own experiences have been great!
Every time I stop in, I make a new friend at the bar. The wines are good; a few more well-​priced additions to the wine list would earn another star from me.
Salud!

Seriously, this place is not worth your time. It’s places like this that make me love Unilocal.They have some of the worst customer service ive ever experienced. I stood there with my girlfriend waiting to be seated while they only had 2 other tables this night, and we had to seat ourselves because the staff was not inviting us or seating us. Then, we had to wait until they finally delivered us our menus after we sat ourselves, and then after we ordered, the tapas were absolutely horrible. The albondigas tasted like chef boarder ravioli, except with less flavor, and the Serrano ham, tasted like nearly expired Safeway select brand deli meat. I will never eat here again, and this restaurant is an insult to Spanish culture and the marin community.

We had our wedding rehearsal dinner here for 32 people in the side room of Sabor last year and it was fantastic.
Food: We had a smaller menu based on our favorite dishes there — portion sizes and quality for a large group was fantastic — our family and closest friends thought the food was great, was pretty much stuffed at the end of the night, and kept asking how we even found this place!
Service: Great! Scott was initially very difficult to get a hold of, but once we connected, he was easy to work with and very accommodating. We were a little worried before the dinner because we called to confirm a couple days before to check that everything was in order but didn’t hear back from anyone. The day before, we called again and spoke with someone at the restaurant and they just said everything was ready. I would say we were a little worried, but when we showed up, they really did take care of everything! Service was great all throughout dinner.
Ambiance: Its such a cozy, casual but trendy little place. Given the neutral brown black yellow tones used in the place, it has a very warm feeling. It can be romantic for sure. The side room was great — We could hear the live music and it was still very private. They had nicely decorated the table –it really looked like we spent a ton of time coodinating with them, but in actuality, they took care of everything.
Finding this place for our larger party turned out to be such a pleasant surprise.

Made a reservation for 9:30pm. This seemed reasonable since they close at 11pm on Saturdays. When our party arrived, there was one table occupied and in the middle of a meal. However, they told us that they were closed because the night was slow. We walked out without mentioning our reservation.
Seems they won’t stay open much longer if they keep turning away business.

The food is good. Don’t go if you’re in a hurry — it gets crowded.

Don’t bother eating or drinking here. The owner hasn’t a clue how to bring back repeat customers. The bartender has no personality and they give you a ¼ glass of wine for $ 8. The empanadas were overdone. There are so many restaurants that are customer friendly and priced right.
Sabor needs a rehab!

The food at Sabor is absolutely wonderful. We had the tapenade (made with a rich, cloudy, fruit olive oil) and bread, followed by stuffed piqillo peppers, the mussels in chorizo broth, grilled calamari skewers, and the white anchovies. The wine list is really good, and 3-​oz pours allowed us to try six Spanish whites and two reds through the course of our meal. We had the dates, stuffed with almonds, wrapped in bacon, glazed with a balsamic reduction, with a fruity Garnacha, for our dessert.
Where Sabor lets you down, is service. The waitstaff are young, pleasant, willing, and completely untrained. They don’t sell the food or discuss it with any knowledge, and they don’t know the wines at all –we tried to order by grape varietal, and they only knew the names on the bottles. If the staff were better trained to insert themselves into the experience, they could sell a LOT more wine, and the more adventurous foods, more successfully.
Still, a wonderful evening, and we’ll go back again.

Wasn’t that impressed and kinda expensive. Won’t go back for food

Again, keeping with our «we are walking everywhere — which means we can have more than one glass of wine!!» we walked up to the 4^th Street Farmers Market (first one of the year — kind of disappointing — the amount of booths compared to last year is kind of sad). But I digress — when walking home, the hubby and I both slyly looked at each other, our bags full of farmers market goodies (cupcakes and Indian goodies, naturally) and said, «want to have a glass of wine somewhere before we go home?» Oh yes, yes we did. Stopped at Sabor of Spain and bellied up to the bar.
Javier, the bartender, was super nice and knowledgeable about the different malbecs they pour. We ended up creating 2 different wine flights, and then split a Caesar salad. The salad was one of the best Caesars I’ve had recently — dressing was flavorful without being overpowering, the croutons were nice and crunchy. Added bonus? They put tomatoes on their Caesar, which is one of my favorite things ever!
So, what was supposed to be one glass of wine of the way home turned into a flight of wine, plus another glass and a salad. Ruined the dinner I was going to make at home with our farmer’s market loot, but it was totally worth it. I can see this becoming one of our faves in downtown!

The first star is for the interior, location, general décor. The place is large, clean and generally welcoming inside.
Second star is for the white sangria, which was yummie!
Everything else was just bad. The food surprisingly bad. What really stands out as being terrible were the meatballs! It is just a plate of teeny tiny meatballs, over watery mashed potatoes with a chef boyardee sauce. Seriously guys…? We ordered their Caesar with the Queso Manchego… how do you ruin that? For some reason the lettuce was bitter and the dressing was bad, with a few bits of cheese on top. The mussels were really average. They were really small, in a simple tomato sauce, with a few hard pieces of sausage. The empanadas were also very average. The dates wrapped in bacon were good. I’ll give them that, but really not worth returning for.
Now for the main course. We tried the torta potata… fine… kind of like a quiche and nothing to rave about, but it wasn’t bad. Their macadamia nut crusted catch of the day with squid ink rice was mahi mahi. The fish was fine, the crust was soggy, but tolerable. The rice was dry and it just seemed colored by some squid ink. I have had quality squid ink rice. and this wasn’t it!
For dessert their bread pudding was decent-​but they ran out of coffee? Seriously… they ran out of coffee? How does that happen? As my friend put it… sounds like they just didn’t pay their coffee bill this month.
All of this sub par food was shared 4 ways, everybody left feeling dissatisfied and not that full.
The server was awful. She kept reaching in front of me, kicked me chair 3 or 4 times, never took our dirty plates away. I even at one point took the small plate off of the table next to us and she still left my first dirty plate just sitting in front of me! She placed the teeny tiny meatballs literally right under my elbow when there was a lot of space on the table. She had trouble describing the dishes and was just kind of off. She seemed awkward and was this fake friendly… like she smiled but couldn’t wait to get away from our table.
This poor service combined with poor quality food just made for a bad experience. But wait… there’s more!
My friend started complaining of tummy troubles ’bout 15 minutes about we left. We kind of shrugged it off and told her it must have been something she ate during the day. Now I’m convinced because I woke up early this morning to terrible pain in my stomach!
Come to Sabor of Spain if you want poor food, bad service, and a good, painful colon cleanse afterwards

Food was very good, especially the lamb entrée.
There was an appetizer, main course, dessert fixed price which was confusing because all 4 of us at the table had 3 courses, but only 2 were charged the special price, so the bill was a bit higher than I expected.
I didn’t say anything, but it seemed odd and added a few bucks to the bill.
Service was generally good, but we had to ask for more bread, and the waiter never refilled the tiny cup of olive tapenade that was served instead of butter. I prefer olive tapenade to butter, so it would have been nice to have a refill.
We had an excellent Pinot Noir wine. Can’t remember what it was but it was a good value for $ 34. The waiter was kind enough to let us taste a couple of Malbec wines that weren’t nearly as smooth as the Pinot which I picked without tasting first.
Bread pudding dessert was a bit sweet, but quite good.
In general, Sabor is a good restaurant and the 4 of us enjoyed it. I’d recommend Sabor even though there were a few flaws.

Sabor of Spain — you get 4 stars because:
Nice atmosphere, modern design, comfortably-​sized tables and easy to have a conversation even when a live musician is playing.
Nice wine selection although we weren’t drinking, but if we had been, there were plenty of good choices.
Each tapas we chose was well flavored and the amount served was quite generous. Especially loved the roasted dates wrapped in bacon — date rumaki anyone?
The reason you miss on Star 5 is the service. It was too slow and aggravatingly inattentive. We had no idea there were nightly specials until well after we ordered and happened to notice them listed on the chalkboard. We made the mistake of saying we needed a couple extra minutes to finish reviewing the menu — we meant 2 minutes, about 15 minutes later our server finally showed up to see what we wanted. Each tapas dish did come out quickly. Once we were done eating the amount of time it took to get the check, then get the server to come back and take our credit card, and finally bring the receipt, was a 20 minute investment in time.
Will think hard before I return, because for the price, the service should be far better.

Good stuff!
Was a little hesitant after some of the reviews bagging the service, but we thought it was really good. Showed up on a rainy Thursday, the place was about half full. We’re immediately attended by the hostess, who gave us our choice of seating. I know it’s a little picky, but if there’s a wide selection, I hate it when they randomly give you a seat. It could be by the door (cold) by the kitchen (loud) or by the bathroom (gross). So, well done, hostess girl.
Server came right over with menus and wine lists, and happily for a tapas and wine bar, they have a decent selection of local beers. Second thumbs up for Sabor. We ended up getting two flights of wine samplers, which at 12 bucks for 3x 3oz glasses is a smoking deal. Basically you’re getting a bottle of wine for under 30 bucks, plus you get to try a bunch of them out. The Riojas in the medium bodied flight were outstanding. Drinks came with some excellent sourdough type bread and one of the best olive tapenades I’ve ever had: finely minced with perfectly balanced salt, oil, and olive.
We ended up getting the ceviche, the mussels, and the Albondigas. The Ceviche was too mild for my taste. I think I’m just accustomed to the Mexican style, which has a spice and citrus level akin to salsa fresca. Still, it was good. Sorta like a thick Manhattan clam chowder. The mussels were amazing, with an intoxicating saffron and tomato broth that went perfectly with the crusty baked garlic crostini things. The albondigas were tasty little nuggets atop a delicious garlic mashed potato purée, again a bit mild, but very true to the Spanish style which is by and large not about really bold flavors.
Two reasons they don’t get 5 stars: 1 — the atmosphere is a bit forced. Servers using big words and unnecessary formality are not the essence of good service. And playing the «Best of Gypsy Kings» on repeat does not make feel like I’m in Spain. It makes me feel like I’m in Marin. 2 — they need to go the extra mile on the facility. With a nice overall ambience, the water stained acoustic tile ceiling is like a dung beetle in the crème caramel. Throw some cedar paneling on that shit!
All in all, we had 3 plates and 2 flights of wine for 63 bucks. Attentive service, good food, and excellent value. We’ll be back!

Simply exceptional. We met friends for dinner here last night before attending the Marin Speaker Lecture Series. Our only misjudgment was meeting at 6:15 rather than at 6:00. Time slipped by so silkily that suddenly it was 7:30 and time to leave and we hadn’t yet had our dessert, datiles, grilled dates stuffed w/​almonds and wrapped w/​apple wood smoked bacon. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The menu is large and varied. They offer a prix fixe dinner for $ 35. You can choose any soup/​salad/​small plate plus any entrée plus dessert. You don’t eat dessert? No problem. Choose another soup/​salad/​small plate. The flexibility and graciousness were marvelous. Our waitress worked w/​us in organizing the flow of the food, explaining that some dishes might arrive out of sync w/​others. If they did, it was imperceptible to us. Bread w/​an olive tapanade arrived and was consumed and replaced w/​more bread. Linda ordered Gambas Vinoteca, tiger prawns, vine ripe tomatoes, leeks, garlic and white wine. They were heavenly, redolent of garlic. We each had some and sopped up the sauce w/​bread. She also ordered Berengenas con Queso, grilled eggplant, stuffed with Laura Chenel Chevre and a basalmic reduction. They were as delicious as they sound. David ordered Piquillo peppers stuffed with seafood mousse and topped with lobster sauce. We’ve had a similar dish at Digs Bistro twice and this eclipsed it, no small feat. David and I each ordered a Queso Azul, a salad of butter lettuce, Spanish blue cabrales cheese, radicchio, grilled pears and apples, candied walnuts and tomatoes dressed w/​a honey dijon vinagrette. Flawless. Alan ordered Pinchos de calamar, marinated calamari skewers with garlic, lemon juice, paprika, parsley, served with tomato & seaweed salad. It was among the best calamari we’ve ever had. He also ordered empanadas stuffed with mushrooms, chicken, spinach and peppers. They were good but were outshone by the other dishes. I ordered the datiles and they served Alan and me as dessert. They were delicious but a little sweeter than either of us liked, although maybe it was just too much at the end of the meal when we were starting to feel rushed to make it to the lecture in time.
For our mains David and Linda ordered roasted mahi mahi with a pistachio nut crust with salsa verde, cumin scented Spanish rice and seasonal vegetables. The bite I had was delicious. Alan ordered the Paella Mixta, w/​chorizo, prawns, mussels, clams and chicken. Though the menu specified saffron rice, neither of us tasted it and the dish lacked the expected richness. I ordered lamb chops served on a bed of stewed red potatoes, eggplant and roasted shallots & topped with a manzanilla olive/​mint tapenade and I was very, very happy. It was a generous portion, beautifully cooked. I had a glass of an an Argentine red, the grape unfamiliar to me. Not a Malbec. It was delicious. It was an amazing dinner and we look forward to returning. As we walked to the car we were already planning when and w/​whom. And amazingly, we made it to the lecture w/​minutes to spare. OK, seconds.

My parents and I went to Sabor of Spain for dinner the other night and had a nice meal. I know «nice» is a vague word, but it’s the one that best describes the meal. It wasn’t bad and it wasn’t great… it was nice.
We were seated in a spot by the front window in the corner so we had a good view of Fourth St. We started off by ordering a pitcher of sangria (which was OK) while we noshed on bread and olive tapenade and looked over all of our menu choices.
They have a three-​course prix fixe menu for $ 35, but we decided to just go with tapas so we could share a lot of different things and get the full «tapas» experience! We started with Surtidas, an appetizer with several types of sausage in addition to serrano ham and manchego cheese. The small plate was enough for three people as an appetizer, but we all thought it was a little bland. After that we had four more dishes and agreed that our two favorites were the peppers stuffed with a seafood mousse and sitting in lobster sauce (drool) and the perfectly cooked calamari skewers that came with a seaweed side salad. The mussels with sausage and the potato omelet were fine, but they weren’t standout dishes that we would order again.
We were comfortably full by the end of the meal and wondered if it was smart to order bread pudding for dessert, but we were pleasantly surprised that it was not heavy like bread pudding can be. It was light and slightly eggy and was served in a not-​too-​sweet caramel sauce and covered in fresh strawberries… a nice end to the meal.
All in all, it was a pleasant experience. The service was friendly and attentive and the food was decent. However, the prices were higher than what I’m used to for tapas. Given that, I’m not sure if it was good enough for us to go back very often…

I have mixed feeling about this restaurant. The high volume restaurant is a hit or miss location. I experienced Sabor of Spain in the past and the experience was exceptional from service to food — however this year, not so much. I wanted an out of town friend, the foodie type, to experience the same Sabor of Spain.
The restaurant crowd looked like they were enjoying their experience. The restaurant was packed, lively. The tables near us took advantage of the tasting menu. 3 – 4 wines $ 16 and 3– 4 menu selections for $ 34. Try it if you like but be prepared for imperfection.
The food was good but the total experience was not all that. The classic Paia was served and finished off in a small metalic serving pan. The presentation was pretty and the tiny tin appeared crisp around the edges. It tasted fresh, clean but not soggy in the center. A healthy serving of fillet was also presented with au gratin potatoes featuring spanish cheese. The sides were blah comparison to the miriad of choices from Spain.
The service was the worst! One would expect the service to be paced slowly on the weekend but this was ridiculous. Great conversation masked the 40 minutes wait; 20 to get a server and 20 for drinks. We could not get one servers attention. We were the hot potato table.
The restaurant was being photographed and all attention was on the photographer. I nodded to Management who thought I was having a hard time reading the menu and turned the lights up, isn’t that funny. We were only 2 steps away from a simple inquiry rather than disrupting the entire restaurant with a lighting change. There was quite a bit of confusion as to who would be our server. The experience was annoying and at these prices one should not have to be concerned with front of the house issues. The server hoovered over our table until we were served but failed to bring our check or refill the water glasses in a timely manner. This upscale dining establishment didn’t put it’s best foot forward for this couple.
The live pianist was excellent but it didn’t feel like Spain and more like a piano bar in Sausalito. The watered down Spanish experience was not what I wanted for this evening.
Go here for drinks, sit at the bar for better service.

I made a mistake — the amazing guitarist plays on Saturday nights.
Also, I give big props to this restaurant for reaching out to ask me for more details on why I don’t recommend the tapas. Here’s what I shared with them, and I’m sharing it with you — In this humbling economy, coupled with the highly competitive food scene in the Bay Area, I’m looking for the best value for my buck — I’m spending my money where I’m wow’d.
I’m wow’d by their amazing guitarist who plucks the guitar strings like his fingers are on fire and a wine list that takes me away to Spain when I can’t afford a ticket to fly there. I also appreciate that Sabor cares enough about its customers to ask their opinion about how they can improve their dining experience-​that adds some more wow factor for me.

I really really like Sabor of Spain.
I like that on an otherwise dark and dreary night in downtown San Rafael, Sabor stood out as a warm, glowing and welcoming beacon. From the moment we walked in and were greeted kindly and graciously, we were made to feel at home. It made us realize that we don’t get exactly that kind of welcome at every restaurant. Or that perhaps if you are greeted with enthusiasm, the servers can’t keep up with it, etc. etc. In this case, kind attention remained a constant throughout the evening.
So we’ll go for full disclosure here and say that we are well acquainted with the new owner. Being the hyper-​critical sorts we were scanning the room to see if we were being given special treatment, and the answer is: decidedly not. Scott S. and his crew were taking good care of everyone, and if you didn’t know by looking you could tell by the happy buzzing sounds of good conversation, laughter, and delight at the tasty food.
And the food is good and in some cases plate lickingingly delicious. If I could remember the rather exceptional wine we had I’d tell you but just ask for advice… they’re well used to giving it as not too many people know their Spanish wines in these parts.
My favorite dish was the grilled calamari, followed by the pillows of lightness called empanadas by some, the scallops, tiger prawns, grilled dates wrapped in bacon and the chicken skewers over steamed spinach. Good, good food. Tasty and unpretentious.

You walk in thru their spanish wine store.
I politely asked the guy behind the cash register about Rueda and he abruptly said: «Its’ white wine» and walked off. What a jerk.
Modern swanky décor.
They start you out with a plate of run of the mill, white bread that tasted like run of the mill white bread.
My friends shared a mahi mahi steak which they liked.
my salad of radicchio was stale, it was not very fresh, the lox were ok and the dressing was ok. I would not order this salad again.
We had a plate of bbq’d, marinated squid and they were delicious.
The Rose, for $ 28 was pretty good.
Towards the end of our dining experience, the well dressed elderly couple next to us, made comments of our conversation. I politely said these are my friends I ‘ve known since college. She did look a bit drunk. Jerks.
Having been to Spain last summer and enjoying the foods, I find Sabor of Spain to offer food that tasted very different. Too bad, it’s a nice looking restaurant (that’s about all it is!)
I cannot recommend this place at these high prices, and the snobbishness of the cashier/​owner was crude. Never mind the eaves dropping well dressed couple at the next table. Disgusting. I would not return.

Wu-​My! (Delicious in Japanese)
I will provide a useful tip. Let’s say you needed to find a place to take a client/​friend from Japan. You certainly don’t want to take them to Sushi Ran (
), since they have been eating Tsukiji quality sushi in Japan. Chinese or Korean food would probably best satisfy their hunger, but it’s not very American. My tip is to take them to Peruvian food or Spanish food. If you live in Marin County, Sabor of Spain would be perfect.
Wait a minute Toro E., Spanish Tapas is not very American! No worries — as long as they don’t have white sticky rice and the menu doesn’t have any Kanji (Chinese characters), that’s American enough. For some reason, Japanese people tend to like Peruvian and Spanish food. Perhaps it is because these cuisines tend to use lots of seafood.
ATMOSPHERE/​SEATS: Hip and happening — if you flip these words around, you can say this place is too busy with minimal privacy. The seats are pretty tight and the dining space is one big room, so it could get loud. If you get one of the corner tables, it’s quite roomy and comfortable.
FOOD: Their tapas was amazing. What I really enjoyed the most was that each of their dishes had distinctly different flavors. Sometimes, when I go to a tapas place, every dish tastes the same, but that was not the case for Sabor. Take for example their Skewered Squid. It was topped with mayo, which made it taste different than any other dish. So cool. (p.s. Japanese love surume — dried squid — with mayo).
PRICE: Not cheap but reasonable for the quality of food you are getting. A rule of thumb is $ 50 per person (plenty of drinks and food).
A sample dinner for two adults:
$ 9 — Empanadas (Spanish pastry)
$ 10 — Pinchos Morunos (Chicken Skewers)
$ 8 — Albondigas (beef meatballs)
$ 11 — Calmari Skewers
$ 11 — Pimientos Asados (vegetarian)
$ 12 — Flight of wine tasting
$ 10 — Glass of wine
$ 17 — Tip and taxes
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
$ 88 — Dinner for two people