Sent Sovi Wine Lounge

We came here on a Tuesday evening. Great wine and service spent some time chatting with the Chef who shops at the Campbell farmers market !!
The food was really nice. We ordered a charcuterie plate, salad and mussels. It was great! The dessert was absolutely amazing — chocolate mousse with strawberries. Highly recommend the lounge it’s great for a couple or friends to hang out.

Went here this week for a date night. The lounge was closed for a private party so we were intercepted and seated on the patio which was fine with us
We were interested in the $ 15 flight of wine but the waitress suggested the bubbles flight. Assuming it was the same price we easily acquiesced. Should have known it was double. I would have really appreciated a heads up that it was $ 27.
We shared mussels and while the flavor was spot on, I found the portion to be a bit anorexic and no bread for sopping up the sauce. Not really how I prefer to have my mussels.
We went to dinner later and had two entrees, an appetizer and three glasses of wine total for less than the price of the two flights and app.
Kind of disappointed. Won’t return.

We love the Sent Sovi Wine Bar. It’s our go to place for date night. The food is amazing and on Tuesdays the wine is ½ off. Highly recommend for any occasion!

Meh.
The short review: if you don’t order alcohol, you don’t get good service.
The long review: I went tonight, enticed by their 4 course mushroom-​centric weekly special. It was just me, and after I sat down, I waited for about five minutes before I was even given a menu by the bartender (and I asked for water), and a total of 13 minutes before the server came to my table so I could order. She was unfriendly when I ordered only the 4 course special menu.
Here’s the menu:
Fifth Crown Farms Lettuce and Piopini Mushroom Salad
Butter Bolete «Fries» with Wild Ramp Ketchup
Porcini Dusted Pork with Leo Farms Potato and Allium Cake
Chanterelle and Peach Tart
12 minutes after ordering, the salad came out. It was a small salad of just the lettuce and marinated mushrooms. It was okay, but the mushrooms were very acidic and there wasn’t anything to cut the acid.
12 minutes after that dish came out, the «Fries» were delivered. These were the highlight of the nice. Not greasy, good amount of salt. I wasn’t thrilled with the wild ramp ketchup (it reminded me of a pesto) but would’ve loved a tomato-​based sauce for this.
19 minutes after the previous dish came out, the pork was brought to the table. It was a small portion, cooked nicely, but not much mushroom flavor (and only one half of a small mushroom to garlic). The potato cake was pure grease. There was also a small pile of sautéed greens which were bitter.
Two minutes after I finished the pork, the dessert was brought out. The mushrooms were the best part — soaked in something delicious, I wish there was more of them. The rest of the tart was okay.
Not once did anyone ask me if I liked the food. The other tables were asked this with each course. Even the table next to me, where they ordered one appetizer and one dessert (but two glasses of wine) got checked in with several times. The chef came out and talked a lot with a couple at the bar (ordering lots of alcohol) and another table on the other side of the small room.
I understand they’re not running a charity here, but seriously… if you’re going to allow guests to order just food, be gracious about it. The main restaurant had a «king of mushrooms» special event that included wine pairings (which I didn’t attend because I don’t drink) — so if only want guests to dine here if they’re drinking, then change the menus. But please don’t be so cold and unwelcoming if I choose to dine with you and not drink.

Just had dinner and decided to check out the Wine Bar area and we can’t wait to get back. This is a great little off the beaten path place to take a date and impress.

I’m waffling between 4 and 5 stars for this place. I love the wine, most of the food, and atmosphere and would give those 5 stars. The drawbacks for me are that the menu often revolves around things I don’t eat, like lamb and foie gras, and my biggest complaint is that it’s so darn pricey. I can easily end up spending $ 90 on a couple of appetizers and a couple of glasses of wine, even though this is meant to be the entry-​level option for the ostensibly fancier main restaurant next door (they share a kitchen). Ultimately it’s at about 4.3 stars for me.
Knowing that I have an issue with the high prices, you can understand why I love coming here for the Tuesday special: half-​off glasses of wine. They’ve got a really great, unusual selection of by-​the-​glass choices, including some high-​end selections you really won’t be able to get BTG anywhere else. They also provide four pricing levels: bottle, glass, half glass, and 1 oz. taste (note that though the «taste» prices for the wine are 1 oz pours, they will ask if you’d like 2– or 3-​oz taste servings without explaining that this costs more).
The 4-​course tasting menu is usually a good bet at $ 35. Chef Josiah always finds fresh local foods at the Campbell Farmers’ Market, and changes up the menu regularly. Sign up for his email list to get the weekly updates. The last time I got this (warm spinach salad, mushroom risotto with shaved hen-​of-​the-​woods, whole roasted trout with beurre blanc and pea shoots, and «Farewell to Apples» applesauce cake, compressed apple infused with champagne, and apple poached in red wine) it really blew me away and was a great value for $ 35. Everything was crafted with so much attention to detail and it really was an experience to remember with perfectly matched flavors and masterful technique. For other food options, the appetizers and cheese plates are superb; try the gougeres/​gruyère cupcakes.
Chef Josiah is often available to chat about what’s going on at the restaurant or local farms, and we’ve had some great conversations about wine, music, and a variety of other topics. He usually has some of his vast music collection playing. Since he spent a few years in the Caribbean, much of it is reggae, which may seem weird until you get this connection.
The atmosphere is cozy, classy and quiet; the place is very small. It manages to fit in table, booth/​couch, and bar seating, though, so despite the lack of square footage there is room for plenty of people. I’ve never seen it full, though. It’s a great place for date night or a get-​together with a few friends. It’s also perfect for a glass of wine before dining at one of the many great Saratoga restaurants close by.

We stopped here before having dinner in the restaurant. It was a nice cozy wine lounge and we enjoyed it.
Decent by-​the-​glass wine list, it’s the same as the restaurant. Although they do appear to offer a few different flights, not listed on the menu. We sat at the bar and didn’t notice until after we ordered (not sure why service staff didn’t at least mention it… seems like that might be a small oversight on their part).
We had a couple of tastes, although I should note I ordered a taste (1oz) of Champagne Jaquart, yet somehow I received a demi (5oz) of cremant de Limoux rose. Oh well, I hadn’t tried that one yet so I decided to just keep it rather than sending it back. Everything else was correct.
Service (Janelle) was very friendly and professional.
If you want a small bite, try the Gruyère «cupcakes» — they are good without being overly cheesy.
Music was odd. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but for example I remember hearing some reggae music (which I like, but for a wine lounge??).
If you are looking for a cozy wine lounge, this is worth a try.

Tasting menu had a soup that was a tad too buttery, very good poached egg-​mushroom as first course. Brussel sprouts salad was ok. Sole over beans was great. Main course of lamb was a little too rare for my taste. Dessert was ok, nice icecream, cake was a little dry.
Overall, service was great. Wine pairing was good.
I would come back for a wine lounge, not keen on a tasting menu dinner.

Fantastic. Great $ 35 prix fixe for a 4-​course dinner at the wine lounge. They post the menu online every Tuesday afternoon. My wife and I love this place for a great meal in a casual environment.

OMFG! I’ve been searching for a new «regular» spot to get a great glass of wine and AMAZING food. I’m soooo happy I found it here!!! GET THE PRIX FIXE. The best. We were in on a Saturday night and the service was perfection. Khin Khin was a delight. Eric was attentive and hilarious. James was thoughtful and accommodating. The food melted in my mouth. This is exactly what Saratoga needed. A great place to let let your hair down and still be pampered. Love it. Keep our seats warm. We’re coming back in so soon.

I’ve become a regular here with another friend and let me tell ya, this place is just awesome. Khin Khin is so bubbly, Josiah occasionally talks to the patrons when he’s not slaving away in the kitchen (making delectable food mind you), and Eric has apparently become known as the «eye candy» but he’s very attentative and just helps make the experience there even better! I was never a wine drinker until I came here and both Eric and Khin Khin have great recommendations.
Somewhere on this page some people have tagged it as not for groups but I was just there with 4 others sitting by the couches. You can fit a group of 5ish and it’ll work out just fine. The wine lounge is cute and very intimate and is definitely a spot where you can laugh out loud and have a blast.

Ambiance was great. Saratoga gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you walk around the street.
A cute winery, where we had our holiday party.
I liked the appetizers and the desserts the best.
We enjoyed the environment, lighting, neat coziness of the restaurant.
This place was a great venue for a holiday party.
Someone said charming. I think that’s what this is, just a charming place to spend time in.

This place is an amazing hidden gem in Saratoga located just behind the main restaurant. It is very cozy and a great place for a leisurely small plate meal. We’ve never felt rushed here. And the food — it is just amazing and a steal at $ 35 for four courses. We usually add the cheese course and $ 15 wine flight for a perfect meal.
The duck confit deserves mentioning because it is amazing. As a bonus, the menu is seasonal so there are always fresh and creative things to enjoy. I haven’t seen this kind of creativity in a menu in quite a while.
We are gluten-​free and have never had a problem with the menu — the plates are either naturally gluten-​free or easily adaptable by the chef. They have a vegetarian option as well as goat and sheep cheeses for those intolerant to cow. Overall very accomodating. This is quickly becoming our Saratoga go to place.

Good wine by the glass selection and wine flights. Attentive and courteous service. Food is in general very good. We had salad, noodle, cheese platter, charcuterie platter, mussels, and gougere cupcake. With the exception that one of the cupcake wasnt fully cooked through, all the other items were well made. It’s a small place so it felt really intimate.

Still five stars in my book. Just updating to note that Amanda is no longer the sommelier here.

Im biased here because ive met the owners in person and shared a meal with them, so hospitality is automatic. It was good to see them in a more relaxed, less formal setting. After trying to get into a Unilocal event and finding out the waits were going to surpass the event closure, we made our way here for some drinks and snacks before dinner. Got the charcuterie plate and two cheeses to pair with my Sauv Blanc, Bordeaux and Pinot Noir. Took the sofa like 4 top and hung out for a while eating, drinking and chatting. Good times!

Yay for a place to hang out in downtown Saratoga that doesn’t seem stuffy or full of people old enough to be my mother or grandfather!
Visited a few days ago for a long-​overdue catch up session with my roomie from college and had a great time here. Neither of us had been (I just happened to find it on Unilocal when I was looking for a new place to try nearby) and we were both pleased on my find! It’s at the back of Sent Sovi Restaurant but there is a large sign so it’s not difficult to find or anything.
We had the gruyère cupcakes and the mussels, finished with the upside down strawberry with gelato dessert. All the food was delicious. I honestly don’t have anything bad to say about any of the dishes we tried. Cupcakes… I can’t even describe them. They’re moist versions of cheese bread that are slightly chewy and have great flavor. Mussels also tasted light and not too buttery/​fishy which I appreciated. Strawberries in the dessert tasted super fresh, and they gave us two scoops of gelato, one hazelnut and one vanilla! Love.
Prices seem reasonable considering the venue’s location in Saratoga and quality of food. Perhaps portions are on the smaller side, but after all it’s downtown Saratoga. I’m still hoping I have the opportunity to return and try more of the dishes on the menu.
Note: This place is SMALL. I probably wouldn’t roll in here with a party of more than 6 unless I had a reservation. (Do they take reservations? No idea.)There is a bar with about 6 or 7 chairs, and about 4 more tables, which probably totals to around 20 seats in the entire lounge. Definitely a small venue but very quaint and homey.
Major props to the staff here for being super attentive and generous! Sommelier Amanda is super friendly and fun! She addresses you as ‘babe’ and makes the whole ‘wine tasting’ experience seem casual and chic! Sent Sovi Wine Lounge features a $ 15 wine flight that I believe changes every week. It features one white wine and two red wines. I am by no means a wine expert but I enjoyed all the wines I tried that night. When I was done with my flight, Amanda offered me another pour of my favorite out of the three wines from the tasting, which I took gladly. Chef/owner’s wife (never caught her name oops) brought us multiple little plates of croutons so we could eat the broth the mussels came in, most of the time without even being asked! Thank you :)
Reasons I could not give this place (the rare) 5 stars:
–Size: Great for a party of 2 or 3 but would be wary for anything larger than that. The intimate setting could work well for some circumstances but not all.
–Noise: It’s a small room with a low ceiling so it can get very loud. At some points, I had to yell to communicate with someone sitting right next to me…
–Hours of operation: I believe this place is only open on Wednesday nights until 10pm. They were pretty chill about the closing time (I believe we left just around 10pm and there were still people lingering in the lounge. but I think they were friends of the chef? Not sure on this.) Either way, it’s hard to visit if it’s only open one night a week and the venue is tiny.
I would not be surprised if this place grew in popularity… though that may be a bad thing since the space is not going to be able to accommodate too many people!

This is a charming Wine Lounge in the rear of the charming old house on Big Basin way that is Sent Sovi, near downtown Saratoga.
Sent Sovi just recently celebrated its 10^th anniversary, and just prior to that, they opened up this intimate Wine Lounge earlier this year. Chef/​owner Josiah Slone and his sweet Burmese wife Khin Khin are down to earth and very open, friendly and accessible. In addition to giving birth to this new Wine Lounge, they recently had their first child, so a lot of things are being created here! Must be the wine they are drinking!
And speaking of wines, they have a great collection here. The beautiful, charming and larger than life Amanda used to be the Sommelier here, having helped to establish this Wine Lounge. But she is no longer here and has moved on to start other new ventures. Too bad, because she knows her wines and has a personna that is both alluring and enjoyable.
Now, you will often see Chef Slone and his wife Khin Khin back here from the main restaurant, enjoying the intimacy and talking to guests about food and wine.
The space is very welcoming and relaxing, with a small wine bar of 4 or 5 seats, a couple of tables inside, and a little comfy lounge area. There can also be tables outside on those warm evenings. The ambiance is inviting and comfortable, and very much not stuffy or stiff. It is like being in your friend’s house, but with better food and wine.
In addition to specials cooked up by the talented kitchen for tasting enjoyment, there are always special cheeses and desserts that can round out your wine tasting of flights or by the glass or bottle. They have a little bit of everything as far as wine selections, but they also have some special surprises of Bordeaux or Bubbly each night.
I have been to Sent Sovi for a special event Chef’s tasting menu before, but this Wine Lounge can offer you a mini version of that every night it is open, with carefully constructed morsels of food and flights of wine.
It is worth your time to drop by and check it out. It is open Wednesday’s only right now, but it may soon expand to more evenings for the summer months. If I didn’t live so far away, I would be down here every Wednesday!

I think I’m in love!
I’ve never had so much fun at a wine bar… EVER!
The wine bar is located right behind Sent Sovi Restaurant. You would totally miss it if you weren’t looking for it. Just go down the pathway and it’s right there!
The place is small, but it’s cozy. I love the modern yet simple décor. They’re rocking it with the fresh flowers!
They have a nice wine list with plenty of variety to choose from. If you’re stuck, you can get one of the staff to help you out. Or just go for their wine flight of the day (with three tastings) for only $ 15!
If you’re hungry, they have a great selection of bites cooked by the head chef of Sent Sovi!
The mussels they had were amazing! They were plump and meaty, not shriveled up, like some other places. I love that there was tons of confit garlic, too. It made the broth so delicious. It was so good I could have drank it!
If you’re lucky, you can get to try their newest item, salmon collar au poivre. Buttery salmon with a nice pepper sauce and refreshing frisee salad. I don’t even like pepper and I founs the sauce tasty! Definitely a must try!
What made the experience so much better was the sommelier, Amanda! She was so fun and charismatic, but super knowledgeable about the wine! She made me feel like she was welcoming me into her own home. It’s nothing, but laughs and a good time when she’s there!
I totally recommend this place! This is not your average, snooty wine bar! And the food is fantastic! Can’t wait to go back again!

***UPDATE: June 22, 2013***
I’m very sad to say that Amanda, the somm, is no longer with Sent Sovi Wine Lounge. After three months of hard work and lots of charm to help get SSWL established, she is now pursuing other projects.
Although I know Josiah’s small plates menu and Darren’s wonderful Cream and the Crop cheese selections will draw me back, SSWL won’t be quite the same without Amanda.
For those who haven’t been yet, SSWL is now open Wednesday through Friday from 5 to 10 p.m.
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Saratoga’s Restaurant Row has a new addition: Sent Sovi Wine Bar.
Foodie favorite Sent Sovi restaurant launched a wine bar last week, currently open only on Wednesday evenings from 5 to 10. The intimate space, tucked away at the back of the restaurant, was previously a private dining room that Chef Josiah Slone converted. Now it houses a bar that seats about 8 people, a table or two, and lounge seating – perfect for convivial meetings of friends old and new.
I was there with friends last Wednesday for opening night, and we enjoyed the wine flight (3 tastes for $ 15) and some wines by the glass, along with savory selections from a carefully curated menu of small bites. Gougeres, steamed mussels, roasted beet salad, custom cheese plate – all were delicious and very reasonably priced. I’m not a mussel fan, so needed to be convinced to try them, but I was very glad that I got the last order. At $ 12 the portion was very generous and big enough to share, but I didn’t. I wanted all of the garlic confit, buttery mussels, and damn-​near drinkable broth all to myself! The croutons that came with the mussels helped to soak up the broth, but I was also happy I’d ordered the gougeres, which took care of the rest of the luscious liquid.
The wine list is equally well curated, hand-​crafted by Sommelier Amanda. The flights, at $ 15, feature 3 oz. pours of a white wine and two reds. Last week included a 2011 Laporte Sancerre Le Rochoy, a 2009 Baileyana Firepeak Pinot Noir from Edna Valley, and a 2010 Freemark Abbey Merlot.
Can’t wait to return every week to celebrate Wine Wednesday!