Daniel B.
Yelp
Sabor Dominicano is a Dominican restaurant located inside the same strip mall (Saigon Center) as Pho Dai Loi 2, next to Plaza Fiesta on Buford Highway. This restaurant opened in 2014.
I've eaten at plenty of Caribbean restaurants around town, but this was my first time at a Dominican-specific restaurant. I've been to the Dominican Republic, but I'm still definitely not well-versed on the food. That said, I think this place seems pretty authentic. The dishes I tried were hit or miss.
This is a small restaurant with seating for about 40 customers (indoor seating only). The dining room is basic and no-frills with TVs and DR-themed decor on the walls (e.g. flags, artwork). There is what looks like a DJ booth in one corner and with the speakers and special lighting, it's safe to assume this place also hosts (or hosted) dance parties. The festive music was cranked up during our Sunday lunchtime visit. It was busy.
You can order off the buffet or the menu. We checked out the buffet. There was a bit of a language barrier between us and our server, so we weren't able to get the best descriptions of the items on the buffet. As best I could tell, the buffet consisted of items like white rice, red beans, and a variety of meat dishes containing chicken, beef, and pork. There was also oxtail, chicken soup with vegetables, yuca, potatoes, and salad. Everything on the buffet looked fresh.
Buffet pricing varies depending on what you get. To give you an idea, one of my friends ordered rice, beans, chicken, and salad, and it was $7. Not bad.
The menu has little to no English descriptions of some items. Hopefully, this review will help a little bit. There are appetizers like yuca chulitos (cassava rolls), pastelitos (folded pastries with cheese and meat filling), kipes (or kibbehs, bulgur rolls), tostones (fried plantains), and maduros (made from ripe plantains). There are sandwiches (e.g. chicken, ham and cheese, steak), salads, and soup. Meat entrees include varieties of chicken and steak. They've got different mofongo (fried plantain dish) and rice plates as well as various seafood such as shrimp, lobster tail, and platters containing those items along with crab legs, oysters, calamari, and fish. Desserts include flan, arroz con leche (rice pudding), and habichuelas con dulce, which is a Dominican sweet bean dessert.
The food is affordably priced with most non-seafood dishes under $10 each and soups and most seafood entrees under $15 each. $5.99 daily lunch specials are available weekdays from 11am to 4pm and include pig feet, pig liver, chicken gizzards, baked chicken, stew, and spaghetti.
Beverage-wise, they serve beer ($4), soda ($1), and various tropical fruit juices ($2.50-$3.00) like tamarindo (tamarind), maracuya (passion fruit), guanabana (soupsop), and morir soñando, which is a sweetened iced milk and orange juice that is popular in the DR.
I tried a variety dishes. I thought the pastelito ($1.50) and kipe ($2) were A-OK. The pastelito was small with a nice crust and hot, savory filling. Kipe actually originates from Mediterranean cuisine. It wasn't bad and makes for a decent crunchy/soft app/snack.
From the buffet, I tried two types of chicken. Both were served bone-in. The first one was chopped and covered in a savory red sauce. The second was more like a rotisserie-style roasted chicken. The roasted chicken was better. One of my friends ordered the pernil (Puerto Rican slow-roasted marinated pork shoulder) and steamed yuca from the buffet and the food looked terrific. She said they were good.
I sampled two soups. One was sancocho, from the buffet. This soup cost about $10-11. The portion size was big and came with a side of white rice. The rice, by the way, is slightly salted (it's tasty). Sancocho is considered a national dish of the DR. Sabor Dominicano's version contained chunks of bone-in chicken, corn on the cob, carrots, potato, and I think plantains. This soup was hearty, filling, and delicious.
The other soup I tried was also thick and hearty. It was a chicken and rice stew with lots of a rice in an orange-red broth. It was alright. The rice soaked up a lot of the broth. Corn, carrots, peas, and green beans, that looked like they came from a frozen bag, were added on top.
I had the mofongo and it tasted fantastic. However, it was also very greasy and I couldn't finish it for that reason. The mofongo was quite flavorful and was freshly prepared with lots of garlic and chicharron (crunchy bits of pork skin). The mofongo also came with a side salad (from the buffet), broth, and another type of chicharron (this time, morsels of deep-fried bone-in pork). Like the rice, the salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, dressing) was salted. The bone-in chicharron was tasty, but fatty and oily. Again, I couldn't finish it for the same reason as the mofongo.
My mango juice was very sweet and yummy, though I'm not sure it was fresh. It may have come from a can.
Service was friendly.