Ada L.
Yelp
SARA is located near Portland and King St. W. on Portland. The owners converted an old Victorian house into a restaurant that is trendy, sleek, and serene with wood and white surfaces. The concept of the restaurant is to disconnect with the world while connecting with the food and with each other. In the middle of each table there is a little compartment for you to store your phones. Encouraged, but ultimately, your choice. The menu is designed to be shared with your party and many items have an Asian inspired flare to them.
My friend and I dined at SARA on a Thursday night and were pleasantly surprised at the food and service. When we left later in the evening the restaurant was completely packed to our surprise. Service was attentive and friendly and the waiters/waitresses were able to answer any questions we had re: the food and the menu.
We both first started with cocktails. I liked the fact that you could choose which liquor to go with your cocktail which was great. I had the Haru with gin. Good, drinkable cocktail. Bonus that they used reusable straws!
For the food, we were told that between two people, 8 dishes (not including dessert) would be enough if you were super hungry. My friend and I opted to share 5 dishes and 2 desserts. We got 3 small plates and 2 mains to share.
For the small plates, we shared the hamachi bites (with jalapeno and cucumber on a chicharron chip). This dish was a great light dish to start our meal. The dish came with 4 "chips" with hamachi. Delicate and light in flavour. We also shared the wagyu reuben (with gruyere, truffle mustard, and sauerkaut); definitely something different when a reuben comes into mind. The bread was toasted and cripsy and the wagyu was tender. Mustard gave it a great nice finishing touch. Not our favourite dish of the night but still good. We also tried the snap pea slaw (asian pear, umeboshi, and shio kombu) as recommended by our waiter.This was definitely one of the highlights of the meal. The unique flavours of the slaw caught our attention and we both agreed that this slaw is a must get for anyone who comes here. Highly recommend the snap pea slaw!
For our mains, we had the momo yakitori (with cherry umeboshi, mocha, sumac honey) and black cod (bagna cauda, hakurei turnip, mostarda). Again, both had great flavour profiles and were delicious. Highly recommended these two mains as well. For dessert, we shared the PB&J (frozen strawberry, peanut) as well as the party sandwich (chocolate, tahini, miso). The PB&J was definitely a fun dessert, the staff brought over a feeding spoon where you could feed each other (similar to Lady and the Tramp). We didn't feed each other but we definitely both liked the way this dessert was made. Very unique and delicious yet refreshing at the same time. Lastly, the party sandwich was rich and decadent, good ending to the meal.
Overall, good food and service. There were definitely some highlight dishes! Price wise, the bill can add up quickly, so SARA is one of those places to treat yourself if you're looking for some good unique food and service.