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Review: Late lunch at Cafe Sabor
is a pleasure
By Shannon
K. Johnson
October 31, 2008 | Imagine trying to go to a restaurant
and avoid anything with wheat in it. Such a challenge
is nothing new to me -- I have Celiac disease, the name
for those who have an allergy to wheat and similar grains,
rye, barley and triticale.
It is sometimes tough to harass your server about
the specific ingredients in a sauce that was prepared
and shipped to them frozen that they just thaw out.
Some of the chain restaurants have menus for gluten-free
ordering. After all that effort, cross contamination
still happens and you have food cooked on the same grill,
cut on the same board as bread.
Often when I go out to eat I figure I have about a
30 percent chance of getting some gluten in my food
if the restaurant doesn't emphasize preventing cross
contaminations. Mexican food is a usually safe bet with
its common use of corn tortillas, but if you have celiac
I can't guarantee that the dishes I ate are safe.
Late Friday afternoons offer a welcome laziness that
encourages a "dunch" at a slightly out of the way restaurant
found at the end of Logan's Center Street down near
the old train station.
Café Sabor is a restaurant full of charm in a building
reminiscent of an old house. With floorboards that are
so old that the dirt ground into them has become engrained
in the wood like varnish. The original seal has worn
down now the polish is the smoothness found with age.
The heavy mismatched plates, exposed radiators, and
an enclosed outdoor patio give the decor a clean historic
look.
Coming in for a late lunch gives you a relatively
empty dining area, but the restaurant still has the
crowded feel of a dilapidated house. During common dining
hours this restaurant is usually pretty full and the
narrow aisle between tables make the servers maneuver
different paths to avoid collision. Dining at odd hours
gives you a chance to relax and chat with your dining
partner in relative privacy.
Steamy fresh corn chips and spicy cilantro salsa with
pieces of tomatoes make the long wait seem short. These
chips are served hot, crunchy and paper-thin with the
right balance of salt. The salsa is zesty with the sweet
tang of fresh tomatoes, cilantro and tomato puree.
Café Sabor is usually one of my favorite restaurants
with its fresh food and fast service it usually is a
fun dining experience. Unfortunately, today was not
the day that Café Sabor brought their A game.
Today I ordered the Chicken Mole, at $9 for lunch
and $11 for dinner. Mole is a unique dish with a chicken
breast as your base meat, soaked in a spicy peanut sauce,
warm heat brought with dried chili that has a hint of
chocolate. Typically this dish is served piping hot,
but today it is served lukewarm and today the taste
seems bland, with none of the chocolate overtones that
make the flavor of Mole so addicting. Whether the top
chef was out to lunch or the food left over from lunch
rush, the Mole missed the mark.
This Mole was tasty and after a while you forgot the
pungent chocolate and pungent peanut is not strong enough
to give the dish its Mexican flair and the dull flavor
instead make this dish taste more Thai than Mexican.
At Café Sabor, the chicken comes with tasty refried
beans covered with cheese and fresh Spanish rice that
is a soft and pliable without the stickiness I always
get whenever I attempt rice. The fun thing about Mole
is that you can eat it with a fork, or, the way I prefer
to, you can roll the meat beans and rice in fresh corn
or flour tortillas.
Fresh tortillas that are made right at the restaurant
and grilled right behind the hostess stand on the slowly
rotating griddle. A nice relaxing meal in the late afternoon
carries you through lunch and dinner.
IF YOU GO:
Cafe Sabor
600 W. Center St.
Logan, UT 84321
435-752-8088 (for reservations or take out)
Monday-Thursday, 11a.m. - 10 p.m.
Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
NW
MS |
