October's Pick: Levelling the Tapa Game at SARA
Let me just start this piece off by saying how sorry I am for not having a photo of my MOST favourite dish from this place! I totally don't know why it wasn't in my camera roll when I got home and I was so devastated. I'm mentioning it here to make sure you guys are informed! It was the "Scallop and Crab" dumplings from the Dumplings menu. A fantastic dish that brings the entire taste of the ocean to your mouth. The juiciness, the tenderness, the flavours, everything was excellent. The squid-ink dumplings filled with scallops and king crab meat were best-of-its-kind, hands-down.
SARA in Japanese means "small plates" or as we commonly know from the Spanish cuisine: tapas. The stunning interior was brought together by the ODAMI - a Spanish-Canadian design studio and MiiM Collective! SARA's dining tables stood out in the news for having a little storage in the middle for you to store your phones during dinner and enjoy the experience. It didn't work for me obviously cause you folks are seeing these photos! :D
We started off with 2 cocktails - The Summer and Spicy flavours ones. I loved mine and James liked his so things were heading for a good start.
Warm hand towels were handed out before we dig in for the first tapas of the night. Loved the idea of it and it also made my soul settle down into the restaurant's atmosphere somehow.
First off we got the Hamachi Bites, which were tuna tartar on crispy chicharron (cracker-like pork skin) with cucumber and jalapeño. The bites were delicious and I suggest taking them all in one single bites. I would order this dish again.
Next plate was the Yellowtail Sashimi. One special thing I loved about this dish was the use of tōgarashi - a Japanese red chilli pepper that is mixed with some other condiments to produce Shichimi - the little red crumbles you can see on top of the yellowtail! They created such a fun and refreshing kick to the bites of the fish. They also reminded me of the traditional Vietnamese shrimp flakes that are used on white steamed rice. The best!
Underneath the yellowtail is the Wagyu Reuben! Now this dish was hella incredible but I'm not sure if I'd mentally agree for wagyu to be consumed in any other way than rare. But don't get me wrong, the reuben was fantastic.
Next we have the Chopped Salads (the green thingy on top) and the Pork Belly. I This salad and the Snap Peas salad were both amazing and I would definitely get them again. Incredible refreshing and well-combined with different elements.
The pork belly was a bit disappointing since I found them to be salty. No further comment.
As a big Black Cod fan, I had to try out SARA's version of the black cod! The fish itself was so well seasoned and cooked, however, I found the greens to be a poor choice to pair with the delicate fish. Since you have to really chew with the greens while the black cod simply melts in your mouth in one bite, the combination was hard to enjoy altogether.
For having loved the Scallop and Crab dumplings so badly, we wanted another dumpling dish. Enter the Pork Dumplings! These were really great dumplings as well but they did not beat the seafood ones. :D
For sweets, we got the PB&J and it was my first time having such an interesting and tasty dessert!!! The peanut butter was nitrogen-froze into a hard, ice-cream like form where every bite was like an ice-cream spoon but thicker and richer! The jam and frozen raspberry crumbs with peanut made the entire dish so full of different texture and flavours! Definitely getting this dish again.
In all, SARA was great. I would go back for 2 things specifically: the Scallop and Crab dumplings and the PB&J.
The only comment I'd make to the service side of thing is to cut the excessive use of utensils. It was a bit unnecessary (James and I at a point ended up with 4 forks and 4 spoons + 2 knifes on our table) to bring out new utensils for every single dish.
Congrats to Food Dudes for another successful restaurant. You guys did so well.
Visit SARA for more info!
All photos are taken by Huy Tran.
