Sapor Cafe

Sapor Cafe is a restaurant that I really want to love. First, it was in the Warehouse District before the Warehouse District became home to half my friends and every other twenty-something in the Twin Cities ready to invest in real estate but not quite at the South Minneapolis house and kid stage. Second, it is also owned by two women, one of whom is the chef, which is quite an anomaly in the Twin Cities (Barbette is the only other place I can think of off of the top of my head with the same combination). Finally, the menu is varied and has everything from creative bar appetizers to light meals and more formal entrees. Whatever your level of hunger, Sapor can work for you.

My one previous lunch at Sapor had left me hungry to try their dinner, but unfortunately our experience on Friday night wasn't as positive as I would have anticipated. Summing it up, I would say the food was only fine and the service was quite lacking.

We arrived at 7pm with no reservation but that turned out to be okay since, while there were certainly people there, there were still tables available. We chose the patio, which has quite a few tables and funky bright red chairs. Compared to the more formal dining room, the patio seems almost a bit too casual. Regardless, in our brief Minnesota summers, it is certainly nice to have an option to eat outdoors.

We were seated and given menus and then waited. And waited. Eventually the host who seated us brought us some water (loved that it was cold, ice free and in stemmed glasses!). We then placed drink orders and then waited too long again before the drinks came. Then rather than taking our orders as the drinks were delivered, we had to wait again for the server to return. It was a long time of sitting, still without napkins or silverware. Once we placed our orders, it also felt like an extended wait for our appetizers to arrive, long enough that we started pondering the fact that they were not exactly high labor dishes.

I started with what was one of the "patio specials": black bean cakes. There were two small black bean cakes on a very hot plate (heat lamp or on purpose, I pondered, considering the wait...) and they were pretty much just as the name describes them. They were good but nothing remarkable and the avocado relish served with it was in short supply. My companions had the romaine salad and the tomato bisque. A.d.S enjoyed her romaine salad with creamy garlic dressing, commenting that the salad was nicely dressed and much lighter than she had expected but in a good way.

For my entree, I went with the small portion of the kubbeh, which was made with artichoke and potato and served with harisa. The kubbeh was shaped like an empanada but was solid with the ingredients (there is no pastry shell). Not familiar with kubbeh, the two of us that had it had asked in advance what it was but somehow missed that it would be fried. Although not chickpea derived, in appearance it reminded me of falafel with its dark outside and green/yellow interior thanks to the ingredients and curry spices. It tasted good but I think it might have been a little over-fried, leaving the outer crust a bit tough. The harisa it was served with was seriously potent. Just a tiny fleck on the fork was enough to leave the bottom of my mouth burning with each bite. Thank goodness we were warned of its spice level! What this potency did, however, was make the entire dish a bit dry as there was no nice sauce to dip in.

Sapor gets a lot of credit from me for its varied and interesting menu (the other person at our table had macaroni and cheese with Fisher Farms bacon - interesting to have on the same table as kubbeh!). Despite this, we really hadn't anticipated having a two hour plus dinner so the perception of the food was a bit ruined by the service. While I don't know if the kitchen was slow, I will say that our server had more tables than she could efficiently handle!

In trying to figure out where this leaves me, it isn't completely disheartened about Sapor. The patio, dining room and bar are really nice spaces and the food was good, just not great. In fact, I feel a little guilty for not having made a reservation because this might have helped Sapor be better staffed for the evening. While I probably won't be running back, I would certainly return, especially to check out the three dollar happy hour menu.

Thumbs Up: Varied menu and portion size, nice spaces, lots of parking
Thumbs Down: Slow service, both of my dishes could have used more "sauce"

Sapor Cafe 428 Washington Ave N Minneapolis www.saporcafe.com