RESTAURANT REVIEW : ‘Southern’ Style Found at Sabor Too

Business at the new Sabor, Sabor Too, has been a little slow. Located on an unlikely stretch of Pico Boulevard in easternmost Santa Monica, this second Sabor will no doubt depend more on word of mouth than foot traffic. So far, the majority of customers seem to be fans of the original Sabor in Silver Lake. But it’s only a matter of time before the locals discover Sabor’s excellent food, generous service and reasonable prices.

Like many healthy offspring, Sabor Too is somewhat larger and more ambitious than its parent. There are the same shiny white textured walls, the same stone statuary, the same idiosyncratic blend of folk art and gilt in a more open, larger room.

The menu at Sabor Too is virtually identical to the one at the original Sabor. “Sabor Restaurant Introduces Southern-Latin Flavors,” the menu says. By Southern , the chef means Southern in the sense of the South of the Border ( pupusas and chiles rellenos ), South of the Mason-Dixon Line (crab cakes), the Deep South (fried chicken) and Southern California (Caesar salad, steak and fresh ahi tuna, which seems to define an L.A. restaurant). By Latin , the chef means an infusion of Latin flavor: fat crab cakes that would be admired in Maryland are served with a quenching baby cactus salad; the filet mignon comes with cascabel chile sauce. The menu is on the small side which, in this case, is a virtue: The chef has clearly limited himself only to those dishes he does exceedingly well.

One of the things that makes the two Sabors so appealing is that they provide such a high degree of service at such moderate prices. There is no rush to order--indeed, unless you want them earlier, menus aren’t even distributed until you sit back, order a drink, take full possession of your table and yourself. Throughout the meal, courses arrive appropriately. Cutlery is replaced. Crumbs are collected, bread and water consistently replenished. It’s amazing how time flies when one is so pampered.

The presentation is invariably colorful and 3-D. Food comes on bright neo-Fiestaware, set off by drizzles of multicolored sauces, long spikes of green onion and carrots cut in the shapes of stars and flowers and arrows. Sopes , wallops of flavor in the form of little masa cups filled with spicy chorizo, roasted pasilla chiles and juicy fresh salsa are delicious. Sweet morsels of Louisiana crayfish, breaded with a hot crunchy crust, are deep-fried and served with a great cayenne-spiked remoulade. Sabor’s pupusas , Salvadoran corn cakes, are stuffed with pork and cheese, and are especially good when topped with curtido , the accompanying chile-hot pickled cabbage.

Since Sabor Too has the same chef as the original Sabor, it is probably inaccurate for me to speculate that the fried chicken is better over at the new Santa Monica establishment. Maybe it’d been so long since I’d eaten Sabor’s Cajun-fried chicken, I forgot just how incredibly crunchy, crusty and juicy it really is. Good pureed potatoes and fresh vegetables make this a square meal we wish our moms had the skill to cook.

Not everything is so perfect. Lamb chops, though nicely medium-rare on the inside, were bitterly charred on the outside. And grilled chicken breasts, again tender and moist within, had strong, bitterly burnt skin. I know some have a taste for such carbon-flavoring, but I prefer more subtle grilling.

Even so, the angel hair pasta beneath one of the charred chicken breasts was sauced with a luscious amalgamation of basil, roasted tomatoes, pasilla chiles and anejo cheese--it’s a dish I’d get again.

Chiles rellenos , stuffed with black beans and cheese, never tasted so lively or looked so pretty. Tamales filled with chicken and sun-dried chiles came with a scorching and flavorful chipotle sauce. The vegetarian roll is two whole-wheat tortillas stuffed with creamy black beans, spinach and roasted eggplant.

At lunch the menu is a bit smaller, but the prices are lower too. Also, there are a few items available exclusively at lunch that are worth the midday trip, most notably, the tenderloin beef sandwich, a length of baguette filled with tender beef in a rich, flavorful black-pepper-and-mustard sauce.

Brunch at both the Sabors is a leisurely affair, with a lavish amount of food, not to be undertaken by those faint of appetite or short on time.

Sabor Too, 3221 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 829-3781. Lunch and dinner seven days, brunch Sunday. Beer and wine. MasterCard, Visa. Dinner for two, food only, $29 to $56.