Restaurant Sabor
by David Dudley
Lutherville isn't the last place in the world one would expect Puerto Rican food, but it's probably on the short list. Nevertheless, here's Restaurant Sabor, freshly opened in the Land Rover-intensive shopping center off Padonia Road that houses the upscale Graul's Market. Sabor marks the ownership debut of chef Rodolfo "Roddy" Domacassé, a native of Puerto Rico and a veteran of several area kitchens known more for classical French fare; he cooked at the now-closed Brasserie Tatin, as well as Linwood's and Rudy's 2900. He seems to sense that the burghers of Baltimore County have only a limited interest in his home island's cuisine, and Sabor, despite the Spanish moniker and a handful of Latin-spiced touches on the menu, is really a comfy and conservative Continental-style operation, complete with calf's liver and duck confit, carefully constructed cream sauces, and a peaceful dining room that locals have already adopted as an aprés-field-hockey-practice clubhouse.
Domacassé's roots show up in a Friday special of roast pork, a Sunday special of "Puerto Rican lasagna" (with queso blanco and plantains), and in such appetizers as pork "pansita," a plush arrangement of pork belly slices with fried plantain chips and wine-braised cabbage. A house salad also gets a crispy smattering of plantain fragments. But other dishes taste like they could have been on the plate at Brasserie Tatin—not necessarily a bad thing. A rockfish special, draped with wintry bacon-flecked beurre blanc and sided with Brussels sprouts and potatoes Lyonnaise, is impressively fresh, if a bit overwrought. More refined are seared scallops paired with truffle-scented risotto and velvety nantua sauce, an elaborate brandied-lobster-butter concoction that doesn't turn up on many menus this millennium.
If all these luxo ingredients seem a little pre-recessionary, note that Sabor keeps the price point under control. It's BYOB, for one thing (there's a $5 corkage fee and a liquor store next door). And some of its greatest pleasures are notably affordable. Gossamer-thin house-fried potato chips dosed with earthy truffle salt appear as an addictive amuse-bouche, and Sabor serves French fries that put the corner bar to shame—slim, skin-on, and so puffingly light that they all but levitate from plate to mouth. (Dinner daily, lunch Wed–Fri, brunch Sat and Sun. 12240 Tullamore Rd.; 410-628-7227; www.restaurantsabor.com.)
—David Dudley
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