Sapor Cafe

428 Washington Ave N
Minneapolis, MN
612-375-1971
http://www.saporcafe.com/

Category: International

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 4
Service: 7
Ambience: 7

Recommendation: Poor. The international menu looks wonderful, but the food severely lacks in the one aspect synonymous with the restaurant’s name, Sapor (flavor).

Sapor is located in the warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. The menu is inspired from across the world and the idea behind the restaurant was to provide patrons with authentic and flavorful eats. Foods span the globe like Samosas (India), Empanadas (South America), Kebabs (Middle East), Kung Pao Chicken (China). The restaurant itself is located in a “loft-style” building and the brick outside and warm wooden floors fit in well in the North Loop neighborhood. The indoor décor is not overdone and the large windows overlooking Washington St. bring in nice amounts of light. There is also an outdoor seating area, but there isn’t much people watching in this neighborhood. They have a Happy Hour on the weekdays from 5pm-7pm with $3 appetizers, a couple of $3 wines/beer, and $1 off Cocktails and Tap Beer.

The menu had several creative cocktails. The Anar Kali was made of Pomegranate juice, Hangar One Mandarin Blossom Vodka, and Cointreau. We felt it lacked flavor. The Agave’s Inferno, which had Reposado, Habanero, Mint, Tequila was better. It tasted like a spicy Mojito. We had a chance to sample many of the happy hour appetizers and most were below average. The Chicken Wings didn’t have flavor, the Wasabi Potato Cake was dry as was the Burger with Worcestershire (it could have used some sauce as an accompaniment), and the French Fries were served with a Saffron Aioli but were limp.

We moved on to the main course and were surprised to find that the portions were small for what we were being charged. The more disappointing aspect was that most of the dishes we ordered lacked flavor. Both the Vietnamese Flank Steak Salad and Jerusalem Barbequed Lamb Kebabs were flavorless and the latter was overcooked. The Kung Pao Chicken was different, because it was a single piece of chicken with the Kung Pao sauce – this had good potential but the spice was overpowering. The Grilled Pork Loin was ok as well. There were 7 of us and we were all in agreement that the experience was very disappointing. At the end the server brought out small chocolate pieces and this was the highlight of the evening – if we were to take this into account the food rating would go from a 4 to a 4.25!

$$$. Happy Hour bites were $3 each.