SARA

Located in a tiny unassuming house-like building in the King West area, SARA is a phenomenal restaurant with best-in-class food, service and atmosphere. I’ve had their tasting menu twice this year and both experiences have been stellar.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Wagyu Reuben is a crowd favourite here, continuing to stay on their tasting menu

- Ikura Latke is deliciously balanced, especially delightful when the ikura bursts in the mouth

- Grilled Shrimp is a must here. Wonderfully fragrant. They fly in a specially selected charcoal to grill it with. Combined with the tomato purée, they work in unison to bring out the most intense shrimp flavour i’ve had in years

- Likewise the striploin is grilled with the same charcoal. Smells equally amazing and pairs well with their Whisky au-jus sauce

- Profiterole dessert was incredible, taking the crown as one of my new favourite desserts. The salted caramel pairs very well with the dulche de leche

- All their cocktails are good

Misses:
- Octopus unfortunately was a miss for me. Maybe I’ve been spoiled with the octopus in Portugal, Japan and Chinese cuisine. The one served to me was slightly mushy, similar to the texture of overcooked shrimp. The servers quickly noticed my disappointment and offered to replace it with a fried chicken dish instead. That was a much better dish and I gotta give credit to the phenomenal staff who handled the situation professionally.

Lastly I want to thank the staff again for an amazing night both times. They really know how to help their customers feel like honoured guests. Thank you for the complimentary champagne when you learned of our 1 year anniversary night. I will definitely be back in the future!

This experience was fantastic. The restaurant had a very calming aura to it and the staff helped you feel comfortable in the space almost immediately. I sampled the tasting menu and the food was beyond outstanding. High quality and and delicious. I would love to come back for another visit.

The Bottomline: food was good but not great. Service was superb but atmosphere felt a bit stiff. Overall I would say everything was just so-so.

Food and Drinks: we had the tasting menu. Everything was prepped and cooked well but nothing on the menu really stood out - I suppose it felt like the dishes were missing some acidity?

Also, a lot of their cocktails leaned on the sweet side. I was told they were balanced but honestly, all the cocktails tasted like dessert.

Dessert: dulce de leche was too much. It was so sweet and had no balance.

Visited recently to try out the tasting menus and had a lovely experience. The menu leans heavily into Asian fusion, favouring flavours from Japanese and Chinese food. I’d say the restaurant’s strengths lie in their seafood dishes and how they sauce their dishes. Everything tasted really delicious and the kitchen was able to easily accommodate our group’s individual dietary needs.

My only recommendations would be that for dishes featuring lamb, pork or beef, cut off the hard non-chewable/fatty pieces before cooking and serving it to customers. Also, keep an eye on how many times a fried ball of [insert food item] are used as dishes in the tasting menu. Our experience featured this three times, once in each course, which I thought was a bit of an overuse of this concept.

To be clear, this review isn’t written for a dining experience I had yesterday. This is retrospective to a few years ago and it’s relevant because the food and atmosphere was that memorable.
I’ve used Food Dudes for many events and when I heard they had opened 2 restaurants, SARA being one of them, I really wanted to try their dine-in experience.
I love their chopped salad. I don’t normally rave about many salads because it’s not usually the main focus of the meal but this one was definitely at the top of my list.
I also remember the Reuben sandwich and the latkes well and I’m itching to go back and try them now.
The last thing is the seating space upstairs. The design is sleek yet unique, and I love the colour of their booths. It’s not a huge space which also creates the sense of coziness.

The food was good, but we seemed to have gotten a different set than the other reviews because someone in the party was pescatarian. The restaurant was gracious enough to pivot and modify the tasting menu slightly, which was very appreciated. However, I also ended up not getting any meat in my set of dishes, which seemed highly recommended in reviews. That said, the Ikura Latkes were my absolute favorite of the meal.

Still, overall, it was a great experience. The service was impeccable, and our waitress was really on top of things!

Great tasting menu that is very decently priced. Their ikura latke is simply a flavor bomb. All the tapas are served in perfection except for the salmon crudo which doesn’t taste very fresh. As for dessert, we asked to switch it to the Sara’s mess which was super delicious and fruity. The chef has accommodated to all of our dietary restrictions and made alterations to the menu which made this dining experience really wonderful for us.
We had a girls night here and absolutely love the atmosphere and the skylight at the restaurant.
10/10 would come back

Had our 1 year anniversary here and were really impressed! The restaurant is lovely, tables are spaced out, and the service is incredible. Our waiter provided great recommendations, and all of our servers were knowledgeable. We had the tasting menu with the wine pairing (they don’t skimp on their pours!), which was delicious. We also started with cocktails, which was more alcohol than I planned for but I have no regrets. Also: the bathrooms are next level. Would definitely recommend this resto for a fancy night out: it’s not cheap, but worth the investment for a nice night out.