Sabor

Sabor Restaurant

Founded by Nieves Barragan and José Etura, Sabor (meaning flavour in Spanish) takes you on a journey from the tapas bars of Andalucía through to the asadors of Castile and the seafood restaurants of Galicia.

Nieves and José will focus on capturing the flavour of Spain as well as showcasing the use of traditional ingredients and cooking methods, and a relaxed approach to dining.

Located on Heddon Street, Sabor has three distinct areas – A restaurant and bar on the ground floor and the asador on the first floor, with each space offering a different taste and experience of Spanish cuisine and hospitality.

http://www.saborrestaurants.co.uk

Sabor: Nieves Barragan | The Week Portfolio

Now, Jose and I are very happy to finally open Sabor and share our love for Spanish cooking.

Sabor, which means flavour in Spanish, is set over two floors with three different areas – the restaurant, a bar and the traditional asador on the first floor.

Diners in the restaurant are seated at a long dining bar overlooking the kitchen, sharing the counter with the chefs, and people's orders are written in chalk on the limestone counter like in traditional Andalucian tapas bars.

North to south, east to west, the food is so different so Sabor gives you a huge picture of the variety Spanish food can offer.

People used to think Spanish food was just paella but it's so much beyond that.

Sabor | A New Mayfair Restaurant from an Ex-Barrafina Chef ...

Especially if that Spanish restaurant happens to be the brainchild of an ex-Barrafina chef and their former general manager, Nieves Barragan Mohacho and José Etura… …which, coincidentally, Sabor is.

Located on Heddon St., it’s a sizeable two-floor affair whose rough bare brick walls (sporadically garnished with genuinely beautiful mosaic tiles), unvarnished wooden floors, and cast iron fittings all contrive to create the impression that the place was plucked out of a small Spanish town and dropped neatly in the centre of Mayfair.

DOWNSTAIRS Entering in the ground floor, you’ll see a a sweeping dining bar overlooking the open kitchen from which they’re serving regional Spanish dishes (mostly seafood-led – they even have an in-house fishmonger) from across the country; you find tiny fried cuttlefish with hake; a hearty grilled monkfish consome; some Iberian duck breast with tarragon; and black tomato with confit artichoke.

THE BAR If you’re just after a quick snack, you can pitch up here for small plates (like cheese with black truffle, or the melt-in-the-mouth Jamon Iberico which they’ll slice before you eyes) plus cocktails, sherries, half a dozen Spanish gins, some Galacian beer, or sparkling dry white wines from the Basque region… And trust us, you don’t want tapas on that.

OTHER NOTE: The upstairs are of Sabor will be open from March 1st.

review of London Spanish tapas restaurant Sabor, written by Andy ...

Rather irritatingly there seems to be no coat rack in the whole restaurant, so you are reduced to having your coat hung under the bar and dragging on the floor to be trodden on by neighbouring diners, or when eating at the counter having it slung over the back of your low chair, to be promptly trod upon by anyone needing to get by.

The wine list ranged in price from £25 to £135 with labels such as La Tremenda from Alicante (presumably from Enrique Mendoza though you would not know that from the wine list) at £28 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £13, Bodega Pittacum Barrica Bierzo at £48 compared to its retail price of about £15, and La Dama from Navarra (presumably from Domaines Lupier but not shown on the list) at £75 for a wine that will set you back £29 in a shop.

A pair of piquillo pepper croquetas (£6) were also nice, having a decent amount of pepper flavour, as well they might at this price (13/20).

By comparison, a typical fine dining restaurant might aim for a dish margin of a bit less than 75%, meaning that the dish would be marked up around four times its cost price, rather than about twenty times as in this case.

The food was pleasant, but with some avoidable issues such as the wildly over-peppered pig trotters.

Sabor, Spanish Restaurant, Londno | Culture Whisper

Spanish chef Nieves Barragán and José Etura's were both working at London's popular Barrafina restaurant when they decided to go it alone, setting up their new Spanish restaurant, Sabor to reflect all they love most about their regional cuisine.

Both hailing from Spain, chef Barragán, from Bilbao, and Etura, from Valladolid in Castile, are pooling their shared love and knowledge of Spanish cooking and hospitality to give us something fresh and exciting.

Sabor, meaning flavour in Spanish, is going to be all about traditional Spanish ingredients and cooking methods, but with relaxed dining.

At their tables, guests will journey from the tapas bars of Andalucía through to the asadors of Castile to the seafood restaurants of Galicia.

Inspired by the Spanish counter top dining and open kitchen experience, Nieves and José are bringing both to Sabor.

Sabor, London: 'like a warm evening in Bilbao' – restaurant review

Nieves Barragan is opening Sabor in Mayfair's Heddon Street ...

Summing it all up: They've both been driving forces behind Barrafina's success and now Nieves Barragan and José Etura are opening Sabor, their own restaurant.

They've both been driving forces behind Barrafina's success and now Nieves Barragan and José Etura are opening their own restaurant.

The duo are creating Sabor as a Spanish restaurant, bar and asador on Heddon Street (just off Regent Street).

We're told to expect the food to focus on recreating an experience like the tapas bars of Andalucía, the asadors of Castile and the seafood restaurants of Galicia.

Bookings will be available for the asador, while the downstairs bar and restaurant will be walk-ins only.

Sabor, London: Restaurant Review - olive magazine

Nieves Barragán Mohacho and José Etura have teamed up to showcase their country’s finest produce and cuisine at restaurant and tapas bar (check out our guide to some of the best place to eat tapas in the UK) Sabor on Heddon Street, tucked behind Regent Street in central London.

With a friendly service style and nods to Andalucían tapas bars (colourful tiles, high tables), Sabor has the authentic feel of bars found all over Spain.

Our unusual bottle of rosé was fresh and zingy with a touch of red fruit and, along with a couple of saline fino sherries, were a welcome foil to the rich, fried food to come.

Chubby mussels ‘a la Bilbaina’ slurped up a light sauce of tomatoes, sherry, sherry vinegar and herbs.

On the Saturday evening of Sabor’s opening week, we were hosted at the counter which tightly frames the open tapas kitchen.

Fay Maschler reviews Sabor: A superb Spanish acquisition | London ...

In partnership with José Etura (another definite mensch) running front-of-house there is now a bar and tapas counter on the ground floor of premises located just off Regent Street called Sabor and up a spiral staircase a restaurant with an open kitchen and a wood-fired oven called Asador.

Piquillo croquetas served under a shower of grated zamorano (nutty sheep’s milk cheese) heralds the Spanish affection for high-quality tinned food — the process actually benefitting the action — here of sweet red peppers.

We consider arroz con salmonete (rice with red mullet) because word has got out about the gravity of its stock but choose instead chipirón (small squid) in its ink with cod and aioli, a striking composition in black and white.

Anxious also to eat our greens, we order a mound of emerald green kale chivvied with red chilli and for our fruit a rhubarb and mascarpone tartaleta that turns out to be the best rendition of this exigent stalk that I have ever come across.

To discover more of Nieves’s story there is now a book, Sabor, Flavours From A Spanish Kitchen, as well as recipes — but it’s easier, maybe, to head straight for Calle de Heddon.

New Openings: Asador at Sabor - the last piece of Nieves Barragán ...

The launch of the new 'asador' upstairs at Sabor completes the line-up at chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho’s recently opened Mayfair eatery.

Olé and thrice olé, Nieves Barragán Mohacho’s three-in-one bar, restaurant and asador hits Heddon Street.

The ground floor at Sabor opened in January; and the launch of the 'asador' this month - specialising in food from a wood-fired oven - is the last piece of the puzzle.

Brilliant, Bilbao-born, ex-Barrafina chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho and business partner José Etura.

Classic Spanish recipes from Nieves Barragán Mohacho | Life and ...

Eighteen years ago, a young woman called Nieves Barragán Mohacho left Santurtzi, the small Basque town where she had grown up and lived all her life, and travelled to London to take up an offer of work in the kitchen at the Barbican branch of the French chain Simply Nico (a friend’s boyfriend was its sous chef).

Unable to speak English, and without any previous experience, the only position available to her was that of kitchen porter, which meant she spent her days – and what long days they were – cleaning salad and peeling potatoes.

In the autumn, she and José Etura, Barrafina’s general manager, with whom she has worked for more than a decade, will open Sabor, a new restaurant, bar and asador (grill) in Heddon Street, in London’s Piccadilly.

Sabor is a vivid compendium of the dishes Barragán grew up eating: the kind of satisfying, unpretentious food her father, a builder, would eat when he arrived home, ravenously hungry after work.

Serves 4-6 onion ½, peeled bay leaf 1 frozen octopus 1 (approx 2.3kg before defrosting), defrosted extra virgin olive oil 200ml smoked sweet paprika 1 tbsp, for sprinkling capers 50g fresh chives 1 bunch, chopped sea salt and freshly ground black pepper For the potatoes potatoes 3 medium extra virgin olive oil 125ml sea salt and freshly ground black pepper smoked hot

Sabor, London W1 | Grace Dent's restaurant review | Life and style ...

If you know London only as a tourist, however briefly, you’ll have been within a whisker of this spot where chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho and front-of-house José Etura’s new place now sits.

When I think of Barragán, I’m transported back to circa-2007 and Barrafina’s tiny Frith Street original setting.

That’s the context behind camarones fritos topped with a runny fried egg; a plate that watches you with 1,000 shrimpy eyes and is available only at the bar.

Still, things cheer up once we’re seated at the dining counter proper and treading tipsily through glasses of Páramos de Nicasia 2014 and plates of pan con tomate with cecina.

But I’m less struck by the frit mariner, a puzzling plate of soft onion, aubergine and pepper with white fish and two prawns hiding sporadically in its midst and located only via autopsy.