Apr. 15, 2009 - Issue #704: Mutek

Sabor Divino

Bringing the heat: Plenty of upsides to lunch at the Boardwalk's Sabor Divino

My Portuguese is nonexistent, and so it is no surprise that a couple of months ago, when I first walked by Sabor Divino, a newly opened Portuguese-influenced resto on the Boardwalk by Haweli, The Creperie and the Old Spaghetti Factory, I thought I was looking in at a furniture store. Sumptuous chairs surrounded well-decorated tables with settings. But no customers. How was I to know that food was the "store's" raison d'être? As I now know, sabor divino is Portuguese for "divine taste." And this time, when I walked by, those same "show windows" facing 103 Street, were wide open as the entrance to the restaurant's café lounge. The day was still too chilly to offer a patio feel to dining. But what was even more puzzling is that this beautifully appointed resto had drawn all of four tables for lunch. And that's counting me.

This is a perfect room for lunch, or any meal, really. Two dining levels, redolent of wood, brick and leather. A baby grand in the middle of the room. Nice, bar. Class all the way.

At lunch, there are plenty of options that compare favourably with the dinner menu. Unfortunately, I had my heart set on a selection from the 11 tapas from the café lounge only to be told on entry that the "little plates" are not offered at lunch. That said, I was able to convince my server to have the kitchen prepare a two-piece tapas order of the broiled eggplant package ($6 as tapas and $16 for a full entrée). This is eggplant as something of a revelation: thin slices of aubergine that wrap goat cheese, a slice of fresh tomato and a basil leaf. Grill the whole package so that the cheese melts slightly, sprinkle on some browned pine nuts as garnish, and let the wrap sit in a very slight shimmer of balsamic vinaigrette. You have a dish with snap, crackle and pop with the elements of soft, fruity, acidic and crunch.

My salad choice was the octopus and mussel salad ($15), a rustic combination of diced red and green pepper, red onion on a bed of red leaf lettuce and arugula. The marinated octopus—legs and slices of the beast—was extremely tender, and the mussels were refreshing. And just to drive home the point, four mussels in their shells bordered the salad. The whole plate was anointed with a red wine vinaigrette, though if you wanted more acidity, fresh parsley-dusted lemon quarters decoratively balanced the shells on the side.

With the bread, and its accompanying oil, balsamic vinegar and whipped butter, this could have been a meal in itself. However, when piri piri is mentioned on a menu, who can say no? The name refers to the chili used in a hot sauce or marinade, in this case paired with garlic for Portuguese barbecued chicken ($18). The dish has a bit of a slow burn to the skin-on pieces of breast and thigh meat. Perfectly cooked and moist throughout, the chicken utterly embraces the tenor of the spice and the bass of the garlic.

But a bit more about heat. In a former life, I spent a decade of once-weekly visits covering the food scene for Edmonton AM on CBC Radio. I was encouraged to bring in samples so that the host could have something to talk about as we chewed over the food development of the week. One week, I decided to do chili-chocolate chip cookies. Breathless was host John Grant after his first bite ... and the chilies kicked in. The eyes widened. There was a distinct intake of breath. And then the panic set in. A state of alarm engulfed his face as he looked through the studio glass at his producer Maureen Palmer. Water quickly arrived as I time-stepped my way through a soliloquy on the positive effect chilies can have on chocolate. I don't think I was ever forgiven.

The dessert in question on Sabor Divino's menu is a chocolate mousse with a bump of cayenne spice ($7 or a "temptation" size for $3). It seems an innocent trifle, really, hardly able to hurt anyone: a martini glass of well-made chocolate mousse dressed with a piping of whipped cream, a filigree of bittersweet chocolate, a trophy piece of chocolate lanced into the mousse, and a dressy shard of caramelized sugar dotted with tiny bits of chili. Turns out that this is a slow-acting dessert. The first mouthful is fine, but then you find yourself saying, "Wait for it, wait for it," and then the sting matches the sweetness. Cayenne broadens the flavour of the chocolate and leaves you with the impression of a much lighter dessert.

This late in the meal, I still marvel that only four tables are in play. This enables the lunch-hour chef to learn first-hand of the quality of his labours. Indeed, my server tells me that changes are expected to encourage the lunch trade. "We're looking at dropping the prices on some dishes, and adding more sandwiches," she says. What might work, I suggest, is an offering of the tapas dishes currently on the café lounge menu. Time consuming to put together, yes, but an opportunity for diners to sample widely the expanse of dishes that the very skilled chef Adelino Olivieri can put together. Lunch crowds, after all, can be your future evening diners.

As it stands, Sabor Divino closes at 2:30 pm—"or else we're being paid just to stand around," says my server—and the kitchen preps for what one assumes (hopes) is a bigger dinner crowd.

The dinner menu greatly expands upon the dishes offered at lunch, which is how it should be. Tempt people with tastes, just to give them a sense of what you're about. At night, hit them over the head with the likes of pork tenderloin and clams, bacalhau-broiled salt cod—roasted or baked, with or without cream—and enough tapas to keep you more than happy and sated. V


MON – FRI (11:30 AM – 2:30 PM & 5 pm – 10 pm); SAT (5 pm – 10 pm)
Sabor Divino
10220 - 103 St
780.757.1114

More info about Sabor Divino →

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