facebook.com/sabortropicalmilwaukee
It was fortuitous that I scheduled a visit to Sabor Tropical during the recent polar vortex. If the city was turning into a popsicle, at least I could eat dinner in a place that reminded me of being back in Miami.
The restaurant, which opened late last year, took the place of Riviera Maya in Bay View. The space’s meandering layout and furniture is the same, but it’s brighter and more cheerful thanks to a new coat of yellow paint and some Latin dance-themed artwork. I hope some more lush plants appear in the warmer months to amp up the “Tropical.”
Owners Jesse Fonseca and Carmen Muñoz have experience in the restaurant industry: They run Blue Agave, a Mexican restaurant and lounge, in Madison. And Chef and owner Stephen Gonzalez also has 20 years of cooking experience. That all resulted in a tight dining experience, including a friendly, attentive server, good pacing and noticeable little touches.
A complimentary snack of lightly toasted baguette slices brushed with a bit of garlic butter and scattered with fresh pico de gallo is appreciated, if a little soggy from the tomato juices. I imagine that Sabor’s Caribbean and Latin American menu would prompt some diners to expect free chips and salsa. This is a nice way to avoid disappointment while also establishing that this is not a Mexican restaurant.
Empanadillas come with three fillings: picadillo Cuban ($3), spicy chicken ($3) and Creole shrimp ($4). They’re large, nicely filled and deep fried with crisp little bubbles in the dough. The Creole shrimp filling is made with small whole shrimp in a light tomato-based sauce that needs more flavor. Try the heavily seasoned ground beef picadillo studded with cubed potatoes and chopped green olives in instead, which was gobbled up quickly.
Plantains play a large role in Caribbean cuisine and are well represented at Sabor. Tostones rellenos ($8-$10) shape a deep-fried green plantain slice into a small cup that gets filled with chopped steak, pork or chicken and topped with chimichurri and avocado cream. Three small cups make up the appetizer, but they’re more filling than they appear.
An El jibarito ($11) is a sandwich that replaces bread with massive, flattened and fried whole plantains. As a tostone lover, I was happy to finally get to order this sandwich, filled with thin skirt steak, grilled onions and a mild aioli. It was somewhat of a letdown though, thanks to the soggy lettuce and tomato that had wilted quickly under the just-from-the-fryer plantain bun. The aioli turned soupy from the heat, and there were only a few onions. Thankfully, the beef was tender and tasty enough to make a plain sandwich with the plantains once the other toppings had fallen out.
Mofongo, a starchy mash of fried green plantains, was the best thing I ate. It was full of garlic, as it should be, and with chunky bits of plantain and a few pork rinds. Get it as an entree ($15-$24) stuffed with chicken, shrimp, fish, lobster or a seafood combination. Though the wooden pilon—the tool mofongo is made in—is a novelty, I’d rather be able to see my food on a plate.
Pernil al horno en salsa de chile guajillo ($12) is shredded roasted pork in a deep red guajillo chili sauce served with Puerto Rican rice and a side of tostones or sweet plantains. The pork was moist and delicate, and the sauce was rich and slightly smoky. I wished there was more. Chopped green olives, pigeon peas and small bits of pork dotted the orange, well-seasoned rice.
There are a number of seafood entrees to choose from, including salmon tropical ($18) with mango and avocado compote over mashed potatoes; gambas al ajillo ($15), shrimp sautéed with lemon, wine and garlic; and mero entomatado ($15), grouper in a Creole sauce with bell peppers, onions and fried yucca. The salmon’s presentation is lovely, but the grouper is a more unique dish around here.
Tropical drinks ($8-$10) are the bar’s specialty, including a blended piña colada served in a hollowed-out pineapple. It’s a novelty to have delivered to your table in the dead of winter. Fruit mojitos are made with flavored rum and not enough mint, so stick to a paloma or coquito, an eggnog-like creamy drink with coconut and cinnamon. With drinks like these and more fried plantains than you can shake a stick at, it’s easier to ignore that snow storm outside.
