SARA — Restaurant in Toronto

I visited Sara on Feb 1, 2024 with a Wagjag voucher for their six dish tasting menu. Wagjag related information is added at the end.

Overall, I enjoyed this vegetable heavy meal with a great variety. The ingredients and cooking techniques are pretty simple without complex flavours and high technicality but well balanced and great for its price - at its regular price though, I would’ve expected a higher level of craft. With ‘safe’ dishes, there was no ‘miss’ for me, which is why I am giving 5 for food (4 at the regular price), but I do question its validity to be on Michelin’s guide especially in comparison to other cities’ lists.

Portion wise, though we were served Ikura Latke twice by the restaurant’s mistake, I was starting to get full after their third course, Chopped Salad. By the time main course (Fried Chicken and Delicata Squash) came around, I was stuffed. I’d also like to note that Fried Chicken portions are not consistent. I assume and hope they try to keep them consistent, but from other review pictures and social media stories/posts, you can tell that their portion varies.

In terms of atmosphere, from its brick wall exterior to its minimal and tasteful interrior, the design was enjoyable. Washrooms were also great - single units, clean, Aesop handwash. The only miss is that the tables are very close to each other, which can have a big impact on your experience depending on who’s sitting next to you.

Service was the most questionable part about the evening. While timing of the dishes coming out was perfect and our server was polite, she was inexperienced, not personable, and scatterbrained, which made some encounters awkward at best. Other waitstaff will run your dishes and fill up water, but there was absolutely no check-up during the service. One of the waitstaff would also abruptly drop the dish onto the table making an unpleasant sound with no explanation of the dish, bringing us back to a nofrill place in Chinatown or an university cafeteria. Other than taking the order, bussing the plates, and bringing the bill, there was no service, yet we were charged 18% auto gratuity for 2 guests, which was not mentioned anywhere on the menu, Wagjag website, Sara’s website, or before/during/after the service. Yet when I was paying, the machine still asked for an additional tip. Giving 3 star for service - again for its voucher price - but at the regular price and considering its Michelin status, I would normally give 2, not a pass.

The voucher came to $108.09 with a 10% off promo on Wagjag. This was a great deal for two people including a glass of house wine each, which could be substituted for beer or mocktail. Wagjag advertises it as $177 value, but it would be added up to $171 assuming that portion sizes are the same as a la carte, which I cannot speak for. At the restaurant, they will charge for tax, tip, and anything else you add on. As mentioned earlier, there is an automatic gratuity of 18% - even for our table of two, which was not mentioned anywhere and at anytime, leaving not the best last impression unfortunately when the overall evening went decently.

If you have membership with Somm, you can get a free...

Requested to sit on the cozy back patio since since the front patio is a little too busy for the type of dining experience we wanted.

Food We had the squash latkes (our favourite dish of the night), duck wontons (I'm Asian so I found these expensive for 2 small wontons, for the price you should get at least 4, and the taste was just was ok... I can make better homemade dumplings myself, so these were our least favourite), tocino octopus and pork belly (really good tender octopus and pork belly, reminded me of Filipino sweet breakfast sausage, if you're Filipino you know the taste I'm talking about), buttermilk fried chicken (this was okay and good size portion), and the wagyu reuben (very good but again small portion).

Drinks Smoke Martini, Apple Harvest G&T and Chai G&T... good fall drinks

We liked the food and drinks, the food though come in extremely small portions and I feel I need to emphasize this point further. For reference, I'm a petite woman and I thought the portions were small. The wagyu reuben should be bigger, but it's half the size of a normal sized sandwich. Duck wontons are only 2 pieces (and the pieces are not big), 4 small squash latkes (very good but literally just 2 small bites), octopus and pork belly (again very small portions, we had 1.5 bites each). Luckily we had the buttermilk fried chicken at the end which had a bigger portion size, my husband was actually still hungry until we got the chicken ...we were thinking we had to go somewhere else to get more food. Mind you at this point we already spent $200. Since we ordered items like duck wontons, a sandwich and fried chicken, which are essentially bar foods, the portions are jus too small and I wouldn't exactly classify it as "fine dining" nor does it merit that kind of price point.

For that amount of money we should leave full. We are not strangers to fine dining and often visit $$$$$ restaurants not just in Toronto but all over the world. I would have given it more stars but I can't justify going back there to spend that amount of money and wondering if we had to go somewhere else to get more food (which really ruins my dining experience, no matter how good the food is).

Also, we came about 10 minutes late and we had a 1.5 hr time limit at the table so we were reminded that a) we were late and b) we had to leave in 1.5 hrs (we were reminded this twice), which I understand because you want to turn the table over, but in my dining experience it's usually 2 hrs for dining, I've never experienced 1.5 hrs. I ordered the last drink which took a long time to arrive, I reminded the server and when I finally got the drink, I couldn't enjoy it because we were reminded we had to go due to the time limit. I had to chug that last drink because at that point the bill was given to us and we paid for it, which means we should get going.

Note for management, I would extend the dining time limit to 2 hours since that's the what the majority of restaurants are offering, especially if you forget to bring out drinks on a timely basis and your food comes out dish by dish. Especially for people that order many dishes, 1.5hrs is...

SARA is not just a restaurant but a gastronomical experience. For those foodies like me who live to eat, SARA is the place to be. With a minimalist pale blue and white decor and a roof dotted with skylights, SARA seems clean, simple and elegant on first impression. You would think that the food would reflect the decor, and you wouldn't be wrong except it is anything but simple. Our server Mahi walked us through the concept behind SARA and how the menu was designed for a trip around the world, and boy, some trip it was. We trusted Mahi to curate the entire experience for us. We were served the amuse-bouche which was cornbread with miso butter. It was the perfect mouth amuser, haha, to get the tongue really going. Mahi started us off with the Ikura Latke made out butternut squash, chive cream and served wuth salmon roe, and the Ahi Tuna Tartare with Yuzu and Truffle . I was already being serenaded by the combination of tuna and truffle complimenting the beautifully rich and equally decadent latke topped with roe. I had already made up my mind that this was going to be the most beautiful food experience of my life and that is when the server brought it Mahi's third recommendation, The Chopped Salad. Sounds incredibly simple, doesn't it? A chopped salad but it was anything but. With wasabi peas, grapes and mint among so much more, the refreshing salad cut through the fat of the tuna and the luscious caviar and made for the perfect starters. However, Mahi wasn't done yet. He sent us the Wagyu Reuben with Truffle Mustard (spoil me rotten with the truffle overdose, no complaints) and the Parisienne Gnocchi and I kid you not when I say that I entered another level of ecstasy and pure joy after the first two bites of each. The reuben with its thinly sliced meat and crispy bread alongside the light-as-air gnocchi sprinkled with pistachios and asparagus and possibly the best basil pesto I have ever had the good fortune of eating, heaven! We were enjoying our Strawberry Guava French 65 cocktail and a gorgeous Old Fashioned when our Buttermilk Fried Chicken main course came in with a side of Sunchoke Fried Rice and every one of my senses was pinging with the harissa hot sauce from the chicken complimenting the sumac honey it came drizzled with. I was just starting to have an out of body experience when my partner ordered his second drink, a Smoke, a drink made with Willibald Barrel Aged Gin, Dillon's Sweet Vermouth, Dolin Dry, Lagavulin Scotch and the climax to our heavenly meal, the dessert. The Banana Cream Profiteroles served with chocolate, miso dulce de leche, sesame.

I was not ready to leave the restaurant that had changed my perception about food and what it means to truly respect an ingredient. I am in awe of the people that have worked on curating this incredible menu, and I will definitely be coming back to try the rest of the food that I did not eat this time.

Thank you for having us, SARA. You have...