Sapori Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Charnwood

A return visit something that is very rare for us locally. We were greeted in the bar area and asked if we would like a drink in the bar or at the table in the restaurant we chose the latter. We were given the choice of an a la carte, set or tasting menu. Being midweek we chose a la carte knowing we would share each dish ordered anyway. Having viewed the Chefs social media videos of his bread making we asked for a side order of the bread which was outstanding a sourdough, a focaccia and a crisp bread that came with a light butter and amazing olive oil. For starters we chose the grilled Octopus, confit tomato, tagiasche olive preserved lemon Pizza ( a signature dish of the chef owner) which was a real star dish the pizza base crisp & light. The confit tomatoes punchy with flavour, the olives and preserved lemon balancing out the whole dish with perfectly cooked Octopus. Our other starter was Fregola pasta from Sardinia, prawns, mussels & saffron, cooked to perfection & again packed with flavour. For mains we chose Halibut with a yellow tomato sauce the fish a generous sized portion that was skillfully cooked, the potato, samphire & mushroom garnish brought together the whole dish. Pork 4 ways showed the kitchens skill level as each element was again perfectly cooked each one giving a different layer of flavour & texture the pasta element silky & the sherry jus was indulgent balanced with the root vegetable garnish. For dessert we ordered the tartlet (chocolate) which was at the same level as recent michelin star versions we have tasted. Thin pastry that snapped when cut into, warm rich chocolate filling & toasted hazelnuts. Terra Mia, Another signature dish of the chef owner and a wonderful representation of his home town a dessert I have experienced here previously its worth visiting Sapori just to taste this dessert alone Service was outstanding, front of house staff very knowledgeable regarding the menu, wines & other drinks on the list. For me this place is worthy of 3 aa rosettes and deserves more recognition from Michelin and...

Dear Sapori management,

I am writing to express my disappointment with the recent experience I had at your establishment. My friend and I visited your restaurant today and unfortunately, we received extremely poor customer service from the manager Luigi.

Not only was Luigi extremely rude and unprofessional, but he also made discriminatory remarks that were extremely offensive. When we expressed our dissatisfaction with the food, Luigi told us that we must eat it anyway, regardless of whether or not we liked it, and that we must pay for it. This is unacceptable, as we expect to receive good quality food and service when we dine at a highly regarded restaurant like Sapori.

To make matters worse, Luigi explained that the food was made from "packet food", which explained that they have been misleading guests by mentioning that all of their dishes are made from scratch when this is not true. The manager Luigi himself confirmed this to us.

Further to ignite the situation the manager of Sapori, Luigi ignored our table when we requested for assistance for the bill, it felt as though Luigi was purposely ignoring us and being discriminative towards us, I'm unsure if this was due to the colour of our skin?

This is completely unacceptable behavior from a manager, and we were extremely disappointed with the way we were treated.

I hope that you take this complaint seriously and take action against the unacceptable behavior. We will be sharing this experience with our friends and family and will not be returning to...

Scoring out of 5 it has to be a 5

An almost perfect tasting menu experience. Service was excellent throughout and my two choices of wine, a white Pecorino and a red (mal? forget name) were excellent accompaniments.

My only critique(s), solely from a personal preference, is that the octopus could have had a little more char, the pappardelle could have had 30 seconds more and the copa with the monkfish was unbelievably salty, more so than an equivalent prosciutto.

I think in todays world where price is important, I believe 85 pounds for a tasting menu of this quality is very good value and totally merited.

I have a healthy appetite and found the portion size, individually, and in totality, to be about perfect. I certainly wouldn’t want more.

I will try and return the next time I’m within striking distance of the area, and may try some dishes from the a la carte menu.

Whilst there is a definite Italian influence, and one or two plates were plays on very traditional Italian dishes, I found the overall tasting menu to reflect modern European, Italian and even British (The deer was excellent) cuisine.

If you want to impress that first date, or rekindle the romance with your wife of twenty years, or just enjoy some supremely good food & service, give this...