Sababa — Restaurant in Washington

Exquisite dishes bursting with flavor and peppered with spices. My hubby and I and another couple enjoyed a hearty feast! The tapas style dishes are pretty small - so definitely recommend ordering at least 3 dishes per person! Very communal - great place for groups and sharing dishes.

Hummus of the Day (5/5) - Scallions, Cucumbers, tomatoes and greens was delicious! The warm fluffy pita bread seasoned with za'atar and shaped like small saucers perfectly mopped up the hummus. The hummus and the pitas are the restaurant's bread the butter, so definitely try it!

Salatim (4/5) - Mini salads are more like dips. The red pepper and tomato Matbukha with sugar snap peas and the Garlic Labne were my favorite. Fun to try, but prefer the hummus.

Carrot Falafel (5/5) - Crispy and refreshing with a subtle carrot flavor. The bite size falafels were scrumptious!

Charred Eggplant (4/5) - Juicy eggplant with zesty yogurt labne sauce packed with spices.

Trumpet Mushrooms Kebab (4/5) - Meaty mushrooms with seasoned yellow rice.

Vegetable Tagine (5/5) - Vegetarian version of Shepherd Pie. Roasted potatoes, tomato, onions, and other veggies cooked in spicy tomato sauce stuffed flaky phyllo dough. Unique dish and among my favorites of the evening.

Roasted Halumi (2/5) - The cubed cheese was dense and disappointing. It was tough to bite into. I probably waited to long to try it. If you get it - eat it right away as the cheese gets very stiff.

Halva-Chocolate Pot De Creme (5/5) - My favorite dessert! The decadent chocolate mousse with caramel bits of halva was the perfect sweet ending to our meal. If love chocolate and want to get a taste of Halva, then definitely get this!

Mahalabia (3/5) - Halva bar with a dry nutty taste. A few bites of Halva was perfect for me with the Halva-Chocolate Pot De Creme, but couldn't commit to a full bar of it. As of my friends pointed out, it kind of tastes like dried peanut butter. If you love Halva - you'll enjoy this dessert!

Konafi Cake (3/5) - Not my favorite, didn't measure up to the appetizing description on the menu.

Ptolemy's Lighthouse (5/5) - Bubbly and fruity. Nice blend of ingredients topped off with sparkling wine.

Phoenecian Frappé (5/5) - If you like Twizzlers, you'll enjoy this cocktail!ll The mint and lavender help to balance out the bold licorice flavor of the Arak hard liquor.

Halva World Away (3/5) - Very bold carrot flavor with spices. There's no halva in the cocktail.

Waiting in Istanbul (5/5) - Perfect night cap cocktail with a healthy dose of caffeine.

There's nice patio seating upstairs tucked in the front, glad that we nabbed a table! Although the decor is stunning, it can get a bit noisy with no background noise to cancel it out. So definitely recommend sitting outside.

Will be back for the fluffy pita, hummus and crispy falafel, and making our rounds...

I would like to address this review to Ashok as I had worked for him at 701 in the 90’s. Congratulations on adding another wonderful, delicious, innovative restaurant to the city. We were truly impressed and enjoyed our food immensely!!!

We came as a party of 5 at 7:30 to celebrate a birthday. I informed the hostess who it was too. After being escorted to the table I realized that we were not going to be comfortable as we were planning to order plenty food to share. We were shown another table that was smaller despite the fact that there were 2 empty tables beside us that could have been combined. (FYI 1 remained empty all night) We were not happy but we wanted to enjoy the evening.

The waiter KC or KZ was so impressive that I was like wow!! Good job Ashok. Standards have not gone down but his 10 went down the drain very fast. He barely came to check how our food was. We had to serve our own wine but that was ok too because when they were pouring it felt like let’s finish this bottle so they’ll order another one. Plate after plate was brought to our table that was filled with 5 glasses of wine and water and even the bottle itself at some point till they figured there is a standing wine bucket beside us. The busboy also brought out a plate and when we asked what it was he had no idea. I also whispered to our waiter you know we have a birthday right? He said no but now he knows. How could that be when I informed the hostess and the lady Jess who opened the wine for us greeted our birthday celebrant?

I kept on waiting for what’s next till a dessert came with 1 spoon for the birthday song. I asked our waiter dessert menu? He said kitchen is closed. I said why did u not offer us dessert before it closed? Because you were eating. (He had also informed us before we ordered our main courses that kitchen was closing) Ok. Just bring us some spoons so we can share this single dessert. He brought tablespoons ?????? Now I am truly upset. Then he comes back and says oh, there is still someone to make you dessert. But we no longer want it. Also when our table was being cleaned, I asked to pack the pita. There were 6pcs and the guy just dropped the bowl back to the table, just like that. With a bang!!!

Jess asked how we were and I said I’ll just write a review and she wanted to know what’s wrong. I told her and she offered drinks. Is that enough to compensate for the experience? Not really. We can afford to buy our own drinks. But thank you...

My wife and I were very disappointed.

The wait staff were friendly and polished. I enjoyed our service and that is why I give this 2 stars instead of 1. I would like to explain.

We started out with the assortment of dips, they were very tasty. However, this is where they add the caveat that "food is delivered as it is ready". Five minutes into our dips my lamb shank was delivered. I let it set on the corner of our table for maybe 10 minutes? Multiple staff walked by to ask if everything was okay and they even reminded me the lamb was delivered, as if I didn't notice. Two things: I prefer to wait for my wife to have her food before I start my main course, that's etiquette; secondly, I would like to finish my appetizer without feeling rushed.

The food. My wife and I really did not enjoy our dishes. We ate 50% of each. My wife and I love food and we love to cook. When I sent it back I was asked by 3 people why we didn't like it. My comments were it was very under seasoned. If this were a stunning piece of lamb where the dish wanted to highlight "lamb flavor", great you nailed it. But there was no salt, no seasoning as if it was boiled in lamb stock and put on the plate. Some people may love it, I did not. There was no salt on the table so I did my best. I explained this to the staff but when the bill came we were charged $100 for food we really didn't like.

Sababa I'm sorry, but working in a 3 Michelin starred restaurant for years taught me that making a guest happy is the number one priority. You didn't do that, instead, you made us feel like we didn't know what good food was even though we've eaten at the best restaurants in DC and travel extensively to sought great food. When our expectations weren't met, you didn't apologize, you dug in your heels. We didn't feel like guests in your house, we felt like patrons that could never feel comfortable due to your pacing and false sense of prestige that because you are on bib gourmand everything is "excellent" and the guest don't know better.

I will say, our server was excellent. I don't remember her name but you (the restaurant) can look her up and pat her on the back, you were great. To the rest of the family, not so much. We will not be back nor will...