Saha Review
Saha was decent. Most dishes were okay and a few we could classify as pretty good.
Appetizers included:
- Sauteed tiger prawns served with a mint, rosewater, and cilantro sauce. Average. The sauce neither added nor really took away from the prawns.
- Kofta. Basically, fairly flavorful slightly spicy meatballs. Decent. (Nowhere near as good as the Koofta I had at the Armenian Food Festival, but these were supposed to be a different style: Yemenese.)
- Fattoush. A salad of romaine hearts, cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, olives, red onions, pita, and lots of spices. Similar to a Greek salad but with more complexity from the pita and romaine and extra spices. We enjoyed it. Good.
For entrees, we had:
- Saha Red Curry. Quite good. Squash, tofu, and mushrooms and moftoul (Palestinian couscous). The curry sauce, thick and vicious, was tasty and in just barely enough quantity to coat most of the ingredients. It made the dish.
- Mujadara. Okay. Lentils, cracked wheat, tofu, and vegetables (like asparagus) with tahini source. There was not much tahini sauce; the tofu was dry and worthless; one person did comment upon and appreciated the grilled vegetables.
- That day's fish special: bbq fish with sauteed buttery spinach and pureed squash. Quite good bbq sauce and fish. The squash that came alongside was also appreciated, and the spinach was respectable. The name of the fish, a meaty fish like catfish, sounded like "askalar" (but I have no idea how to spell it).
- Lamb shank with mashed potatoes and sauteed buttery spinach. Passable. A hefty chunk of lamb with an unremarkable flavor. The mashed potatoes were remarkably bad. The spinach was decent, identical to that in the bbq fish special.
Per my insistence we passed up the special of the night (pumpkin cheesecake) and instead tried a baked dish of phyllo stuffed with chocolate and pears (and a few other ingredients I didn't notice) because it sounded interesting. I'm sorry. It was bad. The flavors of the pears -I didn't notice any solid pieces of pear, if there were any- lent a tartness to the dish that clashed with the sweetness of the chocolate. And the phyllo had no appealing taste either, and its flakiness (as cooked like a puff pastry) made the dish very hard to cut and eat. Between all of us we still left the majority of it. (Digression: I know some attendees don't like phyllo in general. But I know some dishes with phyllo dough can be really appealing. In attempting to enlighten them, I'm afraid I had the opposite effect. Hopefully they'll forgive me and let me influence them a few more times as appropriate to try dishes involving phyllo.)
Although there was a sign in the street directing people, the restaurant is effectively hidden past the lobby and behind a curtain in a hotel. It was nearly empty the entire time we were there. This is probably explained by the facts that it didn't seem good enough to us to be considered a "destination restaurant," and, because of its location, isn't likely get more foot traffic.
Total was around $35/person, counting tax and tips (and no drinks).
Original Announcement
This Wednesday at 8:00pm we'll head to Saha for Arabic fusion cuisine. Come, and find out what this means! (Or spoil the surprise and read about the type of food and the menu on its web page...)
http://www.sahasf.com/
Please tell me if you are coming!
Comments from Other Attendees
Check Please Bay Area reviewed this years later and has some (new?) good recommendations.
Feel free to add remarks here.
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