Sabroso Fine Mexican Cuisine lives up to its name
Bacon Chips and Guacamole is a specialty appetizer at Sabroso Fine Mexican Cuisine in Orem.
Chile Rellenos are available at Sabroso Fine Mexican Cuisine in Orem.
The Shrimp Cocktail at Sabroso.
A Frozen Strawberry and Mango beverage at Sabroso Fine Mexican Cuisine in Orem.
The Enchiladas at Sabroso.
The Shrimp Cocktail is available at Sabroso in Orem.
Bacon Chips and Guacamole is available at Sabroso in Orem on Wednesday.
Enchiladas are available at Sabroso in Orem on Wednesday.
As a restaurant, Sabroso Fine Mexican Cuisine certainly lives up to its name.
For starters, translated into English, “sabroso” means tasty or delicious. Our recent weeknight visit to the Orem restaurant — which has been open for five months — confirmed the veracity of that title. And the Fine Mexican Cuisine part fits in as well.
We first noticed Sabroso last month when we visited nearby Thai on the Fly. We enjoy Mexican food, so made a mental note to return and give Sabroso a try.
My wife and I stopped by earlier this week and enjoyed some tasty and delicious dishes.
We were greeted warmly at the front desk upon entering, and led to a table along one wall. The dining area is entirely made up of a variety of tables — no booths — with seating mostly for parties of two and four. Bigger groups could easily be accommodated by pushing tables together in the middle. The dining room looked to have a seating capacity for around 60 people.
The restaurant’s color scheme is definitely festive — with the walls painted in large blocks of bright neon hues including red, blue, yellow, green and purple. The wall decor was interesting, with kind of an eclectic Spanish or even Aztec vibe.
Service was extremely friendly, however, we did run into added delays when two of our order requests — initially for an appetizer and later for dessert — somehow never made it back to the kitchen or to our table. It wasn’t until another worker stopped by to ask how things were going that we realized the apparent miscommunication. It did create some added delays, of course, but we were not in a rush, so there were no real worries.
We enjoyed the complimentary chips and salsa — especially the former, which were thin and fresh. We easily polished them all off before our main courses arrived.
My main course selection was the Carne Asada Plate. It featured 12-ounces of thinly cut delicious grilled steak, a grilled vegetable skewer, a mound of Spanish rice and two fresh flour tortillas. I combined some steak, guacamole and a few select cuts from the vegetable skewer in a tortilla, and the full combination was exquisite.
There was definitely more food — especially steak — than you can reasonably fit in two tortillas, so there was plenty to eat separately as well.
My wife opted for a Chimichanga with grilled chicken. It was a solid choice — and the toppings (including shredded lettuce, cheese and tomatoes) came on the side. The sauce also came on the side — as one of the servers explained — so that the chimichanga’s tortilla shell remains crispy.
This would be a good time to point out that we really enjoyed the presentation of these meals and sides. It’s obvious that there is some thought and care going into how things are arranged visually on your plate.
We had ordered the specialty Bacon Chips With Guacamole as an appetizer — but, after the aforementioned mixup, it arrived in the middle of our meal. We had never really considered cooking bacon and dipping it in guacamole before, which is essentially what this dish is, but must admit the combo works. One of the best selling points is that the guacamole is great at Sabroso.
We also highly recommend checking out some of the specialty drinks. The Strawberry Lemonade was fantastic. These are slush-style drinks, so it had great texture and taste, and even came with a slice of lime attached to the lip of the glass.
At the close of our meal we decided we had to give the Fried Ice Cream a try, and were extremely glad we did. It was almost too much for two people at the end of a Mexican meal — but somehow we soldiered through. There were three separate breaded mounds of ice cream, drizzled in chocolate sauce and slathered in whipped cream. Definitely no skimping on the content, and this proved to be an epic conclusion to our dining experience at Sabroso.
Sabroso is a bit on the pricier side of regular Mexican fare in the county, but the portions are large and the food we tried was great. For Mexican food lovers, it is definitely worth checking out.
SABROSO FINE MEXICAN CUISINE
Where: 898 N. State St., Orem
Hours: Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Prices: $5.99-$21.99
Info: (801) 426-7676, facebook.com/sabrosofinemexicancuisine/