Restaurant Review: Sabores Restaurante Mexicano,Hoboken

Random date nights are the best! Especially when they are filled with sangria and some healthy Mexican food! Last night, the hubster gave me a break from the kitchen and surprised me with a special date night at Sabores! This restaurant is amazing! Two floors, outdoor seating in the summer, a little bar and best thing of all it’s BYOB! Bring a bottle of wine and they will make you sangria, bring tequila and they will make you margaritas, bring champagne or prosecco and they will make you a mimosas and bellinis all for a very small fee. We brought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and had a pitcher of white sangria made. It was very sweet and definitely mellowed out the taste of the wine (personally just how I like it!). I was super excited to go to this restaurant due to their extensive vegetarian options and especially because they had vegetarian tamales! Unfortunatelly, when we tried to order the vegetarian tamales, the waiter said they were basically finished. However, after learning that it was going to be my first tamale experience, he went to the kitchen and learned there was one last tamale left and served it up for me.

And for my first tamale experience it was okay. I expected more sweetness from the corn and then more flavor from the veggies inside. I will give it one more time before I make my final verdict on tamales. For our main dinner we ordered Sopa Azteca (tortilla soup), Plato fiesta (nachos) and vegetarian enchiladas rancheras. Let’s start with the soup.

The portion size was much larger than we expected and we wished we had gotten the smaller size because it filled us up! It had the makings of an amazing soup but was somewhat lacking in the flavor department. It just didn’t compare to the tortilla soup at our East Village spot El Camion. Would I order it again? Most likely a no but catch me in another NYC polar vortex and I might just say yes. Next comes the nachos.

Now, I make a pretty mean plate of nachos myself and my base point is always that. Can I just say, I may just have a new base point?! These nachos were truly amazing! The right proportion of black beans to cheese to lettuce to tomatoes on each bite! Not to mention the chips were pretty sturdy and were able to hold the load of the toppings and stay crunchy. As full as I was, I kept nibbling on them and didn’t want them to take away the plate! Last, we’ll move onto the enchiladas which we unfortunately forgot to take a picture of (what can I say we were so tempted from the presentation that we dug right in!). I loved these enchiladas for the flavorful sauce, the loads of veggies and for the fact that they did not load up on the cheese. As a vegetarian, I appreciated that I didn’t have to settle for just beans and cheese. This offered me a healthier lighter version of a traditional favorite. Looking forward to my next visit there to try some more of their vegetarian options!

Thank you Sabores for a great date night!

Restaurant Review: Charrito’s Hoboken

Sometimes all you want is some good homestyle cheap Mexican food. My husband and I get cravings for it! We had our spots when we lived in NYC but after moving to Hoboken, we didn’t know where to go! And one magical cold winter night we stumbled upon this place – Charrito’s located right in downtown Hoboken on Washington Street. We walked into this tiny place and felt so welcomed by the wait staff – it was as if we were walking into their home. We decided to forego appetizers this time around and went right for our entrees. My husband ordered one of his favorite Mexican dishes – veggie enchiladas and I went for veggie chilaquiles! Every since our trip to Cancun where we had the best chilaquiles for breakfast everyday, I try them at every place we go to hoping to find something like it! How did this compare?

To be honest, they were a bit disappointing. They lacked the flavor, veggies beyond onions and peppers and some crunch. Not to mention I was disappointed with the browning avocado slices =|. No bueno! But not to fret, my husband’s veggie enchilada’s were the saving grace.

Proper ratio of cheese, tortilla to veggies and sauce. Our favorite part was the side of refried beans. They reminded us of our childhood. I could have done with another side of those! So although we will never order the chilaquiles again, we will certainly going back for the enchiladas!