Sagra review

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I realized I hadn't seen any reviews of Sagra (at 400 Highland Ave) since its opening, so I thought I'd post one here just for the heck of it, in case there were others who were curious.



Ambience: nice place, basically. Comfy seating, low lighting. I didn't much like the fact that the patrons at the bar got a bit loud during the Sox game, but hey, that happens in most places. We were there on a Saturday evening at...9pm? Something like that. And we didn't have to wait long, but were shown to a table after a minute or two.

Service: our waiter was very knowledgeable about the dishes, very friendly, and very polite. He was prompt as well, and even picked up on our discussing difficulties with the math of figuring out the bill (in spite of the fact that my friends were all MIT grads), and brought us a small calculator to use. Sure, my friends were too proud to use it, but it was nice. :)

What I ate:

Arancini di Sicilia: Yummy balls of golden deep-fried risotto encasing a meat ragu and cheese. These were quite rich and creamy, with a nice golden outer crust. Was quite glad I split the appetizers with three friends (there were four arancini).

Bresaola: it's air-dried beef, what can I say? It was quite tasty, very finely sliced and ruby coloured. The bitter arugula and olive oil were nice accompaniments. It didn't strike me as being anything particularly special (especially with Sessa's so close by, where you can buy good bresaola by the pound), but it wasn't disappointing. This one wasn't my choice to order.

Gnocchi al sugo d'anatra: Oh dear gods, I never knew gnocchi could be this melt-in-your-mouth soft and delicate. Wow. Seriously. They just sort of dissolved on your tongue like little heavenly melty things. Mmm. The duck ragu over the gnocchi was very nice as well: rich, but not fatty, and a nice meat-to-sauce ratio.

Lemon-scented ricotta ravioli: I just had a bite of this, but oooh, what a bite, The pasta had a distinct but delicate taste of fresh lemon peel, and the creamy ricotta filling was light enough not to overwhelm it.

Torta al Vino: A gorgeous dessert. The torta was light and sort of crumbly, but not dry. The fresh grapes that dotted it provided a burst of tart sweetness, intensified by the drizzle of gorgeous balsamic reduction. Very nice indeed.


Prices: Very reasonable for the quality of the food we got. The most expensive dish on the menu is $23 (the veal chop), and only that and one other entree are over $20. Everything else is less. A nice place for a date that's not an uber-special occasion, IMO. My party paid $146 for four (including tax and tip). We split two appetizers and two desserts, and didn't drink anything but water (having just come from NERAX), so that helped keep our bill down, but one person ordered two entrees, which partly made up for that. :)

Comments

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Sounds fantastic - thanks for the review! I'll have to drag people there...

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

our waiter was very knowledgeable about the dishes, very friendly, and very polite.

You forgot "and really kinda hot."

Just sayin'.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Well, with the three fabulously attractive other people at my table, maybe I didn't notice, m'kay? :P

Yeah, he was rather cute. :)

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

That must have been it, yup. :-)

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

I find La Spina to be at least as good and a better value, but Sagra does seem OK.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Really? Wow. Most of the reviews I've heard of La Spina so far have been so-so at best. I think you're the first person I've heard say that they liked it. I actually suggested Sagra to my friends because of the poor reviews I'd heard of La Spina. What dishes did you like there?

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

I've been to La Spina 3 times; I liked nearly everything. The gnocchi, the sausage napoletana, and a special roasted eggplant with shellfish on top were all excellent.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks for the tips.

La Spina vs. Sagra

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

Wow, our experience at La Spina was totally different. When my fiancee and I went it was basically an expensive train wreck. We've never had a bad meal at Sagra, though. Sagra's gnocchi with duck ragu is just so delicious.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Interesting - I haven't tried La Spina yet, but I read reviews of both Sagra and La Spina in the Dig that also favored La Spina.

I like Sagra's food reasonably well, but have found the service bad (as other posters have mentioned). And they serve their beer far too cold.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Almost everyone serves their beer far too cold, though. *sigh*

[unferth.livejournal.com]

They're worse than some - I had ice flakes floating in my Newcastle. They do that whole 'frosted glass' thing.

Not that I expect beer-bar levels of care from an Italian restaurant, but it still diminishes the appeal for me.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I've been to La Spina twice. Once right after they opened, once a few weeks ago. The first time everything was great. The second time, everything was ridiculously slow (and I'm a pretty laid-back diner) and the food was really mediocre (though I am admittedly a risotto snob). Very disappointing, but I'll give them another try based on the strength of that first visit. Very tasty chicken picatta (only spelled correctly).

[marphod.livejournal.com]

My experience at Sagra was, alas, not as good.

The food was good, although in the end, I chose poorly for my entree. (It was prepared well, it just wasn't what I ended up wanting, when it arrived.) However, our service was slow and our waitstaff inattentive. It took about 20 minutes to get a bill after our last dishes were cleared. And the seating where we were, near the bar, felt cramped and like there wasn't enough space between tables.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Here also. Food was very good (and what I wanted), and reasonably priced. But service that started off fine turned out to be just awful.

Also, although the place looks pretty, it sounds awful--way too loud and clattery for my taste. I was glad I went alone and wasn't with someone whom I might want to converse with.

Plus I went at a time when they were featuring a loungey sort of band. I really didn't appreciate it, and didn't expect such a thing at 7:30 in the evening.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

trowa_barton and I ate at Sagra tonight. The food was tasty, but the experience also suffered from slow service and inattentive waitstaff. I agree about the cramped seating near the bar, too.

I also wish they had a few more meatless things on the menu, but that's me.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Boy, sounds like my group just lucked out with our waiter.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I LOVE arancini -- thanks for the review!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I LOVE arancini

Me too! That's the whole reason I want to try Sagra, now that I've read this review.

[greenbeats.livejournal.com]

thanks for the review!

what were the portion sizes like?

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Half an appetizer, a pasta entree, and half a dessert left me full but not stuffed.

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

Previous posts on Sagra since its opening:

1. the shill post (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/776385.html)

2. another one (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/785872.html)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Those say virtually nothing. badseed1980 gave us an actual review that offers pros and cons of her dining experience, in an articulate and detailed manner, that helps each of us decide whether we care to try the restaurant or not. She wins.

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

uh, ok. "any reviews" now means "any long reviews."

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on, no need to get snippy, everyone. I just hadn't SEEN those posts, and they didn't come up when I did a search on "Sagra" in the community on LJ, so I assumed there weren't any. And who really cares, anyway? It's not like I'm spamming the community with multiple reviews of places that have been around for five years and everyone is already tired of. Nor do I intend to.

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

seriously, i was just trying to be helpful. then you got defensive for some reason.

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

and by "you," i mean that other person.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Ok, glad I read this comment before replying to the other one. :)

No problem, like I said, I hadn't seen those posts, so it WAS helpful to post them.

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

I hate the fact it's opened again because every time it's in business there's a cockroach problem in my apartment building which is next door. Also it's incredibly noisy until late Thurs-Saturday.

[ron_newman]

do they have live bands, or just loud DJs?

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

loud dj's

[ron_newman]

If they are so loud that the music is coming into your apartment, you should let them know. If that doesn't help, tell the city (probably the Licensing Commission, and also your alderman Rebekah Gewirtz).

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

The last ownership it was opened under had to reduce the noise level because my landlord threatened legal action. I gather it's a matter of time again. I'm more bothered about the cockroach problem though. We had to get an exterminator out several times last year.

[mrboboto.livejournal.com]

Then again, if you live on top/near a restaurant building, in an urban area, shouldn't you have known it was going to be a loud apartment?

[ron_newman]

Until about 3 years ago, this restaurant was Yee's Village, which didn't have any live entertainment.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

I lived there when it was Yee's Village. Although the smell was sometimes a bit much, there were no cockroaches or noise problems

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

When I was there, they had a live band. Fairly loud but not outrageously so, playing mostly stuff that Sinatra has sung.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

I also had a great experience, but perhaps part of that was that I also got the gnocchi and the torta al vino. Oh, they were heavenly! I'd never had gnocchi so light. We also had an attentive and amazingly cute waiter (though a woman, so not yours). Perhaps it's just the luck of the draw?

my thoughts+yelp

[journeystar.livejournal.com]

I've been to both places and I favor La Spina. I'd give Sagra another chance, but we had a horrible experience with our server, so I am a bit wary. However, their blanco pizza was super nice and the aranchini was decent, though not as good as Amelia's Kitchen's in Teele. Maybe I'll do take out?

Oh, there are some pretty good, detailed reviews of both places on yelp.com for the interested.

Re: my thoughts+yelp

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

Also here
http://www.chowhound.com/search?item_type=Topic&board_id=12&query=la+spina

and here
http://www.chowhound.com/search?item_type=Topic&board_id=12&query=sagra

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

Went there tonight, ug, I can't recommend this place, it did look nice, but the wine my wife wanted was out, so they recommended something else and it was awful (don't know which one it was tho)... My wife got the
tagliatelle with mushroom ragu and barely ate it, I had the lasagna, which I did eat, but wasn't impressed with, it tasted like it was freezer burned and there was way too much watery red sauce.

We won't be going back!