Had dinner with friends at Sabrina's Restaurant off of Waialae last night. For starters, if you plan to dine there, just park across the street at the public parking just below the City Mill parking lot. It's only $5 and will save you the headache of trying to park in one of the 8 stalls that Sabrina's shares with the sushi joint and new Indian restaurant next door.
If you read the Yelp reviews for Sabrina's, take note of several things. First plan on a leisurely meal in the 3 hour range - Sabrina's is a BYOB establishment with no corkage fee so take advantage of it. Plus sipping wine with good friends make the wait between dishes imperceptable. It is better to order family style - you can sample every dish served and dishes do arrive "when they're ready" so four diners may not be served their own dishes at the same time. Lastly, though they do have credit card logos on the door, the credit card machine seems to be perpetually broken so bring cash.
Dan opened an Etoile Rose sparkler to start the evening.
We started with Sabrina's Salad which was a basic green salad topped with sliced mushrooms and cherry tomatoes with a Balsamic vinaigrette. We also had the Caprese salad of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella and the Carpaccio which was draped over salad greens and a lemon vinagrette.
I uncorked a 2004 Seghesio Venom Sangiovese - no leather, earth or tar that you find in Italian versions but loads of concentrated ripe red cherry and a nice flow over the palate.
The other dishes then started arriving including Agnolotti stuffed with beef in a pea, cream and Parmesan sauce.
Gnocchi with a meat sauce
Cioppino which was a special for the night
Risotto Mare - believe me, there was a lot of seafood buried in the rice
Pork Cutlet served with potato
I also uncorked a 2007 Ryan Pinot Noir which had a nose of dried red fruit, cola and dried herbs with a nice flow over the palate and a medium long finish
For dessert the women selected the special Lilikoi Cheesecake
And the Tiramisu
The food was good and I didn't mind the wait between dishes though by the time the last entree was served, I was hitting the wall since you do start digesting after 2 hours. Now I need to ride for at least 90 minutes to burn off these additional calories I just packed on.
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