Meson Sabika

After a short hiatus for the Christmas holiday and lots of homemade food and goodies we have started venturing out again. We went to dinner at Meson Sabika located at 1025 Aurora Ave in Naperville.  Meson Sabika is a Spanish restaurant specializing in tapas - small plates of food which together form a full meal.  Natalie has been to this restaurant many times during her life including a celebratory dinner after her high school graduation. This was Nick's second visit to the restaurant.



Garlic Potato Salad

We went to dinner with Natalie's parents and two friends to celebrate Natalie's parent's wedding anniversary.  With six of us eating we ordered a number of tapas (the restaurant's rule of thumb is to order about 3-4 tapas per person and we fell within that ratio). We attempted to eat all of the tapas in a family style fashion.  It was a little cumbersome attempting this when we didn't know exactly how the portion sizes would work out.  For some of tapas we have enjoyed on previous visits we knew to order 2 portions for everybody to get a sufficient taste.  Our recommendation is if you are with a larger group consult your waiter for exact portion sizes to see if the dish is easy to split several ways.

Meson Sabika splits its tapas menu into cold and hot varieties. Amongst all of us we ordered 7 different cold tapas and 9 hot tapas.  We will list all of what was ordered below and then comment on our favorites.

Cold:


Beef Tenderloin with blue cheese, dates & mushrooms

Samon Curado - smoked salmon with toast points

Patatas con Alioli - garlic potato salad

Tostada con Piquillo - toast points with peppers stuffed with shrimp, scallops and salmon

Pisto Manchego - Sauteed vegetables with asparagus

Rollito de Buey - beef tenderloin wrapped around blue cheese, dates and mushroom

Gambas Marinadas - shrimp with a trio of sauces

Tostada con Centollo - toast points with avocado and king crab meat

Hot:
Quisquilla al Horno (daily special) - baked prawns with tomato sauce over pasta
Costillas de Cordero (daily special) - grilled lamb chops with asparagus and mashed potatoes
Empanada de Buey - beef empanada


Scallops and couscous

Pipirrana de Buey - skirt steak with blue cheese sauce

Gambas al Ajillo - Grilled tiger shrimp with garlic lemon butter

Cazuela de Pollo - chicken casserole with peppers, asparagus and a pimento cream sauce

Vieras al Albarino - grilled sea scallops served over couscous

Crepe Rellena - crepe of goat cheese, spinach, pine nuts and apples

Datiles con Tocino - roasted dates wrapped in bacon



Grilled shrimp in garlic lemon butter

Our favorite cold tapas were the beef tenderloin and the garlic potato salad.  We both enjoyed the beef tenderloin because it had well balanced flavors of both blue cheese and dates - sweet and tangy at the same time.  Natalie's perennial favorite is the garlic potato salad.  It makes regular potato salad seem bland because of the punch/zing of garlic flavor. Do not order this dish if you don't like garlic. We ate small samples of the other cold tapas and enjoyed them all.



Grilled lamb chops

Our favorite hot tapas were the tiger shrimp in the garlic lemon butter and the grilled lamb chop special.  The shrimp melted in our mouths and the garlic lemon butter enhanced the shrimp without overpowering it. The lamb chops were cooked perfectly, tender but not chewy.  They were accompanied by great mashed potatoes. Other honorable mentions were the bacon wrapped dates and the smoky flavor of the grilled scallops.

Somehow we all had enough room to each order a dessert. We (Nick and Natalie) ordered a chocolate, caramel and hazelnut tart and a sauteed banana with caramel and ice cream. In Nick's opinion the tart had a little too much bitter sweet chocolate and not enough caramel.  He preferred the banana because it had a great caramel sauce. Natalie's opinion was the reverse and she preferred the chocolate tart. The dessert menu is much more extensive now than in the past - there are now 11 desserts to choose from.

After our meal our group talked for a few minutes with the restaurant manager.  We asked him what are the most ordered tapas.  He responded that the top three ordered are the garlic potato salad, the bacon wrapped dates and oven baked goat cheese with garlic bread (Queso de Cabra).  We ordered 2 of these on this visit and have ordered the goat cheese in the past.  Then the manager mentioned his favorites are the scallop dish (that we ordered), a grilled lamb medallion dish (Cordero al Pastor), and the Crema de Chocolate (Creme Brulee) dessert - which Natalie's mom ordered and loved.

Also we should mention that besides tapas you can get soups, salads or paellas.  On the many visits Natalie's family has made to this restaurant they have only ordered the paella once - not because it is poor quality, but rather it takes a long time to cook and it is much more filling than any of the tapas.  We prefer to eat more of the small plate tapas to get a variety of flavors.

Final thoughts on Meson Sabika:
Food: always great, incorporates our favorite part of most meals - the appetizer.  With tapas, you get to try a lot more of the menu, without getting too full
Service - good service in terms on continuous filling of water glasses and bringing clean plates to the table. At one point in eating the hot tapas there were too many dishes that came out of the kitchen at the same time. If you are able to space out the ordering more that will be helpful when the food arrives

Chocolate Tart

Sauteed banana with caramel

Ambiance - fun atmosphere, we were there on a Friday night when live Spanish guitar music was playing in the background and later a flamenco dancer entertained the dinner guests.  Meson Sabika is located in a historic home so since some of the rooms are on the smaller side, there is not much space between tables.  This is a popular restaurant so reservations are recommended.