A couple of days ago I wrote about my favorite Michelin three-star in the UK, Sketch (This is what a Michelin three-star should look like). Today it’s Sabor — a Spanish Michelin one-star in London, and also my favorite discovery from this UK trip.

There are three menus: the Bar Menu with simple drinking snacks, tortilla, and sandwiches; the walk-in Counter Menu with a few classics; and upstairs, the reserved El Asador menu, which offers more regionally diverse dishes.

The first visit was a walk-in — while waiting at the bar, we ordered the tortilla. Cut open, the center was still runny, and the potato slices inside were incredible, thin yet with a slight crispness. Expectations were fully loaded from there.

Counter Menu

Cuttlefish Papardelle & Manchego Pesto

A genuinely surprising small dish. The lightly seared cuttlefish is crisp on one side, chewy and springy on the other, and the Manchego pesto is a genuine aroma bomb. Rich in texture and bold in flavor, yet still easy to pair with a drink.

Octopus, Mojo Rojo & Baby Potatoes

The signature little octopus — we shamelessly ordered two portions. Genuinely the best-textured octopus I’ve had recently. Soft without falling apart, with a slight springiness, yet the fibers had turned genuinely delicate. The sauce underneath had a Mexican-tomato kind of character, blending freshness, sweet-salty balance, and spice — a perfect match for the baby octopus.

Arroz Negro, Monkfish Tempura & Alioli

Jet-black but genuinely fragrant squid-ink rice, the sauce thick and clingy with a touch of spice running through it, not too rich, just a little on the salty side. The monkfish on top didn’t particularly stand out, but it didn’t take away from how good the dish was overall.

Stuffed Piquillo Pepper with Braised Ox Tail

Translated, that’s: fried piquillo pepper stuffed with braised oxtail (yes, really!).

This one was a bit of a misfire. The pepper itself was fragrant, but with a fried shell and then a layer of sauce on top, the crispness was gone.

El Asador

Prawn Croquetas

Spain’s endlessly versatile fried croquette. Sabor’s filling uses whole, unbroken shrimp meat — the croquettes are fried a deep golden, and cut open, the center oozes slightly. The shell is crisp, and inside, a rich, creamy filling carries little bouncy bits of shrimp running through it. Sinful, but delicious.

Crisp Fried Pig’s Ears, Quince Aioli

Fried pig’s ears — a fairly regionally distinctive Madrid dish. The outside is crisp and toasty, the inside soft with a bit of crunch, genuinely great with a drink. But the real highlight is the quince garlic aioli, which keeps all that collagen-rich richness from feeling heavy at all. Sin +1, but I couldn’t help reaching for one more piece.

Bluefin Tuna

Alongside the regular El Asador menu, the restaurant also offers a few daily specials at lunchtime.

Picked the bluefin tuna off the day’s chalkboard. Tuna with avocado is a fairly standard move, but once you upgrade the quality of the tuna, these two naturally rich, oily ingredients really show off their character. The plant and the fish aromas set each other off beautifully, and a bit of pea shoots added extra freshness. But the real standout was the sauce — carrying the aroma of olive oil and sesame oil, with something familiarly soy-sauce-like woven in between. Ordered a side of the restaurant’s house-made bread and wiped the plate clean.

Pulpo a Feira

The hot octopus dish is a must-order, though unlike the Counter menu version, El Asador’s octopus comes already cut into bite-sized pieces — exactly one bite each. No additional sauce needed this time either; the flavor and texture were already just right.

Confit Cod, Baby Potatoes & Fried Egg

This one — cod, shredded potato, and egg — was a small miss. It read more like a brunch dish, but ended up feeling a bit heavy.

Seafood Rice

The seafood rice gets a small upgrade upstairs — the flavor shifts from squid ink to tomato, and the stock is spiked with brandy and Manzanilla sherry. Super rich! Though it shares the same issue as the squid-ink version: a touch too salty.

Chocolate Cheesecake, Evo & Salt

Since it was our last meal on this leg of the trip, we were already stuffed but still wanting more. Closed it out with the signature chocolate cheesecake — silky and light on entry, with the sense of weight coming from the chocolate’s richness. Genuinely gentle, the kind of dessert that makes you slow down and savor it.

Sabor

www.saborrestaurants.co.uk

Genuinely a restaurant made with real care — delicious, full of surprises, and genuinely good value. If a place like this were near my house, I’d happily queue up every single day.

— That said,

I recently discovered a delicious little Spanish spot in Beijing too.

I’ll keep you in suspense — writing about it later.