Sabor Colibri Cuisine

Sadly, Sabor Colibri has CLOSED on Saturday, December 29, 2012. I will truly miss their great delicious food.

My buddy wanted to take me out for my birthday and we had originally planned to hit up 7-​courses of beef in San Jose. Traffic was horrendous so instead we decided to hang around the Redwood City area for dinner instead. There’s actually some great restaurants downtown and we’d been wanting to check out the Latin American restaurant for a while so we walked in to check it out.
It was a small restaurant with only one lady at the front of the house, but she quickly brought some chips and salsa, as well as their house corn soup to the table. Their chips and salsa and the soup were both yummy and I could have totally used another bowl! We ordered the chicken mole and the pastelon. I loved both, though the pastelon could have been hotter. The mole was so delicious and the meat fell right off the bone. I loved the smooth texture of the mole especially when wrapped in the tortillas. It was so good!
Service was very friendly and our food arrived quickly. It’s not the fanciest place I’ve ever been to, but it was very homestyle and charming. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and can’t wait to go back for more!
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ⁹⁄₁₀
Price: $
Atmosphere: ⁷⁄₁₀

On a Sunday afternoon, I noticed a small sign on the Broadway saying something like $ 10.00 Brunch buffet… Seems too good to be true right?
So I checked the Unilocal reviews and the place had some decent reviews… So we decided to give it a try…
They had like 7 – 8 hot Mexican dishes… I tried themall… except the tripe… but they were all really good.
It was nothing fancy, but well worth the 10 bucks…

Unilocal, you have MISLEAD ME!!! For starters, the tortilla chips were extremely dry and the sauces were bland. I was starting to suscpect that this actually wasn’t a «4 star» venue at this point but was still optimistic and opted for the fish quinoa dish that has rave reviews here.
Well, the quinoa was SOGGY and BLAND. My body literally rejected it and after 1 bite I couldn’t continue eating. My co-​worker ordered the special of the day: battered chicken. She said it was extremely oily on the outside yet dry on the indisde.
GROSS. And, the serving sizes are way too LARGE. How about you guys focus on quality vs quantity here!
The place was pretty empty during lunch hour.
«Eeew, me thinks not.»

Looks as if they are closed.
Too bad, as this was a pretty good restaurant.

Our family of four was divided. Half said this place deserves 2 stars and half (including me) said 3 stars. Dishes varied from chicken with mole sauce that was over-​spiced and too salty… to fairly good fish tacos but with very watery cream sauce.
The people working there were pleasant but food-​wise, nothing stood out that would compel us to return.

This place is AMAZING! I live in cupertino and I drive all the way to redwood city just to have lunch at this place. The price is reasonable and the food is unique. Some of the dishes you definitely have to try are the red snapper, tilapia, coconut chicken, and fish tacos. One of the specials they had was fish tacos with coconut battered fish and that was THE BEST. If they have it as the special, please order it! The whole staff is great and very welcoming.

NOTE: This is NOT a taqueria!
What it IS however is a great place to dine. From the start the chips and salsas were brought out and devoured. The corn soup was delish! We both decided on the Pabellon Criollo de Venezuela. It is beef in a red sauce with onions and spices. On top are fried plantains. It is accompanied by black beans and white rice. What flavor!
The portion was big enough for left overs!
Next on the list is the ceviche, Caribbean chili crab cakes, and the Quinoa fish salad.
They also have a Sunday Brunch for $ 10. How can you beat that?

So happy I found this place! My mom randomly found this place and couldn’t stop raving about it. She craved their food so brought me over. Instantly hooked here’s why= great prices, excellent service, amazing food! I like to eat healthy & there were plenty of great options, everything I ordered you can tell was freshly made FRESH! Loved this place so much I came back to try their $ 10 Sunday bottomless mimosa brunch, YES $ 10 for all you can eat & drink!!! Food was again nothing short from amazing! My boyfriend loved this place also, we can’t wait to come back. New favorite spot.

Delicious, inexpensive, top quality.
I enjoyed my experience at Sabor Colibri. This is definitely a hidden gem within Redwood City. Not only are the prices reasonable, the chef just won «Best Chef» in the Daily News’ People’s Choice Awards!
The chips and salsa are really really good. I loved the green salsa. It was perfect: not too spicy so I could pile it high on each chip. My husband and I quickly ate the first plate of chips in a few minutes.
For my main course, I ordered the tilapia. It was very well prepared. It comes with a lettuce salad, rice, and beans. Everything was really yummy. Just a note for those considering the dish — as the menu states, it is the whole fish. Tail, head, fins and all.
My husband ordered one of the shredded beef dishes. This was amazing. The beef was super tender. I would almost characterize the flavor as slightly Italian. The meat must have been simmered in some sort of tomato cream sauce. The meal came with rice, black beans, plantains, and tortillas. I might just order this meal next time.
The atmosphere … is eclectic. Christmas lights, hummingbirds, butterflies flank the walls. I found a few dinosaurs hiding up near the ceiling. :)

Definitely a better option than the generally kitschy other spots in quaint (but small) downtown area in Redwood City. We were drawn in by the lack of pretension and the authentic flava which certainly bore true.
Our waitress (whose awesome 70s bouffant ‘do was part of this package) was super attentive and no-​nonsense. Not only did we get the standard free (and extremely tasty) chips & salsa to start, but also some dainty cups of vegetable soup while we figured out our main courses.
Despite some pretty big gaps in the menu (particularly the beer offerings), we managed to be very happy with the carne asada burrito (my BF’s choice — he liked it and is somewhat of a burrito afficianado after years of living in the Mission) and the delightful Ropa Viejo (my choice and a palatable joy: shredded steak with a tomato sauce, plantains, black beans & rice).
And yes, the place is definitely inexpensive — about $ 23 after tip & tax which included 2 beef dishes & alcohol. And all avoiding the throngs of local families under the heat lamps at the nearby alternatives.

From the first time we ate there, we both knew it was our favourite restaurant in town, and perhaps even the entire Peninsula. We were originally drawn to it simply from its outward décor — the beautiful hummingbird mural on the side wall, etc. It just looked so charming, and not like anything we’d ever seen on the Peninsula, and certainly not in Redwood City! (And on that note, it is also probably the ONLY dining/​drinking establishment we’ve entered on the entire Peninsula that doesn’t have one of those friggin’ flat screened monsters. I have walked right out of places due to those, especially places that have the audacity to tout themselves as a «wine bar» and still have those blasted machines all over the place blaring some mindless show.)
But I digress…
Rogelio is a Beautiful Soul who cooks and serves delicious international food for the Soul at extremely reasonable prices in the most eclectic and quaint little teal accented room. If you sit in a different place each time, you’ll find more delightful decorations — primarily with a hummingbird theme, due to his and his father’s strong Connection with the bird. (Ask him to tell you the story sometime!)
This is a perfect place to host a party, and they are more than open to reserving the space all for you and your guests at no extra charge!
DEFINITELY get the ceviche — the best I’ve had anywhere. Everything there is made fresh, including the chips, and the guacamole is perfect. My only complaint is that there is no outdoor seating, but the place is so damn quaint, and the inside Energy so warm it more than makes up for enjoying a dinner in the outdoor warmth.

Wow! My only regret is that I didn’t try this place earlier! This place has awesome food for a very reasonable price. I had a dish that included plantains, steak, seasoned rice and black beans. Yum!
Great service as well. Sabor Colibri has easily won me as a customer.

I had dinner there last night with my gf. It is an unassuming place, small, not luxurious. But the food we ate was the best I’ve had in a long time. The chicken marinated in coconut and wrapped in a banana leaf (an appetizer) was really fantastic. My gf had the red snapper entrée which she pronounced «perfect». She does not hand out compliments like that lightly. My shredded steak cubana was excellent as well.
Prices were really low (dinner for 2 with appetizer, drinks and salad came to $ 41).
We will definitely be back to this place again. Marvelous experience. Its the best restaurant I’ve been to on the Peninsula.

This place was amazing. Rogelio was our waiter and our server. It was four of us, and he started us with a small portion of corn soup after i told him it was our first time there. He brought us two delicious salsas (green and red both spicy and a lot of flavor) for the chips (they tasted and looked fresh like made there) We got the ceviche as appetizer, big portion, reasonable price. I got the Colibri Soup (Seafood Soup) and a refreshing sangria ;) hit the spot, My mom got caldo de res, my sister got «ropa vieja», and bro got chicken enchiladas.
All of course, all delicious, flavorful, different in a good way. Not Mexican food.
all together $ 52, Sweet!
You have to come here!

Tucked away, right by the parking lot. Small place with large personality.
Cheap, variety of choices, cozy,…
Great for a quick lunch & you get free soup with the food. The place is a little different and I liked it for it, plus its a change of scenery!
To conclude: decent food for good money.
Since its not a high end type of place, casual attire goes.

My curiosity to try this place was finally satiated last night. The menu looked so enticing with various menu selections: Puerto Rican, Cuban, Argentinean, Venezuelan, Mexican, Carribean My bf and I ordered a fish quinoa dish, ropa vieja, ceviche and a beet salad. The quinoa had parsley, onion, cucumber and lemon flavors which sat cold on a bed of garden greens and four tomato slices. The lemon flavor dominated this dish and wasn’t a favorite of mine but my bf preferred it over the ropa vieja which was my preference. It was good but not bursting with rich, authentic Cuban flavors as expected. The meat was cooked perfectly, rice was soft and the plantains were tasty but nothing catalyzed a ravenous onslaught. Where’s the cumin?!
We both enjoyed the ceviche and beet salad most though. There were fresh seafood flavors, tang of lime, onion flavors and little kicks of serrano peppers in the ceviche. The beet salad had a nice light and sweet vinaigrette drizzled on top.
For a choice of beverages, there wasn’t much of a selection other than wine, beer and sangria. We enjoyed a couple glasses of sangria which was okay. It didn’t possess a bright red appearance of red wine with fruit floating inside. It was somewhat cloudy in color (more like pink) and wasn’t what I would consider refreshing.
The service was pretty good, and we didn’t wait long for our orders. However, once we finished and people filtered out, it was about twenty minutes before we finally got the bill. After we asked for the check, the woman attended tables who came in after us and cleaned up a little behind the counter before finally delivering the check.
My overall experience: The prices here are reasonable, food mediocre, but the dining experience here is lackluster. The interiors are very antiquated, and the ambiance is flat. There’s no music. It’s somewhat dark inside, the bright red and blue colors don’t look so festive anymore. There was a constant drafts of cool air whisking in from outside.
This place is more of a lunch spot. That’s when I’ll return to try more, since the ceviche and beet salad were most enjoyable.

in a city full of great Mexican eats, there are not many decent sit down style restaurants. This place is a new choice in what are mostly mediocre places that are not taquerias. They carry more than just Mexican fare… Cuban, Venezuelan, etc. etc. As the Mexican fare goes, they do a great Menudo and you can get it during the week. No more waiting till the weekend. Owners are really friendly and seemingly they love the hummingbird as that’s a theme pervasive in the décor. It’s off the main Broadway strip so make sure you look carefully when finding it

Friendly people, friendly neighborhood restaurant. Good start.
We sat down at dinner time with sparse amount of people on a Saturday night. Not surprising for this part of town though — the crowds usually stay near the theatre and it’s a shame people don’t venture out more. The Old Spaghetti Factory had a 45-​min wait but good restaurants 2 blocks down are mostly empty. Really, RWC, really?
Anyway, back to the main topic. Sabor Colibri. My first tastes of the restaurant was solid. Good beans (finished most of it despite my clumsy appetite!), decent rice… all different from the cookie-​cutter Mexican fare. This is the real deal. The mister thinks the enchiladas are a pass. I think my meat patties are average but the sauce is yummy.
Their menu consists of more than just the typical Mexican fare — actually this is more a Latin American restaurant.
So, 3.5 stars rounded up for now because the people running the place seems real nice and they seem to care about their patrons. I’ll have to be back when I have a real appetite (*cough cough* sorry for the half-​ass food review, but supporting local business is good, right? ;)).

Ladda’s Thai is, not surprisingly, no more. Replacing it in the same space is Sabor Colibri, which opened up just this Monday.
The newness is palpable: The change of ownership paperwork is still posted in the front door, the inside hasn’t been repainted or redone, and copies of the lunch menu are handwritten over with different (read: higher) prices for the dinner time crowd.
With all this in mind I was a little apprehensive about getting a meal to-​go here but for $ 12.50 out the door my dinner last night was EXCELLENT. The veggie burrito was stuffed with a nicely cooked mixture of veggies and not bulked out with too much rice or cheese. It came with a side of chips and guacamole: the chips could have been fried about thirty to sixty seconds less but other than that their flavor was good and they weren’t greasy at all. The guac was more liquidy/​smooth than I’m used to, but the spiciness and freshness of it made up for the fact that it had been thinned out.
The Mexican ceviche was also excellent and for the price the portion was super generous. Lime, tomato, onion, and lots of fresh whitefish marinated to just the right level of «done» and intensely flavored with the fruity-​sweet, dull-​throb heat of serranos. The ceviche came with tortilla chips and several packets of saltine crackers; I hope they ditch the saltines and just add more chips next time as the ceviche tasted way better with the chips and the saltines get too soggy with the ceviche anyway.
This was a huge dinner for $ 12.50; had I not skipped lunch I definitely would have had food left over. The prices aren’t dirt cheap but they beat the Peninsula Pricing in Redwood City prettily handily, and that plus the quality of the food motivates me to give an unequivocal five stars. Stop by and check out their menu when you can; they have a definite South American influence in their selection that is a welcome changeup from the usual places downtown.
P. S. Their location on the back corner of the building is pretty crappy but if they keep the quality of the food up there’s no reason for Sabor not to do well.