Hungry for Hungarian? Try Sabad's

NORFOLK — Like most small north country villages, downtown Norfolk is a shadow of its former self. Most of its retail shops have been turned into apartment housing.

But at the far end of Main Street, about a mile off Route 56 on the left, there's a little restaurant known as Sabad's that's been there since 1955.

It changed hands about 10 years ago. Shine and Beverly Sabad sold it to experienced restaurateurs, a couple with family ties to restaurants in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.

At the time, regular patrons of the restaurant feared Sabad's Hungarian specialties would go away. But the new owners kept the chicken paprikash, cabbage rolls and cabbage noodles on the menu and expanded it with chicken, veal and pasta dishes that bear distinct similarities to those offered in their relatives' restaurants.

Sabad's menu selections are good, solid, familiar fare — you know, stuff you can pronounce without having to ask the waitress a million questions. The food is well prepared and flavorful; the portions are more than ample; the service is straightforward.

The rustic décor hasn't changed much over the years — well-aged knotty pine walls and tall wooden booths that still line the walls. The chairs around the tablecloth-covered center tables are probably the originals, well contoured from years of use.

Members of the wait staff, male and female, wear white tux shirts and black bow ties. But our waitress kept things on the informal side, tossing in quite a few "you guys" throughout the night.

A basket of garlic bread has always been a staple at Sabad's. Ours had been sitting around for a while and was noticeably dried up. Strange, we thought, since we were among the first customers of the evening.

A three-compartment silver relish spinner is another tradition of Sabad's. Pickled red cabbage was just as we remembered it. There was an interesting cabbage slaw, shredded cabbage tossed in a tangy vinaigrette, and a three-bean salad jazzed up with onion and diced peppers.

There's a good selection of appetizers, and if your idea of appetizers is deep-fried stuff, you're out of luck. Choose from shrimp cocktail, steamed clams, calamari, mussels, escargot and the two we tried, stuffed mushrooms with crabmeat and cheese ($6.99) and clams casino with marinara sauce ($9.99).

The mushrooms were totally tasty, the flavor of the crabmeat making its way through gobs of buttery mozzarella cheese.

The preparation for clams casino is always clams on the half shell stuffed with bacon and bread crumbs and sometimes minced sweet peppers. Sabad's was merely a bowl of steamed clams doused with marinara sauce. The marinara was wonderful, full of tangy tomato flavor, but we did feel let down with the non-casino preparation.

Preceding the entrées, you can choose from a garden salad, Caesar salad or cole slaw. The Caesar was yummy, fresh, crisp romaine with a slightly creamy, not-too-garlicky dressing. Cole slaw was your standard sweet mayo variety.

Our waitress was kind enough to sub a cup of the soup of the day for me, plainly described as "bean soup." It was bean soup, all right, but made with green beans and chunks of ham in a light cream broth. Different, but definitely good.

Another tradition at Sabad's is Hungarian cabbage noodles. A small complimentary dish of buttery, garlicky, peppery egg noodles and sautéed cabbage provided a tasty treat between courses.

Of course, we had to try Sabad's signature dish, chicken paprikash ($15.99), a bone-in breast of chicken in a sour cream/paprika sauce served with lots of homemade dumplings and a large cabbage roll.

The dumplings and the cabbage roll were excellent. The chicken, for being on the bone, was dry and lacking flavor, even a little tough, as though it had been previously parboiled and reheated.

The sauce also lacked flavor. It's usually made with sautéed onions, garlic, paprika and sour cream, but this came off as a very tame white sauce with paprika.

There are a dozen chicken dishes, common preparations like piccata, Marsala, Oscar, Francese and Parmesan, along with a number of unique ones like chicken contandina (sausage, peppers and onions), chicken florentino (lemon, spinach) and chicken supreme (shrimp, sun-dried tomatoes, olives).

We enjoyed tasty chicken Luigi ($14.99), a boneless breast of chicken topped with roasted red peppers and surrounded with crisp-sautéed broccoli in a light white wine sauce.

Most of the chicken entrées can be made with veal for a few dollars more.

There are a dozen seafood offerings — shrimp, scallops, perch, crab legs, lobster tails and salmon.

The salmon preparation ($18.99) was lovely. A large hunk of salmon was poached in wine and a touch of cream with a medley of vegetables that included onions, garlic, asparagus, diced tomatoes, mushrooms and black olives.

Its appearance wasn't the greatest — some of the veggies looked and were a bit overcooked — but overall it tasted fine, and the veggies imparted a great flavor to the moist salmon.

A side of spaghetti with Sabad's zesty tomatoey marinara sauce was fantastic.

There are also more than a dozen pasta dishes to choose from: baked ziti, penneputaneska, fettuccini Alfredo, linguini with clams, plus favorites like lasagna, manicotti and good ol' spaghetti and meatballs.

Fettuccini carbonara ($14.99) utilized perfectly cooked al dente noodles (homemade, we thought) tossed with ham and onions in a creamy Alfredo sauce (butter, cream, cheese). A very tasty dish.

I don't know how, but we found room to squeeze in just two desserts, homemade cheesecake and a homemade "Ho Ho" cake.

The cheesecake ($4.99) was stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth good with previously frozen strawberries served on the side (at our request) in a small silver soufflé cup.

The Ho Ho cake ($4.99) was loosely patterned after the cylindrical, chocolate frosted cream commercial confection. It was a large slab of chocolate layer cake with vanilla frosting separating the layers, a fudge-like chocolate icing on the top and sides. Our piece was a noticeably dry.

Dinner for four (two appetizers, four entrées, two desserts) came to $94 before tax and tip. Two top-shelf mixed drinks and two glasses of respectable house wine added $15 to the total. No doubt the reasonable pricing contributed to a lively after-work crowd in the lounge.

You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.

Sabad's Restaurant

81 W. Main St.

Norfolk

384-8995

Specializing in tasty Italian and Hungarian cuisine since 1955.

HOURS: 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, Sunday

3 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Closed Monday

APPETIZER PICK: Crabmeat-stuffed mushrooms

ENTRÉE PICK: Salmon poached with vegetables in a wine/cream sauce

DESSERT PICK: Cheesecake with strawberries

RATING: 3 1/2 forks