Sabor Mexican Grill and Taqueria

I will admit to being a Mexican food snob.

When you're raised in San Diego, you have the opportunity early on to sample the best. In my travels, I would make it a point to try the local Mexican restaurants whenever possible. With the bar set so high, they were almost always a disappointment.

I'm thinking there are maybe 21 states and nine foreign countries where I've eaten south-of-the-border cuisine. The worst was in Berlin just 10 years ago. The gloopy looking lump in front of me was being passed off as a burrito and was accompanied by a dinner roll with butter. Dutifully, I smiled at my local host and proclaimed that I never expected to have something quite like this so far from home.

Sabor Mexican Grill & Taqueria on Broadway in Lemon Grove is a completely different story. The moment you walk into the cozy six-table restaurant, saunter up to the counter and gaze at the many choices on the menu board, you sense this is the real deal.

It had the telling signs: The small chalkboard announcing menudo and pozole on just Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The salsa station with the required red and green salsas, radishes, marinated carrots, lime slices, plus a signature jalapeno-based salsa that really hits the mark. Two large beverage containers of freshly made horchata and auga de jamaica on the counter completed the scene.

It was Friday, so I had the pozole with a glass of horchata. If you've never had a Mexican soup, pozole is probably a better first try than menudo. It depends on your dietary adventure status. It arrived steaming in a large bowl—big chunks of pork with hominy in a savory broth. Then you add the fixings that are served with the soup: a pile of shredded lettuce, a scoop of minced onion, half an avocado cut in big pieces, some chopped cilantro and other spices. Put all of it into the bowl along with a couple of fresh corn tortillas torn into pieces, add a squeeze of fresh lime and a little (it's hot) of the jalapeno salsa. Delicious!

Every place makes their pozole a little differently. Sabor's was a cut above and made with care. Don't tell anyone, but I finished the entire bowl. The horchata (my ground rice, cinnamon and sugar drink) was sweet and tasty.

My dining companion ordered the adobada plate with refried beans and rice. It's a dish not so commonly found at Mexican restaurants, consisting of crunchy pieces of zesty red chile-marinated pork. You scoop a little into one of the hot corn tortillas, add a little salsa and a squeeze of lime. Fold, eat, and be amazed. The beans were just right. The rice was perfectly bland, which is exactly the function of it—to cool down the heat from the other food.

Sabor offers an extensive menu of traditional Mexican fare plus some harder-to-find dishes. It is an inexpensive place to dine. They take credit cards and you can order food to go. It's located at 7123 Broadway, in the Lemon Grove Square Shopping Center between Federal Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue.

Sabor Mexican Grill & Taqueria is open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 9 a.m.-8 p.m. on Sunday. They don't have a website, but you can call them at 619-644-3080.

We wanted to try a pineapple tamale for desert but realized we had eaten too much. We will have to save it for our next visit.