Lucinda O'Sullivan's Ireland

About The Restaurant

Paul Cadden opened his first Saba Thai & Vietnamese restaurant on Clarendon Street in 2006, a thundering success resulting in him expanding with Saba Baggot Street, 3 Saba to Go Outlets, and a new Saba restaurant in Kildare this year. His latest move has been to relocate from Clarendon Street to a premises on South William Street with a Turneresque conservatory ceiling so high they could almost have Cirque du Soleil trapeze artists performing above you.

Most of Cadden’s team has been with him from the start, including the inspirational Executive Chef ‘Tao' - Taweesak Trakoolwattana – who has been fundamental in the culinary success of the Saba group. 

It’s now clean lines all the way when it comes to decor, with a red and black theme with lots of banquette seating and a few booths. Opposite the back door of the Brown Thomas Car Park it’s temptingly handy for shoppers who might fancy a few small plates, and indeed it was after such a mission that I popped with friend Annette for Sunday lunch.

All the favourite Saba noodles, curries and wok dishes your heart could desire are there plus Saba main course dishes such as Tao’s favourite hake in a banana leaf, crispy duck with pineapple and slow cooked Wicklow lamb shank marinated in Thai beer, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.
We kicked off with a trio of little dishes - black pepper squid, Prawn grapefruit Mieng Kam, and two Hoisin Duck rolls. The squid was ace, lightly dusted criss cross rolls sprinkled with black pepper and served with ginger soy sauce, while Mieng Kam, four spinach leaves topped with a melange of prawns, shredded roasted coconut, cashew nuts, and multivarious Thai spices were mouthfuls of heaven. The two duck rolls had aromatic confit duck wrapped in pancakes with julienne of leek, cucumber, iceberg lettuce and hoisin sauce, also excellent.  

Annette moved on to steamed seabass. I always say that no one cooks fish like Asian chefs and here it was just exemplary, fresh as a daisy, in a gentle bath of soya, sesame oil, spring onons, red pepper and and ginger. I very often veer to the stalwart Phad Thai noodles but the combination in Saigon noodles of fine vermicelli with prawns caught my eye. Absolutely delicious, it was also tossed with fine roast pork, egg, carrots, bean sprouts and spring onions. To these dishes we added stirfried broccoli and baby bok choi, which were superbly green and crisp.

We finished off sharing mango sorbet with passion fruit sauce. There’s an excellent wine list, and cocktails. However, you don’t always want a full bottle of wine, and a glass is not enough, so I love that at Saba you can have wine by the 500ml carafe, which we did with 500ml of Murcian Campo Tranquilo Tinto 2018.

A super spot.

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