Last fall, my wife had heard about a new Mediterranean restaurant that had opened in early September of last year near the "Bett Plex" sports and entertainment complex on the north side of Bettendorf. I don't exactly remember what we were doing out that way one evening, but my wife pointed out the place - Plus Saporis. It was a weeknight and just before 6 p.m. so we thought we'd stop in and check the place out. We were met by a nattily dressed man at the host stand near the front door and he asked in a somewhat aloof tone if we had reservations. I said we did not and he immediately said that it would be a minimum of an hour wait. I looked past him and saw that the restaurant was nearly empty. I thought he may offer to have us sit at the bar and wait until they were ready to seat us, but he didn't even do that. It was sort of an awkward stand-off at the host desk. He was so cold and somewhat haughty to us that we decided to just leave. It wasn't that we were dressed bad - jeans and V-neck sweater with a T-shirt for me, jeans and a nice top for my wife. We just couldn't believe that they couldn't seat us in what appeared to be a pretty good-sized restaurant with just a few people dining at the time.
As we tried to rationalize why he couldn't - or didn't - want to seat us, we thought that maybe they were having a large group coming in later, maybe they only had a skeleton staff and couldn't take care of any more people coming in at that time, or maybe we WERE underdressed, but there was no indication or signage for a dress code. But when we found later that the owner of Plus Saporis was the owner of the toney Hemispheres Bistro and a partner in the now-closed Food Affair Bistro, we realized that the place was probably going to be a bit snobbish and pompous.
But, as I always tell my wife - our money spends just as well as the guy driving the Audi A8 that we parked next to in the parking lot. And then we found out from a friend who had been there previously that they were still working out the kinks early on after their initial opening. So, on a recent Friday evening, we had gone out for end-of-the-work-week drinks and decided to head over to Plus Saporis to see if they'd let us in this time. And they did! And they were very nice about it this time!
Now, I'm going to be lazy and lift this background information on the owner/chef from my previous entry on Food Affair Bistro -
Aman Razdan grew up in Mumbai, India. While he was a youngster, he worked in his family's restaurant before coming to the U.S. in 1998. He settled in the Quad Cities and ended up getting into the culinary program at Scott Community College. While going to school at Scott Community, Razdin got a job at Le Figaro, a now-closed French restaurant in Rock Island run by Rachid Bouchareb. Learning under Bouchareb, Razdan did a little bit of everything in the kitchen to preparing salad dressings to preparing charcuterie boards and cheese plates.
After graduating from Scott Community College, Razdan became the pastry and sous chef at the Red Crow Grill in August of 2002. Razdan worked at Red Crow Grill until March of 2004 when he was hired to be the head regional chef for Holiday Retirement Corporation. Working out of the Palmer Hills Independent Senior Living facility in Bettendorf, Razdan oversaw the kitchens for 16 Holiday Retirement properties in the Midwest.
Pictured at right - Aman Razdan. Photo courtesy Quad City Times.
After nearly 3 years working with Holiday Retirement, Razdan was hired to be the head chef at the Best Western Steeplegate Inn in Davenport. Three years later, Razdan went to work as an executive chef at a local hospital. During his time at the hospital, Razdan - along with his wife, Martina - started to work on a business plan to someday own their own restaurant.
In 2015, the opportunity arose to buy the Red Crow Grill where Razdan got his first job out of culinary school. Red Crow Grill had been open for 16 years and Razdan wanted to change things up and put his stamp on the restaurant. Red Crow Grill closed on July 1, 2015 and over the next two months, Razdan spruced up the place and came up with a menu that he classified as "global fusion" focusing on Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Latin cuisines. In early September of 2015, Razdan and his wife opened Hemispheres Bistro. And after a 9 1/2-year run, Razdan announced last month that Hemispheres Bistro would be closing their doors on April 30th to concentrate on running Plus Saporis.
And it's a true family affair at Plus Saporis, which means "more flavor" in Latin. Aman Razdan's two sons help out in the restaurant. Simon Razdan started out washing dishes in his father's restaurant at the age of 14. Learning from his father, Simon Razdan has risen to be the chef de cuisine at Plus Saporis. Simon's younger brother Arion is the general manager of Plus Saporis. He starting out working at his father's restaurant at the age of 15 and runs the restaurant for his father while also helping out in the kitchen. And Aman's daughter Mikhaela - who is now in her early-teens - helped with the wall decor and color scheme at Plus Saporis.
It was a somewhat blustery, yet, warm day when we went to Plus Saporis. For a number of days the local weathercasters on TV had been predicting a large storm coming through the area around 7 to 8 p.m. That may have tamped down the number of Friday night diners who usually would have been out that evening. This time when we went into Plus Saporis, there was no smart dressed man at the host stand, but a young man who greeted us when we came in. I said, "Two for dinner, please." And he grabbed a couple menus and led us to a booth in the dining room up front. No pretension, no judging.
The dining area at Plus Saporis features a wall lined with comfy booths, some four-seater tables in the middle and tables with banquette seating along a wall. Large windows on the south side of the restaurant allowed in a lot of natural light during the day, while a garage door opens into a patio area on the west side. The garage door was open slightly at the bottom allowing some of the late winter fresh air into the restaurant, but no one was seated outside as wind gusts approaching 40 miles an hour would have made al fresco dining almost impossible.
On the other side of the wall from the dining area was the bar area with even more seating for dining. We were sort of incredulous that we weren't offered to sit at the bar to wait for a table the first time we stopped into Plus Saporis as the half-circle bar could seat 10 to 12 people. And there weren't 12 people in the whole restaurant the first time we were there. The bar area/back dining space was well lit and accented with colorful prints on the walls.
Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Briza. I'm going to say upfront that Briza was delightful all during our visit. She was friendly, accommodating, and was very knowledgeable about the food - a hallmark of Aman Razden's restaurants over the years. She gave us some great recommendations all through the evening. Right off the bat she took our drink orders - I ordered a Kona Big Wave and my wife got a glass of a Lebanese red blend from the Chateau Musar winery.
As we were just getting started looking through the menu, Briza brought out a complementary appetizer from the chef. I don't know what it was called, but they were two small meatballs topped with a yogurt/tomato mixture. Whatever it was, it was very good and a nice gesture to start off our meal.
The menu at Plus Saporis was interesting, to say the least. Appetizers included a daily shell fish offering at market price, crab ceviche, saganaki, and polenta fries. They also had a few dips that were served with twisted pastry bread and crudités (raw vegetables). Main entrees featured pasta dishes, seafood offerings, kebabs, and exotic dishes such as osso bucco, a stuffed duck breast, a short rib/chorizo/prawns paella, and moussaka. Plus Saporis also featured pizza, sandwiches, and salads where proteins such as a marinated hanger steak, grilled chicken and salmon could be added to the salad.
My wife saw that they had a couple things on the menu that she wanted to try. Actually, I was in agreement with her on both appetizers. She wanted to try their hummus. It was served with cannellini beans and tahini along with two twisted pastry bread sticks and assorted sliced veggies. The pastry bread was light and very delicious on its own. And the hummus was exceptional.
And the other thing we both saw on the menu was the grilled octopus. It came with chopped garlic, fennel, and chopped cherry tomatoes in a red wine vinaigrette. I have to say that the grilled octopus was sadly over-cooked - chewy and really sort of lifeless in flavor, even with the red wine vinaigrette.
For our main entrees that evening, my wife got the lamb kebabs. The two kebabs were accompanied by a rice tower, cacik (pronounced jah-jick) which is a Turkish sauce made with watered down yogurt and cucumbers; and harissa - a North African chile paste mixed with garlic, olive oil, citrus juice and assorted spices and herbs. Unfortunately, my wife found the lamb kebabs to also be overcooked. "Whoever is grilling the octopus and the kebabs needs to turn the heat down," my wife said between bites. She still thought it was good, but was disappointed that it was somewhat chewy, dry and tough.
I went with the 'Nduja sausage and tagliatelle pasta dish. It was topped with a dollop of burrata cheese that made the dish even more rich in flavor. The 'Nduja sausage had a nice little bite to the taste and clung very well to the wide tagliatelle pasta. My meal was fabulous. I offered my wife a couple bites of my dish while she gave me a bite of one of her kebabs. She usually gets the better of the two meals we have when we eat out. But this time she said mine was definitely better than hers.
Briza came out with a very tempting dessert menu. All of Plus Saporis' desserts are made by longtime Hemispheres Bistro pastry chef Jose Trigueros. The desserts change weekly and on this visit we were intrigued by a couple different things. They had blueberry compote in an edible pistachio pastry shell, and fresh blueberry ice cream with sweet crumbles mixed in. We couldn't make up our minds as to which one to get, so we got both. Both were spectacular. My wife concentrated more on the ice cream with crumbles, while I eagerly ate much of the blueberry compote while chopping at the pistachio shell with my spoon. It was a great ending to what - I thought - was a pretty damned good meal.
My wife, however, was disappointed in her overcooked lamb kebabs, and we were sort of dissatisfied with the overcooked grilled octopus. But the rest of the meal was very good. I loved my 'Nduja with tagliatelle pasta topped with a creamy burrata cheese. And I thought the hummus was outstanding. Briza was a gem all night long and she was a tremendous server. And we didn't feel like the place was stuffy or pretentious unlike our first visit when we weren't even given an option to hang out until a table opened. It was expensive, however, and not one that we would be able to put into our regular rotation of restaurants. But it would be one that we'd go back to if we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice meal out at some time in the future.