Among the restaurants in the Boston area that devote themselves to the cuisine of far-flung countries, not many serve food from Eastern Europe. So it’s always an adventure to eat at Sabur, opened in 2001 by Haris Jusufbegovic, who was born in Bosnia. Still, although the menu includes some Balkan staples, such as burek and grilled sausages, it also offers a wide sampling of Mediterranean dishes, drawing inspiration from the cooking of North Africa, Greece, Italy, and even southern France.
Sabur is cozy inside, with hanging beaded lights and decorated in shades of deep red. We sat in the main dining room, where the copper circular tables are Bosnian and we could see servers retrieve lamb from its cauldron in the glass-enclosed open hearth. In warm weather, Sabur serves food on its small patio.
We ordered a combination of meze, small appetizers such as shrimp wrapped in vine leaves, potato and celery-root cakes, and hummus with pita. The menu offers a meze deal: a chef’s selection of two ($13) or four ($21). Our favorite of these small plates was the salmon in filo pastry with goat cheese and truffle oil ($10). The salmon, instead of drying as it bakes, manages to stay moist inside the filo nest. The grilled Balkan sausages ($8), served with yogurt sauce, are mild and the accompanying pita is soft and light, a far cry from its packaged brethren.
Although Balkan dishes can be heavy on meat, Sabur serves a decent number of vegetarian dishes, especially among the meze, and makes a point of listing a separate vegetarian menu on its website. Roasted polenta with artichokes, spinach, tomato, and olives ($16) is garlicky and rich. The zucchini and feta fritters ($8) are fried and a bit too salty, but they are mellowed by a side of ajvar: red pepper and eggplant spread.
We were most intrigued, though, by the traditional Balkan dishes. We’ve had different versions of burek, the labor-intensive pastry dough stuffed with meat and other savory fillings, then rolled into spirals. This burek ($8) is wonderful comfort food, light pastry stuffed with ground beef, potato, and onion.
The beverage menu is extensive, with a list of wine, including some unusual vintages from Eastern Europe, and mixed drinks. We tried a saburska, a peach and vodka mixture that is smooth and not too sweet. We were too full to try dessert, although Sabur has a long list, from baklava to a Macedonian wild-fig sundae and chocolate- and hazelnut-filled crepes.
Our waitress was sweet and attentive to our preschooler, asking questions about a shark book he was paging through, and volunteering that she also works at an ocean nonprofit on the North Shore. Since we were out on a Sunday night and business was slow, we got a lot of attention. On Friday and Saturday nights, though, it can get crowded.
Sabur also serves brunch on weekends, when the menu includes cheese burek, egg musaka, and French toast with fig jam, maple syrup, and apricot butter. There’s also a lunch menu for Saturdays and Sundays, with a few dishes from the dinner menu and sandwiches, including grilled chicken. The restaurant has a small parking lot, a rarity in this area, and other spaces are available nearby on the street.
Sabur, beyond the restaurant hubs of Davis and Harvard squares, can get overlooked in the Somerville-Cambridge restaurant crawl. But every time we eat here, we wonder why we’ve stayed away so long.
Kathleen Burge 
