A Middle priced gem in Jerusalem: Medita

A lot of people ask me all the time, where can I go out to eat and not have to spend a fortune? Where can I go and take a family of 5 without spending 300 shekels a person?

So this is what I tell everyone who asks; you have 2 options: 1. Go to any shupudia (an Israeli Steakhouse) where you can order 2 skewers with perfectly grilled meat,  fresh salads and fresh bread. The ambiance leans toward the fast food and not fine dining but you get what you pay for. By the way, I highly recommend many of these shipudias, whether it’s Grill Bar or Tzidkiyahu, because you get your value for the money. But when a family is looking for a place with a nice ambience, great food and restaurant service, I recommend Medita.

Medita is the brainchild of chef Motti Ochana owner and operator of the gourmet restaurant Hechatzer(one of my favorite kosher restaurants in Israel) Chef Motti decided to open up a second location a bigger location, but with more affordable prices without compromising the quality and level that the chef brings. Nothing on the menu looks cheap and is definitely not fast food. We went two couples so we ordered 2 starters and the house bread. One of the starters was a sabich salad, and the other was the pate mix with the cherry tomato jam on toast.

In a very non Israeli manner, all of the apps came out at the same time! We started with the bread and the dips, the bread was super fresh and crunchy, and had no clue what some of the dips were but they were a delight. The sabich salad was very nice with little pieces of toast to accompany the boiled egg and eggplant tehini sauce mixture. There was some chili in there as well and that gave the dish a nice kick and a great way to finish it off! The pate was out of bounds, I’ve had it before in Hechatzer and it was just as good; smooth texture, sweet and savory with a perfect crunch from the toast.

For the main course I ordered a medium rare steak with a baked potato and my wife ordered the “hechatzer “short ribs. Again, all the dishes came out the same time and definitely a highlight of the night. My steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare with the right amount of seasoning to make it complete. I didn’t really care for the baked potato because there was nothing special about it, no toppings or a dipping sauce to accompany it (it had a roasted cherry tomato on top, whoo hoo). The asado (short ribs) had a nice topping by adding pomegranate with scallions, it was a very very filling dish. Perfectly sweet, it’s a very heavy dish to eat alone, but it is so good!

A great location, great service, delicious food, all in all, Medita is a great middle range meat restaurant that fills out all the criteria of fine dining without making a hole in your pocket.

 

Eating legit Turkish Shwarma in Tel Aviv: Turk Lachmaj’un

Turk Lachmaj’un

WOW, when I left, Turk Lachmaj’un I was impressed. I mean it’s known that the two most common street foods in Israel are falafel and shwarma, but the way they do things at Turk Lachmaj’un really take it to the next level. I want to thank my friend Mitch Schnieder for introducing me to this place because I KNOW I’m going to head back there.

Turk Lachmaj’un (Kosher Rabbanute Tel Aviv) has been around for a while, and their standards have stayed the same since day 1. For those of you who don’t know what a lachmaj’un is, (here comes the culinary tidbit) it’s a loaf of bread baked with any type of meat inside. The dish hails from Turkey, and has become a very popular dish in restaurants around Israel. Traditionally it’s baked with lamb, but those who can’t afford it will use beef or any other meat they fancy. Traditionally it’s served with techina, but you can enjoy it with any dip you like.

Now to the restaurant. I call it a restaurant because it really  is. You have an option to either eat a shwarma to go and have them wrap up your meal in a laffa or lachmaj’un or to sit down and enjoy the full experience where they bring you salads to your table and you eat with a fork and knife. I chose the first option, and it was perfect! A little more about the restaurant, show up early or you will be waiting a long time to enjoy an amazing meal because the place is packed during the lunch rush. Most of the food is made in-house from the salads to the fries, I don’t know if the meat is prepared there but I know that each lachmaj’un is made in the stone oven that they hide in the corner. Now I need to break down the lacmaj’un process for you: They bake each lachmaj’un fresh to order. the lachmaj’un is prepared like this: they bake the meat and spices into and open-faced type of laffa bread and then when it comes out of the oven, they fill it with more meat!If you aren’t already drooling, here comes the fun part, I chose lamb all the way through, then he put in the fillings that were so fresh, from the techina dripping through, pickled onions, and I don’t even remember what else the guy put in, but it made it a perfect bite! The lamb was super moist and full of flavor and you can taste the lamb all the way through because it’s baked into the bread! The fries were a bit soggy because sadly Israelis don’t believe in a double fry french fry (pomme frites) but everything else was just perfect.

Turk Lachmaj’un is one of the best shwarmas I have had in Israel, definitely in my top 5 in Israel. So if you find yourself in the Nachalat Binyamin area of central Tel Aviv, come by foot, because there’s almost no parking and get on line for some of the best shwarma, Tel Aviv has to offer.

 

Last stop at the First Train Station in Jerusalem: Station 9

Station 9

For those of you who are not from the Jerusalem area, you should know that the days of Emek Refaiim are over and the day of the First Train Station has begun. The Station holds many restaurants and an open market every weekend. The Station has gained popularity with all crowds , because there’s plenty of parking, all the main bus lines pass by, and has a great atmosphere. My favorite restaurant that has been open from day one at the train station so far, is Station 9(Rabbanute Yerushalyim).

Station 9 is probably the best kosher Asian fusion restaurant in Israel. It’s a fusion restaurant like almost every other kosher type of Asian cuisine restaurant (River, Deck’s, Sushi Rechavia just to name some) because almost no one doing authentic Asian food by country except the Chinese Wall (Hachoma HaSinit) in Tel Aviv(review to come) who make legit and authentic Chinese food. It’s all a mix of flavors that the Israeli’s like mainly stir fries. Very depressing, but it is what it is, thank goodness that Station 9 makes amazing food.

The menu has a wide variety of appetizers starting with soups, salads and small meat and chicken dishes. But two appetizers stand out on the menu that you almost can’t find anywhere: Bau Bau sliders and potstickers.  For those of you who don’t know what those are let me describe is to you. A Bau bun is a unique steamed bun that hails out of China. It has a very soft and chewy texture that you can only get out of a steamed bun. A potsticker is a fried dumpling made by hand that is usually filled with a protein. A non fried dumpling is galled a gioza and is customary steamed with the same type of filling as a potsticker.

Now that the cooking lesson is over, let’s get to what me and my friends ordered. We were 4 people so we ordered 3 appetizers, and 3 mains. We didn’t order a dessert because we were stuffed by then, and here’s why. For the appetizers we ordered 4 Bau Bau sliders, 2 filled with pulled short ribs(asado), 1 duck and 1 hamburger. For the 3rd appetizer we ordered potstickers(giozas) because, I had to try it!  The food came out pretty fast, and the presentation was very nice. The Bau Bau came with a chipotle, cilantro and chili oily inside, and the potstickers(giozas) were filled with chicken and came with a soy and sesame dipping sauce. The Bau Bau were extraordinarily  delicious, ranking the best was the duck then the short ribs and the burger last. They were all tasteful and well prepared, but the duck was definitely the best. Moving on to the giozas (potstickers) they were also surprisingly delightful. The filling was seasoned perfectly and the soy dipping sauce only elevated the dish.

Moving on to the main courses, we ordered a stir fry, the Pad Khing and 2 of the Japanese spare ribs. Again, we didn’t wait long for the mains to come, and wow was I surprised. The spare ribs were huge! They also came with a side of white rice and fresh broccoli, which added a nice touch. Luckily, all 4 of us ordered the spare ribs to share with their spouse because they were that big. The spare ribs are slow cooked and then finished in the deep fryer to give it a nice crunchy beefy exterior. The ribs were a bit tough, but the flavor was all there, and the sides were a very nice compliment. The Pad Khing was also superb, the flat rice noodles really sopped up the sauce, the beef was tender ad the sauce was really what brought the dish home.

The spare ribs were so big, it really filled us up and we couldn’t order a dessert, but next time we go we’ll see what happens.

Station 9 is a great culinary experience and definitely one of the best kosher restaurants in the city. Since they have become so popular the prices are a bit high, but if you go before 5, you will get a 20% discount off the entire menu. If you find yourself in Jerusalem and looking for a great Asian style restaurant, go and try Station 9.

A great Italian Dairy Restaurant in Eilat with ridiculous Bagels!

Il Pentolino

When you travel down south to the city of Eilat, there’s a chance that the hotel you go to offers half-board or full-board, so you won’t really go out for dinner or breakfast. If you happen NOT to be at one of these establishments, I would recommend you stop at Il Pentolino(kosher Rabbanute Eilat). Why do I say breakfast and dinner you ask? Here’s why: They make some of the most amazing bagels in Israel, in an Italian restaurant! Oh, and the service was very good and the staff was very accommodating and polite.

Before we get into bagels, lets talk about my family’s experience there. I was the only one to order an appetizer and since it was December, I went with French onion soup, with a melted cheese crostini. The soup was superb. There was so much depth from the caramelized onions and the cheese melt, crostini was a great addition. My wife shared it with me and agreed that this was a legit French onion soup, my daughter didn’t understand why my soup was brown, but let’s move on.

For the main course we all ordered different things to share, I ordered the lasagna (because I’m a lasagna freak) my wife ordered the oven baked whole trout with baked potato wedges and my daughter ordered the pizza.

I have to make a comment about the menu, it’s huge! There are over 15 types of pastas and sauces, 10 types of pizza and the variety of spreads to put on a bagel is huge. I want to mention the bagels because they themselves are worthy of a post on its own. What I loved that they do is instead of offering guests bread at the table, they toast the old bagels and serve them hot, so good!

When they brought out the mains we were all salivating, it looked so good, and guess what, it tasted even better. The pizza crust was super crunchy from the fresh dough, the sauce was spot on and the cheese was a great blend of mozzarella and yellow cheese. My daughter loved it and so did we. The lasagna was amazingly cheesy and piping hot. I couldn’t wait until it cooled down to taste it and it was so worth burning my mouth for! Fresh pasta, cooked eggplant and so much cheese and sauce! It’s a good thing I had the bagels to mop up all that sauce and cheese. It was like having 2 dishes in one! The fish came out on a platter that could feed five people (The portions were pretty hefty, the way I like it!) and was cooked to perfection. Full of herbs, garlic and the right amount of seasoning to take the fish over the top. It was flaky, juicy and delicious.

For an Italian restaurant\ bagel restaurant with good service and that delivers to the hotels, I would highly recommend you try IL Pentolino at least once while you are visiting the city of Eilat.

The Beef Bar Steakhouse behind IKEA in Netanya

Beef Bar Netanaya

It happens to be a very rare to find a proper steakhouse in Israel, that the stars of the menu aren’t cuts of steak. Instead the are skewers serving chicken, turkey or beef, but not a proper steak. As I have said in the past that is the real meaning of a steakhouse, that the beef is king, and you don’t call it a stekiya, which is supposed to mean steak house but it’s really an Israeli type which bombard you with fresh salads and pitas, and everything is grilled on a stick. Not that I’m complaining, some of the best meals I have had in Israel are in steakiyot, but Beef Bar really lived up to it’s name.

First thing you see when you walk in, is the decor, a style you’d find in Texas. Leather covered booths, antlers on the walls. Not the typical decor of South American restaurants you’ll find in Israel, because there is nothing south american about the place. All the waiters are wearing uniforms, the bathrooms are clean and there’s an open kitchen.

Knowing that we’re off to a great start, I need to point out how many people we were. We went a party 5 adults and 3 kids eating there on the porch outside. Luckily it was a beautiful night so not many bugs and great weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started our meal off with a number of appetizers: A liver pate, carpaccio and chicken wings. We also ordered a nice bottle of Tavor wine to compliment the meat appetizers and mains to come. The appetizers came out pretty quickly and were plated beautifully. The carpaccio had pickled artichokes, green olives and a balsamic glaze to really compliment the thinly slices of fillet, really nice. The we moved on to the pate, which was one of the creamiest pate’s I have ever had. The only other pate dishes that tasted that good to me was at Hachatzer and at Jem’s. The plate was designed beautifully on a tile with thin slices of toast, a beautiful dish. The wings were crispy on the outside, and the sauce was nicely balanced, between sweet and spicy, all the appetizers were big hits!

Moving on to the mains,  We ordered a lot of meat! There was a fillet, a couple of rib steaks, lamb chops, a New York sandwich, and I ordered something called Feedlot. Feedlot is premium Angus beef, that was aged in the restaurant for 28 days. I have never ordered a cut like that in a restaurant so I gave it a shot. We all ordered different side, but I went with a classic coleslaw and mashed potatoes.

The meats came out all together and on cast iron pans to keep them warm  which was very professional in my opinion. Hot plates are very important if you are serving hot dishes. So how was the beef you ask? AMAZING! Every cut of beef was cooked to perfection with no mistakes. Very tender meat thanks to the dry aging, great marbling in the steak, and you can tell that they invest in the quality of beef. The lamb chops were tender and full of flavor, and the sandwich had a sauce on it that was finger licking good. The feedlot that I ordered did taste different than regular beef prime rib, very tender and delicious though! The sides were just as good as the mains, creamy mashed potatoes seasoned with just enough salt, and the coleslaw that was just the way it should be, a bit salty and sweet! Other things that caught my eye on the menu was the 1 kilo menu. Instead of ordering a bunch of steaks to order a kilo for the table, unless you’re really hungry, same for the kilo hamburger!

On the verge of a beef coma, my cousins wanted to try dessert. The owner recommended the chocolate mousse and a trio of sorbets. If you are a chocoholic, this mousse is for you. Super creamy, great chocolate flavor, a nice variety of sweet sauces to elevate the dish and a perfect crust to top it all off(even though the crust was on the bottom!). Again an amazing dessert, as for the trio of sorbets. Each one full of fruit flavor and vanilla, all the flavors were just delish!

Price wise, on the pricier side, but worth every penny. From the quality ingredients, to the amazing staff, all worth it. A real steakhouse experience that is pretty hard to find around Israel, and was definitely worth the trip!

My Anniversary Dinner at the new Alumah Restaurant

 

Last night my wife and I celebrated 6 wonderful years of marriage together! Our anniversary is really on the 10th but this year it comes out on Yom Hazikaron, so we wouldn’t have been able to celebrate properly. After sharing a bit about why we went, let’s get to the food!

About the place, it is a fine dining establishment: white tablecloths, comfortable chairs and really good service thanks to Gavriel, who was shadowing and teaching the waiters how to work in a fine dining establishment. We asked him what was good, and after that ordered appetizers. My in-laws, who joined us(Happy Birthday DAD!) ordered the cured trout gravlax style, on beetroot carppacio with a light horseradish cream, my wife ordered the green leaf salad with poached pears and roasted seeds and nuts, and I ordered the salmon and garden peas risotto. Before we started with the appetizers, they started us off with fresh bread made in-house with three dips: A beetroot dip, pesto and an egg based dip. The bread was delicious, and the dips were a hit. the star was definitely the beetroot dip, which we asked for more a couple of times!

The cured trout looked and tasted very fresh and delicious, especially the beet carpaccio, a great addition. The leafy salad was a bit bitter but the poached pears were a very nice balance. The risotto was creamy and smooth and cooked perfectly, the salmon was fresh and the peas were a nice addition as well. After enjoying a slew of delicious appetizers we enjoyed a bottle of 2012 Shiraz from the Dalton winery. For a guy who is getting into wine, it was a delightful wine. Full of flavor with a sweet and smoky finish with great tannins. I highly recommend it any time you are going to enjoy a nice meat meal!

The we ordered the mains. My wife ordered the grey mullet with swiss chard, mushroom ragout and warm tehini sauce, me and my father in law ordered the rib eye steak with a hollandaise sauce and my mother in law ordered the lamb chops with gnocchi and ratatouille.

The food came out very quickly which was very nice and it did not disappoint. lets start with the steak. Cooked to a perfect medium rare topped with a gravy with shallots. The steak was grilled to perfection and was so tender it melted in my mouth. It was lacking a bit of salt, but I feel that was a personal preference. The green beans and potatoes were a nice side but the steak was the star of the show.

The fish was presented beautifully but was a bit overcooked. So my wife was a bit dissapointed, but the flavors were definitely brought to the dish. Then the lamb chops. A bit on the fatty side but again cooked to perfection, and the gnocchi, I can’t stop praising it enough. So light and smooth, melted in my mouth, and to round it all out, the ratatouille was fresh with a lot of basil and was a great compliment to the dish.

After almost filling up we decided to order desserts. they were very interesting and different. like my wife and mother in-law ordered the tapioca and mango with mint, a crepe madlen with vanilla sauce and orange blossom and my father in-law went with the chocolate espresso mousse. The chef sent out an extra dessert for our anniversary which was a pineapple crumble with banana and date honey ice cream.

This is where the mixed reviews started coming in. First came out the fresh pineapple crumble and ice cream. I Have to say that the banana ice cream was one of the most delicious parve ice creams i have ever tasted and I hate bananas! The crumble was too sweet, but the ice cream stole the show. Then came the tapioca and mango dessert. If you like tapioca anything, this dessert is for you. the mango foam was very refreshing but I’m not a tapioca fan and my wife didn’t like it. on the other hand my mother in law wiped hers out! It was very pretty and refreshing after such a heavy meal.

The crepe that I ordered also came with a berry ice cream and boy was it needed. The crepes looked amazing, but was overwhelming with orange, and that really hid the taste of the vanilla cream in the crepe. The berry ice cream really broke that orange flavor and again, another amazing parve ice cream. The chocolate espresso mouse was very good. it came with a ball of chocolate ice cream, again the star of the dish. The mousse was nice and airy, the espresso was very weak which was good because it didn’t take over the whole dish. So the desserts were a bit disappointing but that shouldn’t take away from the rest my dinner experience.

Price wise, it is very decent for a fine dining establishment. For me and my wife it came out about 400 shekels(my in-laws covered for the wine and tip) which in my  opinion is very reasonable.

All in all, they are a restaurant in the beginning of their way, and I hope when I return, I will have a great experience like I had last night!

 

 

Tzidkiyahu’s Steakhouse, one of the oldest in Talpiyot

Tzidkiyahu Steakhouse

The Israeli steak house definition is very different then a steak house that you would find in the USA. A steakhouse in Israel specializes in grilled meats on skewers. Tzidkiyahu is one of those places that have perfected the formula to a successful stekiya(steakhouse). At Tzidkiyahu, they bake their own fresh pita bread and laffa’s on site, it doesn’t get any fresher than that. The same goes for all the salads, they are made in-house. This is why Tzidkiyahu has been around for so many years.

When you sit down the first thing they do after you order is bring you a massive amounts of fresh salads and the fresh bread I mentioned before. They where all scrupmtious. The fresh chummus, the coleslaw, the eggplant, tehini, the list goes on. They where all delicious. Then came the main,  pargiyot(spring chicken) skewers with a side of rice and beans and hand cut fries. The chicken was cooked perfectly and seasoned with the right amount of seasoning and not taking away from the grilled flavors as well. The side dishes were a great compliment as well. The fries where crispy, and the rice and beans were done middle eastern style that have a little flair to them. All in all Tzidkiyahu is a great place to go and enjoy a great simple meal, and also has the room to host parties as well. So if you find yourself in the Talpiyot area for lunch, you should walk in and give it a shot.

Tzidkiyahu, Yad Charutzim 21 Talpiyot, Jerusalem, Kosher Rabbanute Yerushalayim

 

Sovah really is filling Shwarma in Bayit Ve’Gan

Sovah 

I went yesterday to visit a family relative of my wife’s in Bayit Ve’gan who is recovering from a light heart attack and thought, maybe I should take things down a notch with the food. So across the street from the apartment, there’s a bakery, a bank and a recently re-opened shwarmah joint called Sovah(kosher mehadrin, badatz, shmita lechumra). So obviously, heart attack=shwarmah so I went there to get a shwarmah for my wife and myself.

While ordering I saw them prepare their own shwarmah pit. I have to say, it was very impressive. Most shwarmah joints just order the meat ready to go on a spit and everything, so seeing them do this in-house was very impressive. Not only was it marinated in-house and stacked up nicely, they only use beef. almost everything there was prepared in-house, and for a greasy spoon in Bayit Ve’gan, that’s pretty impressive.

When I buy a shwarma, I judge it in a couple of ways: First off is flavor of the meat. Is it dry, flavorful, spiced well. Then by the laffa bread: How thick is it, is it fresh. Then I check out the condiments, are they fresh, prepared in-house. Then the fries; are they store-bought or made in-house. And finally the girth of the whole thing. I mean is how they pack it up, the meat to condiment ratio that the meat has to be even or more than the sides going into the laffa, And lastly, if I can hold it in one hand or in two. Not many places hold up to my standards, but if you do find a place  like that, go back for another because you won’t find many like that around.

So I ordered myself a classic shwarma; chummus, salad, pickles, coleslaw, tehini a hint of heat and hand cut fries from real potatoes and of course the meaty goodness, and boy did they stand up to my expectations. The meat was seasoned perfectly, it was moist and full of flavor. the salads and condiments were really good and fresh and the laffa was very light. The only downfall of this was like in most shwarmah joints that cut their own fries is that they only fry them once. It’s disappointing because then the fries are limp, soft and soggy. All they have to do is fry them again and it makes such a difference. Otherwise it is a great shwarma and one of Jerusalem’s best in my opinion, and there a are a lot so that’s saying something. The guy’s behind the counter were nice and it was a really great lunch experience.

 

Sovah, Hapisga 17 st. Bayit Ve’gan, Jerusalem

A Dinner for two at Tommy’s

Tommy’s is a small and cool venue located on Keren Kayemet st in the heart of Jerusalem. The reason I found this little joint is because I happened to have stumbled upon a Facebook contest that they where holding. And I won a dinner for two at the restaurant, So the one night me and my wife had free, (literally) and went to check it out.

Tommy’s is a small hole in the wall type of joint that make most of the food in house, like the salads and sides. The seating area is located outdoors but there is still an element of privacy because there are no seats on the street, mainly on the patio.

So we looked at the menu, and it really emphasized the name of the place” sophisticated street food”. Everything they serve has a little twist and isn’t your run of the mill fast food joint. The menu is composed mainly of grilled meats, but also have different types of dishes on their specials menu. The chef also made it clear that they cook their hamburgers on the flattop, and that got me excited!

After browsing the menu and talking to the chef about what to order, we ordered a hot pullet salad(pargiyot) salad, an entricote hamburger,  for the sides we ordered a blooming onion that’s made in-house, and sweet potato fries with pink lemonade.

Because i’m a gentelmen I’ll start with what my wife ordered. The pargiyot saladwas really good. It wasn’t your run of the mill salad with just chicken and vegetable, it came with bulgar, arugula, sweet potato,  and the chicken itself stood out by being packed with flavor. One of the better salads I’ve had at a fast food restaurant. The entricote burger was done like I asked, medium. It was very juicy and full of meaty goodness. I asked for some coleslaw on the  side and it made the burger taste even better. The sides were a bit dissapionting though. The blooming onion was a mess and very hard to eat and lacked seasoning. The sweet potato fries weren’t crispy, it needed to be fried twice like a pomme fritte otherwise it just gets soggy, like in our case. what really rounded out the meal was the pink lemonade that was perfectly mixed and had a great balance between sweet and sour like a good lemonade should have.

All in all it was a very good experience and you will find me returning there to enjoy another meal. but trying  different things too!