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.

 

One of my favorite Restaurants, Hachatzer

Hachatzer is hands down one of my favorite restaurants. The location is great( the old railway station) so there is plenty of parking. The ambiance is warm and cozy, wooden tables, white plates cloth napkins. And of course the chef, Motti Ochana, a Courdon Blue graduate, who has worked with chef Pini Levy before opening up Hachatzer by himself. The restaurant is a new middle eastern  When siting down I got to chat with him and he told me about his new restaurant called Medita on Derech Hevron street and I told him I’d try it out, but not tonight, tonight I was there for the tasters menu, the chef’s choice.

The tasters menu(230 shekel per person minimum 4 people) is made up of what Israelis call “salatim”, 4 fish appetizers, 4 meat appetizer, 4 main meat entrees, and 4 desserts. The amount of food that was served to us could have fed 6 people.

The “Salatim” open up with loaves of Moroccan bread called Farena which is a soft loaf of bread that is great for spreads. The spreads that they served were Cream of roasted eggplant with tehini, tehini with baked zucchini, homemade matbucha, hot mangold  with chopped meat, olives with balsamic oil and a chopped celery with currants salad. They were all  and different, original and full of flavor.

For the fish appetizers, we had A Jerusalem mixed grill made out of 4 types of fish, Morrocan style fish kabobs, Asian style sea bass and an endive salad with pears and pecans.

For the meat appetizers, beef carpaccio, fire roasted eggplant with fillet minion cubes and tehini, sweetbreads in a red wine sauce and  chopped liver made out of chicken and goose livers served with a cherry tomato jam and toast. It was all amazing. That is when we looked at the wine menu. The restaurant offers a wide selection of wines, beers and cocktails. My wife had a fidge sour and I had a Stella beer. The fidge sour was great and you can’t go wrong with Stella.

 

Then came the highlight of the night, the meat platter.8 hour short ribs cooked in an orange barbecue sauce, Fillet minion in a red wine sauce,A ribeye steak on the grill and chicken steaks in a chimichuri sauce. It was out of bounds! Cooked to a perfect medium rare, mmm amazing. They also served it with grilled sweet potatos, zucchinis and potato wedges. We couldn’t breath at this point.

 

Than came dessert. Lemon meringue pie, fresh striozel, Vanilla ice cream topped with date honey and halva, strawberry macaroons, Meringue kisses and marzipan cubes, chocolate truffles and chocolate almond crunch!  I needed a forklift to get me out of my seat.

 It is amazing culinary experience that I would highly recommend to anyone who is a real foodie living or visiting the Jerusalem area.