Container
Some people in Israel hate saint Valentine, simply because of what happens on his day across all restaurants. Valentine’s Day is another day (together with New Year’s) when restaurants apply over-priced special menus. While this is a money milking cow, it still is an opportunity to have a special dinner. After many recommendations about the place, we decided to have our Valentine’s Day dinner at the Container.
The Bar
The Container, defined as a restaurant, bar, art space and a music lounge, is located inside an old hangar, at the heart of Jaffa port, one of the oldest ports in the world that was once the main port in the land of Israel. Right there, just besides the boats with a beautiful view, lies the Container. And this is just the outside.
Wine & Bread
When you go inside, large glass windows shows you this marvelous view, a high tin ceiling and warehouse walls gives you a true authentic feeling, an extremely large bar allows you to sit where everything happens and a huge wood oven warms the whole space, just in the right way.
The Salads
Though we had an option to take the special tasting menu, just for that night, we decided to stick with the a la carte. Jerusalem & Italian Artichokes salad with truffle mushrooms was heaven for us, artichoke lovers. It was crunchy and fresh and had a great taste of artichokes. Grilled Calamari Salad with black lentils was no less than perfect, as the Calamari had a great grilled taste and the lentils were a great match to it. To conclude the starters we took a plain simple green salad which surprised us for the good. The combination of fresh roman lettuce, genuine Parmesan cheese and from-the-bottom-of-the-heart seasoning was excellent.
Grilled Calamari Salad
After a short break, in which we had some red wine (Bouchard Père & Fils – Beaune du Château) we bought earlier and took with us, we continued to the entrées. Sea bass fish a la plancha, with smoked potato (from that oven) was quite a good dish. The fish was nice and tender and the potatoes were nothing like we ever tasted, as one could clearly taste the scent and flavor of the oven.
Sea bass fish a la plancha
Chraime, a dish originated from the Libyan Judaism and is general referred to a fish in hot peppers sauce, was the highlight of the dinner. The tasty grey Mullet fish was hidden in a rich, inviting chipotle pepper sauce, along with black olives and “lost bread” which came from the same oven and was latter used to clean up the sauce leftovers.
Chraime
Being a little intoxicated from the wine, we decided to skip deserts and head back home. The lovely Jaffa port and the Container have given us the feeling we wanted on that evening and we would definitely go back.
Intoxicated from the wine...
The check please (2 people)
Artichokes Salad – 49 NIS
Calamari Salad – 55 NIS
Green Salad – 33 NIS
Sea Bass a la plancha – 88 NIS
Chraime – 76 NIS
Corkage fee -50 NIS
All in all: 351 NIS
The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale:
5 Forks
Summary:
Food: Fish & Seafood
Price: Expensive
Location: Jaffa Port
Contact details: The Container
Address: Warehouse #2, Jaffa Port | Phone: 03-6836321 |
Opening Hours: Sunday- Thursday 12:00-late | Friday-Saturday 10:00-late
http://www.container.org.il/
Just came back from a horrible meal at the Container – really nice setting, but they lack a cook who knows the basics of food preparation. Totally overcooked fish, and bad tasting pasta…
I totally agree – evrything is nice and fun – except the food…- wonder why this hs been chosed as a 5 forks??