A Morning of Macaroons – Idelsohn 10

Idelsohn 10 is chain of 4 coffee shops (none of them on Idelsohn Street). Although we have one right by our home (Witzman) we decided to take advantage of a sunny Saturday to bike up until the far Ben Yehuda Street. This place is one of the most popular coffee places in Tel Aviv and every time we got there until that day – we skipped the pleasure of waiting and went to one of the other nearby places. That time we woke up late – so when we arrived we had a sitting place right away.

Muffins & Cakes on the Counter

Shahar took the Croque-Madame – a toast with ham & Gouda cheese topped with a fried egg. Good classic dish but not an outstanding one (to our disappointment). Inbar took the Brioche filled with spinach and yolk, topped with Gouda cheese as well. This was not what we expected; it was a good course but filled with too much Gouda. Thus the dish felt a bit too fat. Both of the dishes were served with a green salad yet we replaced one of these salads with a chopped vegetables salad for an additional 10 NIS.

Macaroons

The “cherry on the cake” of that visit was their bakery – Idelsohn has a counter inside their coffee place with all their goods. Since we have a weakness for Macaroons cookies we didn’t have any other choice but to order a plate of Macaroons – we got a plate with 5 Macaroons in different colors – they were quite good and crispy. We especially recommend you to take the white one that had a taste of some kind of liquor. We ended the breakfast with 2 excellent cappuccinos.

The check please (2 people)

Croque-Madame – 54NIS
Brioche filled with spinach and yolk 49NIS
Chopped vegetables salad – 10NIS
Soda Water – 11 NIS
Orange juice – 13 NIS
Macaroons – 15 NIS
2 X Cappuccino – 26NIS
All in all: 178

Summary:

Food:  Coffee Place
Price:  medium-expansive
Location: Ben Yahuda / Dizingof

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

3.5 Forks

Contact details: Idelsohn 10
Address:  252 Ben Yahuda Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 03-5444154|
Opening Hours:  Sunday-Friday 07:30-00:00 | Saturday 09:00-00:00

New Job Celebration @ Yavne-Montefiore

Update July 2013: The place is closed.

Last week I (Inbar) was invited by my childhood friend, Tali, to celebrate my new job. We decided to go to the newest and hottest place in Tel Aviv, Roshfeld ‘s place, Yavne Montefiore. Yonatan Rosheld was known as a young and promising chef in the mid-nineties; after a few years of silence, he opened three successful places in Tel Aviv i– Herbert Samuel, Tapas 1 Ha’am & the latest one – Yavne Montefiore. The place is located on the ruins of the late Amichi, a restaurant that was closed before celebrating its one year anniversary.  The owners chose to keep the inner decoration of the previous restaurant – which was quite crowded. We were sat in the middle of two tables and felt as if we were a part of the tables around us. Yavne Montefiore does not have traditional menus – instead they have paper placemat with the dishes printed on it. We decided to go along with a recommendation Tali heard from one of her friends – to take mostly starters and if you’re still hungry take an entrée as well.  So we did… We started with a Beef Carpaccio, a Chicken Liver pate, a Tartar Steak & a Tomato Salad. All the dishes were served pretty much at the same time, and the small table was soon too crowded to handle them all.  We had to eat them one after the other in order to enable the waitress to take the plates quickly. We started with the Carpaccio – it was made from good beef and was quite fresh – but a bit small. Then, we went straight ahead to the Chicken Liver pate. It was served in a jar, a repeating motif in Yavne Montefiore, as you will notice later on. The traditional jam was served as a thick layout above the pate. Tali, a big fan of the course, declared that it was good but not amazing. She felt there wasn’t enough jam and that it was quite hard to share when it is served in small jar. The course was escorted by one slice of oven baked bread.

Tomato Salad

Third dish on the judges’ table was the tartar – it was served in a unique way – in a bowl with the fresh meat alongside with a bottle of mustard sauce and chopped onion & capers. The dish needs to be stirred by the diner as much as he wishes. This dish was a good use of fresh and tasty beef with no need for any further additions. It was a bit spicy but very good. We took the small version of the dish; apparently this size isn’t served with chips, as described in the placements. This was one example for the incompatibility between the kitchen and the waitress that was felt. To their defense, I should mention that once we asked them – they apologized for the misunderstanding and sent us the chips right away. The last dish of the starters was the fresh tomato salad that was made from various types of tomatoes in all kind of forms. The absence of bread during the starters was felt.

Shrimps Provencal

We were still a little bit hungry, so we decided to taste the “Plates du jour”. As far as we remember (we were students in French lessons in junior high), “Plates du jour” means Plate of the day. Indeed this section of the menu shows that each day of the week has a different dish. But we were happy to find out that although it was Wednesday, they only had Sunday’s plate. Looking at this incompatibility, we actually didn’t care since Sunday’s dish is Shrimp Provencal – with artichoke, white wine and fresh herbs. Though when we tasted it we were sorry it wasn’t Wednesday. The Shrimps were well cooked but the tomato sauce and artichoke did not knock us off our feet. Just as a comparison, two weeks ago I ate a similar dish, for the same price, in the Coffee Bar – The Prawns in white wine and artichoke. That dish was larger and much tastier.

Cheese Cake

The menu issue continues to the deserts as well; Yavne Montefiore does not have deserts’ menu but rather a waitress that comes with all the variety of deserts to the table and offers you to choose from her tray. Too bad she didn’t taste most of the deserts and couldn’t recommend us one. We took a cheese cake that was also served in a jar. The cake was topped with pistachio cream which tasted of almonds & lemon. As opposed to the Chicken Liver Pate, deserts were made in order to share. It’s quite hard to share when you have to push your spoon in a small jar that is held by someone else. In one of the latest issues of Timeout Tel Aviv (We have already mentioned that they are our spiritual fathers), Roshfeld was interviewed and declared this place should be for the common people – as in – affordable. You can judge it for yourself in the check. Only one day after our visit, the magazine had published a review about the place by Yuval Job Haragil (which is truly our role model). I think he liked the place more than I did – but at the end of the day I think it is a nice place to come back to in the next family gathering. The check please (2 people): Beef Carpaccio – 45NIS Chicken Liver Pate – 44 NIS Tartar Steak (small)– 44NIS Tomato Salad – 45NIS Shrimp Provencal – 88NIS Pepsi Max – 12NIS San Pellegrino (Large) -24NIS 2X Espresso – 18NIS Cheese Cake – 28NIS All in all: 348 NIS Summary: Food: Chef Bistro Price: Expensive Location: Montefiore / Allenby The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

3.5 Forks

Contact details: Yavne-Montefiore Address:  31 Montefiore Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 03-5666189| Opening Hours:  Sun – Sat 12:00-16:00 | Sun – Sat 18:00-24:00 http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=11440

Above shore line – Seatara

A family birthday, this time Guy’s, Shahar’s brother, is always a good chance to find a special place to have dinner at. Even though, finding a place for Friday night for a party of nine is a very, very difficult task. After calling all sorts of restaurants (stopped counting at ten) we finally found a place – Seatara.

Seatara, beautifully located on top of a Northern Tel Aviv beach and inside the megalomaniacal project of Sea and Sun on Tel Baruch neighborhood, is an upper class bistro, decorated in a classical style with pictures of old Tel Aviv, equipped with 2 different bars, and offers mainly courses from the sea. Its prices fit well to the desired location, though not coming close to its neighbor – Turquoise restaurant.

Bream Involtini

Seating down after requesting the hostess to ask few people to put off their cigarettes, we took time to look into their menu. Giving some highlights from the starters, we took involtini of bream – slices of grilled fish filled with Hummus and parsley with tomato sauce – which was very good (the sauce was extremely tasty). A beef Carpaccio was also up to a good standard (it is Shahar’s 3 year old nephew’s favorite food), while a Calamari on the plancha took the best starter award because of it perfect cooking and its sauce that included dried tomatoes, onions and olive oil.

Red Drum Fillet with Gnocchi

On the main courses, there were some failures as the grilled chicken breast was very dry, and the “Catalan” seafood casserole was just ok (nothing like last week’s amazing Majillones). On the other hand, the grilled fillet of Red-Drum with gnocchi in cheeses crème was juicy and the gnocchi felt very fresh, while the beef entrecote was a piece of a quality meat cooked in the desired medium level.

The desserts weren’t bad as well as we took an excellent Malabi (an Arabic originated Almond pudding), a sweet and tasty Kadaif with Mascarpone crème. A Brulee crème was also served as a compensation for the dry chicken.

Kadaif and Mascarpone

All in all we are quite ambiguous. We cannot say we didn’t enjoy Seatara. It has a good quality of food, great Mediterranean Sea view, and classy setting. It’s just that it might not be the thing for us. We feel Seatara is way over-priced (see examples below), and it also gives a feeling of the too-wealthy-and-like-to-show-it-off given by the whole Sea and Sun compound.

The check please (9 people – just a sample of the actual check)

Bream Involtini – 56 NIS
Calamari on the Plancha – 67 NIS
Beef Carpaccio – 54 NIS
Seafood Casserole – 125 NIS
Red Drum Fillet with Gnocchi – 115 NIS
Grilled Chicken Breast – 85 NIS
Beef Entrecote – 145 NIS
Malabi – 38 NIS
Kadaif and Mascarpone – 38 NIS

Summary:

Food:  Seafood & Bistro Chef
Price:  Very Expensive
Location: Sea & Sun, Tel Baruch (Northern Tel Aviv)

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

3.5 Forks

Contact details: Seatara
Address:  8 Rosenblum Hertzel Street, Sea & Sun, Tel Aviv |
Phone: 03-6996633| Opening Hours:  09:00-00:00
http://www.seatara.co.il/len/

Our Friend – Yedidia

Just moments before the week has started we set for a drink with our friends Adi and Tomer. We decided to go to a bar in Florentin neighborhood, which lately seems to have wide selections for the nightlife enthusiasts. It was a cold and rainy night and the small neighborhood bar fitted our needs.

Shahar & Tomer took half liters of a seasonal Samuel Adams – a fruity version of the usual Samuel Adams.  Adi took her usual – Weihenstephan beer and Inbar took a glass of Gewurztraminer wine.

The Bar

Not as our usual, we did not focus on the food, that much. We took the 3 mini beef burgers and 3 mini lamb burgers – which were quite usual burgers deep fried in oil. In addition, Tomer and Adi took the Mexican Chorizo – a sausage made of beef with peppers and was served with homemade mustered.

We all agreed that the food was OK, the booze was good and the place was warm and nice. We will be back.

The check please (4 people)

Mini beef burgers – 36 NIS
Mini lamb burgers – 39 NIS
Mexican Chorizo – 26 NIS
Seasoned Samuel Adams – 2 X 28 NIS
Gewurztraminer (glass) – 28 NIS
Weihenstephan – 28 NIS

Total: 213

Summary:

Food:  Bar
Price:  Medium
Location: Florentin

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

3 Forks

Contact details: Yedidia
Address:  4 Yedidia Frenkel Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 057-9443946|
Opening Hours:  19:00-Late (Fridays from 21:00)
http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=11424 (no English version)

Spain was found in Tel Aviv – Tapeo

After a break of about a week, in which we ate only at home, we decided spontaneously to find a restaurant to break the drought. For a while, Shahar wanted to visit Tapeo. The problem is that when you’re spontaneous you won’t find a place at Tapeo bar. We were skeptical – but we tried. We made the call and the hostess told us she has a place on the bar for an hour and a half. We didn’t have doubts – We were on the way.

Cold Dishes Chef

Tapeo define itself as tapas and ceviche bar, and if you are one of our regular readers your already know what we think about Tapas in Israel. Tapeo is no different –this is not Spanish Tapas but it is so good we forgot the criticism. So… After that emotional introduction we can start with the interesting part – the reason we are all here – the food.

Red Drum Ceviche

We were seated in the middle of the bar with a good view on the cold dishes chef and his amazing work. We shared all the courses and ordered them together. We chose to escort this dinner with a half jar of their house white wine. The first course to arrive was the Sirloin Con Tres Pimientas – half-raw meat covered with pepper which was good meat dish. While we were eating, the chef had served us the second dish that he prepared in front of us – Cubes of Red Durm Fish in an herb chimichurri sauce served with grilled eggplant in yogurt-lemon sauce. This was an excellent combination of fresh fish with fresh sauce which made this dish delicious. The next course was Gambas a la Brasa – two prawns on the plancha seasoned with sea-salt. The prawns were in cooked in the desired manner and we enjoyed them very much.

Mejillones Al Ouzo

All these courses were good but they did not prepared us to the next one – this was Mejillones al Ouzo – small iron casserole filled with Mussels in tomato and ouzo sauce. This dish was very good and when the mussels were over we were left with a casserole filled with fantastic sauce. That was a good reason to order their breads – we got two buns & two small Pita breads – all of them hot from the oven – that were used to dip and wipe out the sauce.

We chose to finish this great dinner on the bar with a pistachio Crema Catalan that was served with strawberry and white crème – excellent and refreshing desert.

The check please (2 people)
Half jar of house wine – 70NIS
Sirloin Con Tres Pimientas – 38NIS
Cubes of Red Durm Fish – 38NIS
Gambas a la Brasa – 34NIS
Mejillones al Ouzo – 38NIS
Pan y Tres salsas – 18NIS
Crema Catalan – 28NIS

All in all: 264 NIS

Summary:

Food: Tapas
Price: Medium-Expensive
Location: Ha’Arbaa

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

4.5 Forks

Contact details: Tapeo

Address:  16 Ha’Arbaa Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 03-6240484|
Opening Hours:  Sun – Sat 18:00– until late.
http://www.rest.co.il/sites/default.asp?txtRestID=5545

Carmel Market – Gallery Post

Photos from a Friday morning walk on Carmel Market stalls. Enjoy!

Strawberries

Carrot & Radish

Local Spices

Carrot & Radish

Fresh Fish

Carmel Market’s crowd

Beaufort Cheese

Halva

Baklavas

Vegetables stall

Market’s lighting

Back street

Cherries

Market goods

Apples (2)

Apples

Tangerines

Special

Making Fast Food

Cheers – The Coffee Bar

Finally, one of the writers of this blog had arrived to one of R2M places. R2M is a group that is responsible for some of Tel Aviv’s most famous places. This time I (Inbar) was invited to a “girls night” on one of the best bars in the city – The Coffee Bar’s bar.

All of R2M’s places are known for their special atmosphere, great music and special treatment for the guests. Founded in 1994, The Coffee Bar is the first in a chain of restaurants owned by the group (Brasserie, Bakery, Hotel Montefiore, Rotchiled 12).

Prawns in white wine

I met Adi on the Bar, where she had Frozen Lychee Margarita until I arrived. We started with bread and butter that were served as we set down the table along with white wine and a glass of cava. The bread was fresh and crispy and was baked in the nearby Bakery (as mentioned above). The first course was a Beef Carpaccio that was served with olive oil, lemon juice, arugula and fresh parmesan. The beef was tasty and the parmesan was corrective experience to the last parmesan incident.

Burger in red wine

For entrees I had Prawns in white wine, artichoke hearts, batter, garlic and oregano. The prawns were cooked in the desired manner and the sauce acted as a dip for the potatoes that were served with the dish. Adi took a burger in a red wine sauce with a grilled tomato. The burger was places in a middle of a red wine lake that gave the old-fashioned burger a unique twist. I should mention that we both took the potatoes with onion as side dish although we were told that the puree is most recommended. With the entrees we got Coffee Bar’s famous dish – the Antipasti. Eggplant, onion & tomatoes were grilled in the oven with exactly the needed amount of olive oil and were tasty.

Tartalettes

For deserts we had two tartelettes, one of them filled with dark chocolate and the other with Pttisier cream, topped with strawberries. The two tartelettes were light and easy way to finish a great night on the bar.

The check please (2 people)

Beef Carpaccio – 49 NIS
Prawns in white wine, artichoke -89 NIS
Hamburger in a red wine-72 NIS
Antipasti – 58 NIS
Wine – 35 NIS
Cava – 34 NIS
All in all: 337

Summary:

Food: Bistro
Price: Expensive
Location: Yad Harotzim

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

4 Forks

Contact details: Coffee Bar

Address:  13 Yad Harotzim Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 03- 6889696|
Opening Hours:  Sun – Fri -09:00 – 24:00 | Saturday 12:00 – 24:0

http://www.coffeebar.co.il/ | Dinner English menu: http://www.coffeebar.co.il/assets/menus/CB_Dinner.pdf

Mexican Art – Frida Kahlo

Update July 2012: The place have closed its doors.

Update from March 7th: The Slippery Slope of Quality – Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo (Wiki page)

Lilienblum street, the street that was famous in its USD black market back in the early 80’s and had woken up the following decade as the center of Tel Aviv’s nightlife has settled down these days and tries to compete its attractive neighbor Rotchild street. When you try to compete Rotchild, you must have at least some decent restaurant. Exactly like Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo, which is named after the famous Mexican painter, is an Israeli-Latin bar/restaurant that was opened two years ago, and serves up only starters and desserts – quite a variation on the Israeli tapas bars. Located in a beautiful building on the corner of Lilienblum and Allenby, the place provides a long bar, lots of places to sit, a private room, a great Latin atmosphere and some really good food.

Provencal Carpaccio

The menu is divided into 4 parts: Vegetation, Sea, Meat and Sweets. Since the restaurant serves only starters you should probably share 4 or 5 courses between two persons. That’s what we did.  From the vegetation part we took a Provencal Carpaccio: (very) thin slices tomatoes with blocks of goat cheese – a wonderful light starter with some very intense flavors.

Kadaif & Eggplant

We also took the Kadaif with Eggplant: Kadaif baked noodles filled with goat cheese and burnt eggplant – a nice course but quite heavier because of the large amount of cheese. From the Sea part we took a “Plata de Mariscos” (Seafood plate): Calamari & Shrimps served on top of cauliflower and sheep cheese mousse – That course was easily awarded as the best course by us. The mousse texture was amazing and the combination with rightly cooked seafood was perfect. You’ll lick your fingers. From the meat part we took Biffe de Frida: a rump steak served with peppers puree and cherry source – that was also a very good choice as the steak was very tender and sauce was a great match to it.

Katalan Crème, Fruit Salad & Frozen grapefruit campari

To end the dinner with a taste that last, we also took a burnt Katalan Crème that was served with a fruit salad and a frozen grapefruit with Campari – a nice dessert, not too heavy, that together with a bottle of Cava, allowed us to finish off the dinner not fully blown out.

The check please (2 people)

Provencal Carpaccio – 37 NIS
Kadaif and Eggplant – 37 NIS
Plata de Mariscos – 51 NIS
Biffe de Frida – 48 NIS
Katalan Crème – 33 NIS
Bottle of Cava – 80 NIS

All in all: 286 NIS

Summary:

Food: Israeli-Latin Bar\Restaurant
Price: Medium-Expensive
Location: Lilienblum

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

Contact details: Frida Kahlo

Address:  43 Lilienblum Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 0579442989
Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat 12:00-16:00, 19:00-00:30, Sun closed
http://www.rest.co.il/sites/default.asp?txtRestID=9434 (sorry – no English site)

Friday at the market – Hakovshim (2)

HaKovshim

A common tourist attraction as well as local hangout on a Tel Aviv Friday morning is to walk around the Carmel’s market. Huge amount of people are crowded all along the way on Carmel Street as well as the nearby Nachlat Binyamin. Before you head up to any restaurant around, take yourselves an hour or so to walk between the stalls. When your hunger comes into place, it’s time to look for a good place to sit. Few options are available all around the area including Papas, Gadera 26, Habasta (The market stall) and many more. We decided to head to Hakovshim for a breakfast.

Shakshooka

Yes we know we already wrote about Hakovshim, but we couldn’t help going there for a breakfast of 3 (together with our matchmaker Adi), just before our Friday stroll at the market. As we already mentioned in Hakovshim previous post, we really like the place as it shows that the owner loves fresh ingredients and cooks with a lot of passion. Their breakfast is quite diverse as they serve the regular 2 eggs – salad – bread & cheeses Israeli breakfast as well as two types of Shakshuka, Burika and some very good sandwiches.

Gauda Sandwich

Inbar & Adi took the regular Shakshooka while Shahar took the Dutch Gauda sandwich. The Shakshooka was very good as the tomatoes were very fresh and roughly cut. It was served with a crunchy hot black bread & tehina. The Gauda sandwich was very unique as it contained two types of roasted peppers and some tasty aioli sauce. The green salad which was served next to it wasn’t a miss as well.

Cappuccinos were the closure of a fabulous breakfast which itself was just a starter for a great Friday morning in the Carmel market.

The check please (3 people)

Shakshooka – 2 X 39 NIS
Dutch Gauda Sandwich – 38 NIS
Cappuccino – 2 X 12 – 24 NIS

All in all: 140 NIS

Summary:

Food: Israeli Bistro with fresh marked goods
Price: Medium
Location: Carmel market

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

3.5 Forks

Contact details: Ha kovshim

Address:  48 HaKovshim Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 0579438862
Opening Hours:  Sun – Thu -08:00 – 24:30 | Fri 08:00 – 19:00
http://hakovshim.rest-e.co.il/