Copycats – Fleamarket

We might have mentioned this before, but as tourists in Tel Aviv, you must not miss a night (a day as well, but nevertheless) in Jaffa Flea Market. The restaurant and bar scene at the “authentic” location not far away from Jaffa Port is becoming trendier as the time passes. Dozens of locations spread along the market area making it livelier at night than at day, and a great reason to visit. It is no surprising that the oh-so-2011 market-restaurants will arrive to the flea market. The name didn’t surprise as well – the Fleamarket.

Jaffa Flea Market @ Night

Well, unsurprising is probably what you’ll think all along your dinner (at least if you had some dinners in Tel Aviv). Yes, the location is great – the vibe coming from this area is quite laid back, almost like visiting the beach towns of Turkey or Greece. The vast amount of street tables is really fun and gives you the feeling of the old market coming to life. With that sort of pre-conditions, you would expect the food to match.

Andalusian Gazpacho soup

But it was so predictable. The same owners of the La Shuk restaurant from Dizingoff (which is itself a copy of Machne Yehuda restaurant from Jerusalem) brought to the Fleamarket the exact same type of food, with the same paper-menus-retro-metal-chairs, well, you get the point.

Tuna fish Nicoise Salad

And it wasn’t that the food was bad – a dish of Andalusian Gazpacho soup was OK, though not thrilling. Another starter of fresh Tuna fish Nicoise Salad was also not bad at all – it had some very classic taste achieved by a nice sauce. Even though, its pricing was somewhat high.

Black & White Grilled Calamari

The main courses kept the same spirit – tasty yet boring. The black & white grilled Calamari with goat yogurt was well executed, but we had the same dish in more than a dozen restaurants around town. The now-so-popular grilled sweetbreads had also some classic tastes in it, and it was rather the grilled Artichokes, Fennel and Beet that gave the bit-more-special variety to the dish.

Grilled Sweetbreads

Along with some Cabarne Franc white wine that was recommended to us, we have decided that market restaurants have finally lost their excitement in Tel Aviv restaurant scene. Though it doesn’t mean it will be easy for you to find a table in the Fleamarket, don’t expect it to surprise you in any way.

The Check Please (2 people)

Red Tuna Nicoise – 69 NIS
Andalusian Gazpacho – 28 NIS
Sweetbreads – 69 NIS
Black & White Calamari – 49 NIS
Cabarne Franc (by the glass) X2 – 78 NIS

All in all: 283 NIS

Summary

Food: Market Food
Price: Medium-Expensive
Location: Jaffa Flea Market

The Cizer Kobrinsky Scale

3 Forks

 

Contact details: Fleamarket

Address: 8 Rabbi Yohanan St. Jaffa | Phone: 036202262

In-sea-fficient – Sifo

The Flea Market

Let’s start from the end – it’s not that we didn’t like the place – it is just that we expected more of it. It was simply insufficient. This year is the second year in which the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa is conducting the Pishpashuk – opening the flea market late in the evening every Thursday night during the summer. In this event the stores of the market alongside some stands and restaurants are open until midnight.

The Crowded Street

One can imagine that this kind of event will attract a lot of people. As such, we came early to the market (about 8:00 PM – don’t come near with a car later then that!) and we went straight to Sifo – a new seafood place that we have planned to visit thanks to some good reviews.

Sifo

We started with Fish Tartar that was served with slices of beet. This dish was an example for the whole meal – it was good but something was missing. For example – this dish was made from fresh ingredients but we missed some spiciness in it – adding green paper would have made it better.

Fish Tartar with Beet

We then continued with “Pasta” – served with Artichoke, Crab Beef & Calamari – another dish that sounds good “on the paper” (or should we say “on the menu”). Once again, on the plate it was good – but this time we missed the salt.  The Octopus Salad suffered from a combination of unrelated ingredients such as Tehini.

Pasta

At that point Adi have joined the table and ordered the Fish Ceviche that took lots of time to get to the table and was not different from the other dishes. In the meantime we were still a bit hungry and ordered small plate of Grilled Calamari – that had too much oil in it.

Grilled Calamari

For desert we ordered the chocolate cake which had a good bottom and average top (which was the cake itself).

Chocolate Cake

All in all it the dishes were fine, but none of them shined over the view of the crowded market. Next time we’re going back to Kalamata…

The check please (3 people)

Octopus Salad – 45NIS
Pasta – 63NIS
Fish Tartar – 45 NIS
Ceviche – 45 NIS
Grilled Calamari (100 gr)  – 32NIS
Krombacher beer – 18NIS
2 X Bottomless wine glasses – 50NIS
Chocolate Cake – 36NIS

All in all: 384 NIS

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale:

3 Forks

Summary:

Food:  Seafood
Price:  Medium-Expensive
Location: Jaffa’s Flea Market

Contact details: Sifo

Address:  3 Rabbi Nachman St. Corner with 13 Amiad, Jaffa |   03-6038121
Opening Hours:  Saturday-Thursday 12:00PM-Late | Friday 12:00-18:00 | http://www.facebook.com/Sifo.Jaffa (No website)