Oktoberfest Menu served up at Porter & Sons
Review: The upscale tavern Porter & Sons is celebrating Oktoberfest with a special menu of Bavarian foods as well as a custom beer tasting menu for the entire month.
Porter & Sons, whose slogan is "Kitchen and Beer," is marking Oktoberfest this year with two special menus that reflect the restaurant’s rich tradition of pairing beers with food. The Oktoberfest menus, in both Hebrew and English, are printed on a special edition that also contains interesting facts about the annual festival in Munich.
With 120 kinds of domestic and imported beer on tap and in bottles, Porter & Sons has the largest variety of beers of any establishment in Tel Aviv. For Oktoberfest, they have curated a special beer menu comprising six beers running the gamut of color, complexity and alcoholic content. All six may be tasted for NIS 89 for a 200 ml glass of each.
The dishes on the Oktoberfest menu are more in the realm of small plates, so it is possible to taste all of them at one sitting, ideally when two people are sharing them. As you peruse the menu you will be served some of the house’s special beer bread, with soft European butter. The recipe for this treat is available from the restaurant.
There is another form of bread on this month’s menu: pretzels, handmade on the premises, served with a zesty Bavarian cheese spread. They are not very large, and lack any sprinkling of coarse salt on the crust, so I preferred to limit my carbs and calories to the dark beer bread.
There are two kinds of sausages on the German menu: Frankfurter and Weisswurst. Both are short and fat, and bursting with juicy flavor. The former is a bold blend of ground beef and pork, served with excellent spätzle—slightly crispy dumplings laced generously with rich, smoky bacon.
The pale color of the highly spiced Weisswurst is belied by its intense flavor. It is served perched on a mound of very mild sauerkraut, which does not clash with the star of the dish; also containing shredded carrot, this sauerkraut resembles a bland coleslaw. A smear of Dijon mustard on the plate adds a tiny bit of extra enhancement to the sausage.
There is a welcome vegetarian option: spätzle with mushrooms, sage and Parmesan cheese. Again, the texture of the dumplings with the chunks of fresh mushroom under the broad ribbons of nutty cheese was pleasing, while the dish as a whole was seasoned with just the right amount of green herb.
There is one dessert on the special menu: Black Forest cake, “Porter-style.” Served most unusually in a tumbler, the chocolate cake on the was layered with chocolate mousse, cherry marmalade and crunchy cocoa crumble/ All in all, a decadently rich confection.
Porter & Sons
Not kosher
Ha’arba’a Street 14, Tel Aviv
Tel. (03) 624-4355
