Come for the view, stay for the food
Review: The Mamilla Hotel’s Rooftop Restaurant boasts spectacular views of Jerusalem’s Old City, and gourmet food prepared by Chef Koby Bachar.
When foreign celebrities visit Jerusalem, there are only a handful of hotels they would stay at: the King David, the David Citadel, the Inbal, and, most recently, the Mamilla. But regardless of where they might sleep, most of them invariably end up eating at some point at the latter’s rooftop restaurant, with the eponymous name Rooftop. The primary attraction is the venue’s view of the city’s ancient walls; located opposite Jaffa Gate, it is likely the closest restaurant with a vantage point overlooking the Old City.
Quickly enough, however, the attention focuses on the food, as the kitchen is helmed by the executive chef of the hotel, Koby Bachar, formerly sous-chef of Mul Yam, widely acknowledged as one of the best restaurants in Israel before it burned down last year.
A good way to start a meal at Rooftop is with one of the restaurant’s eight specialty cocktails. The Mexican Verde, for example, packs a dual wallop: this blend of spicy tequila, triple sec, passion fruit, lemon, and mint, garnished with large slices of cucumber, is both piquant and alcoholic.
The bilingual menu comprises no fewer than 14 appetizers and 10 main courses. Just glancing at the detailed descriptions of the dishes will dazzle with the exotic nature and combinations of the ingredients, not to mention the exacting methods of preparation.
A prime example is the intriguingly named appetizer Capuccino: warm lentils salad, Turkish spinach, ratte potato, bok choy, lentils velouté, and curry lime foam. The frothy foam made for an interesting presentation, and the dish as a whole is a tasty vegetarian option.
The raw tabbouleh features sliced raw fish, fresh herbs, almonds and puffed bulgur. The freshness of the sea fish was evident, with the ingredients representing a nice interplay of flavors and textures.
The sirloin tataki with fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives, preserved lemon, garlic confit and deep-fried pita bread featured thin slices of steak with rosy centers. The meat was absolutely succulent.
Our last appetizer was the goose liver panko with shallot marmalade, a red wine reduction, and Jerusalem artichoke cream scented with vanilla. The goose liver was expertly prepared -- seared, then deep fried in panko. The Japanese bread crumbs added crunch to the soft foie gras, while the slight sweetness of the onion marmalade cut the exquisite richness of the delicacy.
Our first main course was the catch of the day: crusted sea bream with lemon and herbs, zucchini cream, snow peas, broccoli and peppadew pepper. The moist and flavorful fish was perfectly cooked, while the pepper left a pleasant tingle of heat in the mouth.
This dish was a reminder that the Mamilla knows how to do fish right: the hotel’s other restaurant is The Happy Fish, which specializes in both sea and freshwater fish, offering a wide range of fresh catches served with a smorgasbord of delicious mezze.
Another worthy main course at the Rooftop is the roasted goose breast, cooked sous-vide, with asparagus, spring onion and bok choy. The vacuum method of cooking insured that the poultry, basted with maple caramel sauce, was juicy; a unique finishing touch on this dish was sprinklings of Valrhona chocolate snow, for a juxtaposition of flavors that was outstanding.
The wine list here is quite possibly the most extensive in Israel: it can draw on the entire inventory of the hotel’s wine boutique—Winery—which boasts more than 60 different wines from the best wineries in the country.
Of the six desserts on the menu, we particularly enjoyed the charcoal grilled pineapple with polenta sable, mango yuzu sorbet and coriander salsa. The caramelized pineapple on a polenta wafer, accompanied by a scoop of sweet-and-tart sorbet on top of an herbed salsa, added up to a very refreshing dessert that hit all of the taste buds’ right spots.
The Rooftop is open-air dining at its finest for most of the year, and enclosed and heated during the winter—with transparent walls for preserving the unparalleled view all year round.
Rooftop
Kosher
The Mamilla Hotel
11 King Solomon St., Jerusalem
Tel. (02) 548-2230
