Angus: A shrine to meat
Review: A Galilee institution expands to Tel Aviv, where a branch of the popular northern steakhouse chain is now pleasing customers in the big city.
It takes a great deal of confidence to open a new steakhouse in Tel Aviv, which has no shortage of premium restaurants serving superior steaks. For Angus, however, it was clearly a calculated risk: the chain brings with it a well-deserved reputation for excellence, and a number of dishes that represent outstanding value.
Angus has a complete food menu in English, but its five specialty cocktails and one spicy aperitif are not on it. They are listed on the blackboard, in Hebrew only, with no details. The waiters will explain each one, such as the Gin Fresh, a refreshing drink with chartreuse and cucumber, or the Spicy Margarita, the classic tequila and lime cocktail on the rocks, laced liberally with chili pepper, for those with a high tolerance for fiery heat.
The menu categories comprise AnguStarters, Angusteaks, Angus Lite Dishes, Angus to the Bone, Burgers and Lamb. With the exception of two chicken (and one tofu) options among the lite dishes, and eggplant and cauliflower among the starters, the entire menu is beef or lamb.
The house bread—a crusty, roundish loaf—is served piping hot with herbed butter, tehina seasoned with paprika, and a mild tomato salsa as authentic as you’d find in any Mexican restaurant. It is easy to fill up on the good bread, which is also an excellent accompaniment to the starters.
The starter recommended to us by our waiter was the brazoli (NIS 33), razor-thin slices of beef cured in-house, and served with a cherry tomato relish. Despite the similarity in name—and even appearance—to bresaola, the taste is nothing like the Italian air-dried beef: whether you consider the Angus version of this delicacy closer to carpaccio or roast beef, you will not be disappointed.
The roasted eggplant drizzled with tehina is served together with juicy links of lamb chorizo and grilled slices of fresh tomato. The expertly seasoned sausages, paired with the smoky aubergine, is a winning combination.
The cauliflower with Santa Fe pepper-sour cream sauce and Parkman cheese may be an exception here as a purely vegetarian dish, but it is worth a deviation from the menu’s norm. The al dente vegetable is perked up nicely by the exotic sauce and aged cheese.
The Herb AnguSalad may sound like fresh greens take center stage, but the leafy parsley and bits of white onion are actually primarily a bed for a generous pile of lamb shawarma. What sets this dish apart from ordinary shawarma is not only the quality meat, but the zesty turmeric dressing that is a signature Angus condiment.
The pièce de résistance of the restaurant’s bone-in steaks is the Angus Tomahawk, a special house cut of prime rib. Weighing in at an average of a full kilogram of beef (the sizes range from 650 to 1,400 grams, including the bone and fat), the Tomahawk is an especially large steak that earns any individual who orders it and eats it all a place in the Angus Hall of Fame.
Served on its own wooden platter with split marrow bones lightly grilled onion, pico de gallo, grilled cabbage, roasted garlic cloves and with chimichurri, the positively succulent Tomahawk lives up to the billing that boasts the word fame.
As if all this meat and accompaniments on the groaning platter were not enough, the Tomahawk—like all main courses at Anguserie come with a choice of side: French fries, home fries, mashed potatoes, a green salad, or AnguSlaw—an Asian-style coleslaw. The home fries here are unlike at any other restaurant, as the cubed potatoes are drenched in the chain’s familiar turmeric dressing.
All this delicious food was washed down nicely with the full-bodied house wine, an Australian Cabernet-Merlot blend, bottled under Angus’ own private label.
Desserts here are only listed on the blackboard, and once again in Hebrew only. With three Western and two Middle Eastern desserts to choose from, we opted for one that can be traced back to Angus’s Arabic roots: the malabi. Light and sweet, is was an ideal finale to a meal that had already left us pleasantly satiated.
Angus
Not kosher
Ha’arba’a 21, Tel Aviv
Tel. (03) 771-5733
