Four years ago, we featured three of Israel’s top chefs on these pages, in our first edition of “Great Chefs Never Rest.” This year’s reprise brings back Michelin-star chef Gal Ben Moshe (GBM) as he launches a new tasting experience at Grace, while also showcasing TV chefs Avi Bitton and Charlie Fadida, who have assumed new executive chef roles at Radler and Petra, respectively.
Last but not least, the Tel Aviv restaurant scene ushers in a new era for Asian cuisine specialist Roy Soffer, who returns to active duty in the kitchen of Onami, after spending recent years as a senior lecturer at the cooking school Bishulim. We visited each chef in his new restaurant, listed below in alphabetical order. One of the entries is certified kosher.
Grace
Ambiance: the intimate bar/private room off the main dining areas of Pastel, the flagship restaurant of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, is now the venue of the latest gastronomic playground of Chef Gal Ben Moshe, whose restaurants in Berlin and Prague have earned coveted Michelin stars six years in a row. The concept behind Grace is a tasting menu of 10 elaborate courses, served by reservation only to a maximum number of 22 people, seated on elegant white leather stools around a handsome marble counter. Diners can observe the plating and may even be served by GBM himself. A rhythmic soundtrack is a bit too loud for the small space, but it does not interfere with conversation.
Drinks: each degustation menu starts off with a specialty cocktail, followed by wines paired with the gourmet food. Three different kinds of wine – orange, white and red – were served during the course of the meal (from appetizers through dessert), with vintages selected from leading Israeli and international wineries. At the end, digestifs were also offered.
Menu: each tasting menu is detailed in an unusual combination of Hebrew and English, with the food courses described in Hebrew only, while the chef’s bio and the wines appear in English only (or French, according to a vintage’s country of origin). On the evening of our visit, the meal progressed from the opening house bread – kubana, with requests for second helpings happily honored – to a pair of appetizers, followed by soup, a vegetarian dish, fish (raw and cooked), seafood, meat, and dessert. The kitchen also accommodates individual dietary restrictions and/or preferences (e.g., gluten-free, dairy-free, etc.).
Highlights: when each dish is virtually flawless, “recommended” is not necessarily the right adjective to use in summing up. Nevertheless, the standouts of our meal included a cocktail named Frenchy; Jerusalem artichoke soup with hazelnut panna cotta and smoked cocoa oil;
a “forest” course of blue oyster mushrooms, whose pyrotechnics consisted of a smoke-filled cloche; calamari grilled in a Josper oven (one of Pastel’s signature dishes); and a perfect Beef Wellington – filet mignon in crispy croissant dough with duxelles mushrooms and a truffle sauce. In short, a rare opportunity to indulge at the pinnacle of culinary excellence while interacting personally with a Michelin-star chef.
Onami Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar
Ambiance: now that Onami has succeeded in luring Roy Soffer from his ivory tower, one of Tel Aviv's first and most venerable Japanese restaurants – especially since the closure of the late, lamented Yakimono – has now vaulted back into the elite of Israel’s Asian restaurants. Uniquely, Onami boasts two separate elegant premises: the kosher version in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, and the original, between Ha’Arba’a Street and Givon Square, manages to exude intimacy despite its sizable dimensions, with a large horseshoe bar that overlooks the work of the sushi chefs. Seating is entirely indoors, on comfortable chairs with leather upholstery. A pleasant instrumental soundtrack plays at just the right decibel level.
Drinks: the full bar serves six specialty cocktails, as well as carefully curated umeshu and sake menus. Moreover, the international wine list is surprisingly comprehensive for a Japanese restaurant, although very few vintages are available by the glass. In addition, there are three different brands of imported Japanese beer, one of them on tap.
Menu: the extensive bilingual dinner menu, significantly revised by Chef Soffer, comprises no fewer than 11 sections: Cold appetizers, Hot appetizers, Yakitori, Main courses, Sushi bar (with six subcategories), Sashimi, Chef’s specials, Inside-out, Temaki, Combinations (for two diners, in three subcategories), plus a children’s menu. Given the unsurprising emphasis on fish and seafood, there are limited vegetarian/vegan options, although plenty of gluten-free dishes to choose from. Four desserts – described as French, with a Japanese twist – are listed on a separate menu.
Recommended: Zakuro; iwa gaki oyster; maguro tartare; sake tataki; unagi temaki; ebi butter yuzu; inari special; bento (dessert).
Petra Bar and Kitchen
Ambiance: Petra is more than a mere restaurant; it is a complex of indoor and al fresco drinking and dining areas that sprawl along the broad expanse of white sand that is Ashdod’s Hof HaKshatot (Arches Beach). All in all, Petra’s private and public rooms, as well as patios, can accommodate up to 350 people – and the place is invariably packed on weekends. With the addition of Channel 13’s Chef Charlie Fadida, formerly of the Tel Aviv Sheraton, Petra – reviewed previously on these pages here – now defines its cuisine as “contemporary Georgian and international.” True to its origins, however, Georgian music plays on the soundtrack (audible indoors only).
Drinks: a new specialty cocktail – the Wild Rose – has joined the cocktails that are listed on the four-page beverage menu, which also includes a selection of Georgian wines that are not found elsewhere. There are 10 kinds of beer on tap, and even more in bottles. Imported soft drinks and natural fruit juices round out the beverage offerings.
Menu: the extensive hard-bound Hebrew menu is well illustrated with photos of the dishes, and Chef Fadida speaks excellent English. The seemingly endless menu comprises no fewer than 10 sections: Breakfast, Starters/mezze, Soups, Salads, Georgian specialties, Meats (including poultry and hamburgers), Fish, Seafood, Pizza/pasta, Desserts. The kitchen – which is staffed by as many as 12 chefs at one time, on weekends – turns out not only Georgian delicacies but also juicy meats and bounty from the nearby sea. There are plenty of vegetarian/vegan and gluten-free options. The dessert section consists of as many as eight sweet dishes.
Recommended: look for the dishes on the menu added by Chef Fadida, or plan on attending one of his special social events, which he describes as “mingling” followed by a tasting menu based on rotating ethnic themes. Among his noteworthy dishes are beet carpaccio with julienned apple; pani puri with fish tartare; tuna tataki; piquant pineapple carpaccio; filet mignon on a bed of polenta and mushrooms; and citrus soufflé (dessert).
Petra. Not kosher. 1 Mafkura St., Ashdod. Tel. (08) 865-1610.
Radler Brasserie and Bar
Ambiance: the newest home of MasterChef Israel judge and Channel 12 cooking show host Avi Bitton is located at the strategic corner of Nahalat Binyamin and Ahad Ha’am streets, at the eastern edge of the evening pedestrian mall’s cluster of restaurants and sidewalk cafes. Radler is also a recent acquisition of the expanding Popular Group, whose Cafe Popular has been reviewed on these pages several times before in years past (see, for example, here). The restaurant occupies several entrances of the ground floor of an upscale hotel and offers comfortable, leather-upholstered high and low seating both indoors and al fresco, as well as at the bar. The pleasant soundtrack is audible only indoors.
Drinks: the full bar serves five specialty cocktails, plus classics. There is an extensive wine list, with international vintages offered by the bottle, plus an adequate selection by the glass. Only bottled beer is available –all of them imported brands, including one that is gluten-free.
Menu: the bilingual dinner menu revised by Chef Bitton comprises three sections, with the rather unusual headings First, Second and Third (equivalent to starters, intermediate dishes and main courses). The first courses consist largely of raw fish dishes and salads, followed by charcuterie and cooked fish or seafood, and lastly, primarily pastas, meat and steaks. There are adequate gluten-free options, alongside limited vegetarian options and few vegan ones. A separate dessert menu lists four impressive creations by a dedicated pastry chef.
Recommended: the house’s margarita (spicy cocktail) and focaccia; mussels confit, fish tartare, wild fish ceviche; broccoli salad; rump steak; crème brûlée with fresh berries (dessert).
Radler. Not kosher. 48 Nahalat Binamin St., Tel Aviv. Tel. (03) 728-3830.