At the Temerlin restaurant in Nahalal, the aim is to give the casual visitor or local resident a full hospitality experience. Beyond the expansive grounds, parking, lawns and outdoor seating options overlooking the nearby fields of the Jezreel Valley, the site includes a coffee stand serving pastries and breakfast sandwiches.
There is also an on-site butcher counter offering cuts of meat to take home, alongside a full-fledged deli selling a range of preserved or frozen products for home cooking. And, of course, there is the flagship: the restaurant itself, which will soon mark four years of operation.
It is clear that considerable thought has gone into every aspect of hosting. In the kitchen, however, the picture is more complex. While there is evident effort, execution does not always maintain the consistency demanded by a venue of this caliber. Still, the strengths outweigh the missteps, making this a spot well worth adding to your map if you find yourself in this strikingly beautiful, history-laden area.
Zooming out: for years, the Temerlin family operated a farm and dairy, and only in recent years decided to bring the farm to the table. It is a move requiring no small measure of courage and confidence, given that roughly four kilometers away stands one of the North’s most established and respected meat institutions, Limousin in Ramat Yishai.
The restaurant took time to develop, and today it operates seven days a week, nearly all day long, in a very large space, both indoors and out, with an open kitchen visible to anyone passing the bar. The menu, a single page divided into five sections, reads well and reflects a fair amount of creativity, sometimes too much. Meat dishes and cuts are, naturally, the focus, alongside a sizable section of starters, burgers and “mains,” six more inventive meat dishes, most of them less successful. All right, let’s eat.
Starters: A shaky beginning
From the starters, we chose three dishes meant to reflect the kitchen’s capabilities. The beef carpaccio (60 shekels) arrived on a fairly large plate, with thin yet still substantial slices of beef, topped with an excess of arugula leaves and shaved Parmesan. The quality of the meat was evident from the first bite, but it was underseasoned, and the garnishes were overly dominant, to the point of obscuring the dish’s strongest component. Better proportions on the plate and a touch of salt on the meat would turn this into a fine opening.
What followed was somewhat disappointing, despite the creativity that made the dish appealing on the menu. The cabbage Siniyeh (45 shekels) features roasted cabbage set in lemony tahini, topped with a salsa of tomatoes, toasted almonds and green oil. It sounds enticing, but the execution fell short. The cabbage was roasted separately and then placed into a metal bowl, the Siniyeh, filled with tahini, and the stage at which the elements were meant to come together never quite happened. The tahini remained very thin, and the components failed to coalesce into a unified dish. This may have been an isolated miss at our table, but it is a dish that demands strict consistency in execution. Fortunately, from this point on, the experience took a marked turn for the better.
The empanadas (62 shekels) were an outright win. At Temerlin, the beloved Argentine pastry is served fried and executed with precision. Three modestly sized but excellent empanadas, generously filled with smoked asado, delivered on every level: frying to perfect crispness, a well-made wrapper thin as paper and packed with meat, and beef that was bold and deeply flavorful. In South American versions, empanadas often include hard-boiled egg, olives or onions. Here, it was just meat, and it worked. Very much so.
Mains: When the meat speaks
From the mains, we sampled several options. The price range is reasonable but somewhat misleading, as it does not include a side. As a result, a main priced at 60 or 70 shekels that appears attractive on paper jumps by nearly 30 shekels once fries are added (28 shekels), an issue that would be worth revisiting.
The standout among the mains was the smoked meats sandwich (68 shekels). Served in a lightly sweet, properly toasted hamburger bun spread with a pink, mildly spicy horseradish aioli, it held a generous pile of corned beef and lamb bacon, topped with a bit of arugula and red onion. It was an excellent bite, a meat sandwich done right, hitting all the necessary taste buds with precision and delivering real pleasure.
Had we known, we would have stopped there and skipped the additional mains, which were less successful. Take the sausages, for example: for 87 shekels, we received four thin sausages, not particularly large. The menu describes three varieties that sound appealing, but in our case the grilling was poor, drying them out to the point that it was difficult to distinguish any defining flavor. This may have been an isolated failure, but at the standard Temerlin sets for itself, consistency is essential.
The dish called Temerlin shawarma (72 shekels) was also deeply disappointing. Despite the natural expectation, given the name, of a hearty, comforting meat dish, the actual result was a tomato and tahini salad with only a small amount of heavily seasoned meat. “Shawarma salad” would have been a more accurate name, along with more meat seasoned with a lighter hand.
The real test
Up to this point, the meal had not risen to the level one might hope for, but it was clear that what would decide the verdict and serve as the ultimate tiebreaker was the bite we came for in the first place: the steak. On the server’s recommendation, we went with a 400-gram ribeye (185 shekels), very fairly priced by current standards in the genre and easily enough for more than one diner if paired with starters or sides. Temerlin takes pride in serving beef sourced from the family farm and aged for more than 30 days. Unlike most other dishes on the menu, this one includes a side in the price, along with grilled vegetables, half an onion and half a carrot.
What arrived at the table was a large, handsome cut, properly sliced and seasoned with a touch of salt, with chimichurri served on the side. The first bite left no room for doubt: on the most important test of all, Temerlin delivers. The steak is excellent, no less. The doneness was spot on, the meat high quality and the slicing well judged. It was a strong finish to a meal that needed a clear, decisive stamp. The fries served alongside were frozen and industrial, but fried correctly.
Had we limited ourselves to the empanadas and the steak, we would have left thoroughly enthused. The broader order, however, provided a fuller picture, one that points to inconsistency that cannot be overlooked. The desserts did not sound especially compelling, so we chose to end the meal with the lingering taste of excellent meat.
Temerlin is a worthy destination. The range of options, the sense of hospitality, the stunning view of the surrounding fields and, of course, the steaks that deliver on their promise. With some refinement and greater precision in maintaining a consistent standard, along with a more focused menu, Temerlin can be elevated to the place it aspires, and deserves, to be.