Emma and Daniel, our favorite couple, arrived from Lithuania, on a week-long vacation, before they will return to medical school. Yep, I have friends that are doctors to be.
I had known about their arrival a long time ago, and it was clear to me that I will go to a restaurant with them. But they arrived on Passover, so the list of restaurants was significantly reduced to a list of kosher restaurants only, and from that list we chose to go to Devora restaurant, Chef Eyal Shani's restaurant.
There were a lot of worries on the way, the kosher needs, the menu, the dishes that came on paper. But it turns out that the biggest concern I should have had was parking.
It's a nice restaurant overall, the dishes are a bit reminiscent of what's happening at the group's other restaurants. But expensive and nice, and that's it. We were still starving after 5 courses (not including dessert) and also the matzos that might have helped came dry when we had already finished the whole meal.
We started with Lamb Ragu (57 NIS), chickpeas, lamb ragu, tomato ovaries, chili, olive oil. A fun dish of soft meat with chickpeas that caressed it and fitted superbly in the mouth. It would have been appropriate to have some kosher pita for Passover here to complete the bite, but there was probably not enough motivation. #yammmmm
Four stuffed (67 NIS), of vine leaves, cabbage, anchusa and zucchini. A nice and tasty dish, very reminiscent of homemade stuffing's. There is not too much to expand because there really was not something here that I had not seen before. #yammmmm
Heart of an Eggplant (59 NIS), with tomato, spicy green, tahini and chopped egg. Another dish that a piece of matzah or pita would help to eat. Good flavors of fresh from the tomatoes, spicy and softness from the tahini and the egg. But relatively simple flavors that make you realize you expected more and received much less. #yammmmm
River rocks wrapped in Roast Beef (47 NIS) dripping in its juices, mustard, red horseradish, chili and olive oil. I saw pictures of the dish and it would have looked really promising. But then it arrived and instead of nice smears of the ingredients on the roast beef we got a shaky and uninviting look. We still chose to taste the dish and there were relatively good flavors of the mustard and roast beef together, but occasionally we got a hard piece and less chewy and it sucked a bit. Nice. #yammmmm
Lamb Skewer (127 NIS), long, juicy kebab, 100% lamb, roasted tomatoes and raw vegetables. Another nice dish, with meat that is made delicious and to a good degree, but at the price of three skewers and without too many extra. #yammmmm
For dessert we tried to sweeten with Chocolate Mousse (47 NIS), we thought there would be some twist, that it is not really just chocolate mousse. But the hope was in vain, and this was the first time I had come to a restaurant to write a review and found myself returning a dish. I felt a little laughed at, a little much. I have no problem paying for food, but I need content. How hard is it to create some kosher desserts that we can feel good at the end of the meal? #yammmmm
It's a #yammmmm