I have a feeling that something happened to the kosher restaurants in Israel, something ****** good! I will explain it very soon. Two weeks ago, a new restaurant was opened on the 15th floor of the West Hotel in Netanya, a kosher restaurant, Maree. This is Chef Aviv Moshe's restaurant, with Ilan Schleifer as the actual chef r. To be fair, I have known Ilan since childhood, not as best friends but we are know each other. Then we also met at Mariposa restaurant, he was a talented sous chef, and I was a tired waitress waiting to go out and conquer the high-tech industry.
Time came and he finally got a crazy platform as a lead chef, at Maree. A kosher restaurant, with an interesting and varied menu that I love, and I can just imagine how exciting it is for him to see everything that happens in this restaurant. The restaurant is a big wow, design from the depths, precise lighting and a huge space that was blown up in peoples orders.
We booked a place right with the opening, waiting to celebrate a birthday (not mine), pregnancy (not mine), buying an apartment in Israel (not mine either), and finishing a master’s degree for all of us. Yap, let me show off for a moment that I, Yuval Nahum, have completed my academic studies until the end of my life.
We already arrived full of joy, but who imagined we would also be so surprised and amazed by the beauty of the restaurant, the stunning menu, and from a glass of Chablis wine, that for some reason I did not drink for a long time. Let's start.
"Hamotzi Lechem" (38 NIS), hot focaccia baked in a stone oven, and next to it dips of pickled lemon cream, garlic candies and "halva" tahini. I like that they invested in a dish that is supposed to be the simplest in the restaurant menu, but still give it a respectable place when playing with unconventional dips and making such a delicious carb. The pickled lemon cream is great experience in the mouth, and every dip in each of the other dips was really accurate too. As soon as the focaccia reached to the table it was eaten so quickly that I did not even have the time to photograph it. Lucky me that the chef passed me a picture, thanks. #yammmmm
Purple Green Salad (58 NIS), with endive, selenova, mustard and honey vinaigrette, citrus fillets, roasted beets, beetroot powder, "Tu Bishvat" cashew cheese with honey and thyme, and maple nuts. A less balanced dish in terms of ingredients, and I will explain. Throughout the meal when we talked about the dish, we kept discovering a new ingredient in the salad, one enjoyed the cheese, another the citrus and another one the beets. We were not able to enjoy all the ingredients equally and it's a shame because I'm dying to taste the cashew cheese. #yammmmm
Sweet Potato Candies (78 NIS), with citrus fennel cream, olive oil, Thassos olives, shatta pepper, delicate peas, and hyssop caramel. Warm and fun taste of the combination of dough and filling. A relatively simple dish but yes, I liked the special taste of the peas. #yammmmm
Tuna Sashimi (72 NIS), amerna mustard, mustard sorbet, and roasted sesame seeds. The tuna is fresh which is great, and its combination with the mustard sorbet was insane. But you really must love wasabi flavors in food because it gave a crazy wasabi spiciness that I did not stop eating and for me it was perfect, but my friend less connected to that taste. The great fun here was also the freshness that it put into the dish, and it was super original and special. I liked. #yammmmm
Sea Fish Sashimi (68 NIS), with Matbucha vinaigrette, eggplant sashimi, Thassos olives, crispy quinoa, pickled onions, and coral twill. The dish arrives and it is breathtaking, so many beauties on the plate, in general all the dishes come with special plates and a design that really shows deep thinking about every detail in the restaurant. How fun that it is not only beautiful, and it is also really tasty. Take the spoon, fill it with cucumber for freshness, eggplant for smoking and depth, a little matbucha for special taste in the mouth and a crunch from the coral, above all of course a piece of sashimi, and yam. #yammmmm
Mediterranean Sashimi (62 NIS), with "yogurt" cream, beans, roasted tomatoes, sliced chili, and grilled challah. I hope I'm not weird, but I had a taste here that really reminded me of a Friday's Harayme. In general, an interesting dish that made me explore the plate. And the bread, was just everything I needed. Take all the ingredients on the plate, carefully put them on a piece of challah and quickly take it to your mouth before it will fall. #yammmmm
Tuna Tartare (72 NIS), with bruschetta on charcoal, soft-boiled egg, tahini, scordelia, almond cream and dill. A winning dish, a must-order, and good luck with sharing it. The variety of flavors we got here were stunning. A fresh tartare with soft egg flavors that gave a deep and warm flavor and the bruschetta that blended in with everything after we were breaking it. Every spoon that gathered all this goodness was wow. #yammmmm
Sirloin Tataki (68 NIS), with ponzo sauce, peanut sweet potato cream, shimeji mushrooms, garlic chips, red chili, fennel leaves and quinoa crispy. Again, a dish that comes as a work of art to the table, it was exciting to taste it and to understand all the beauty in it. The sauce gave salty and sour flavors, the cream gave a warm texture, the mushrooms were soft and delicate, and the chips gave the crispness I needed. Take all this goodness with the thin sirloin slices and it's perfect. #yammmmm
Foie Gras with Lemon Pie (98 NIS), soft and delicious Foie Gras with lemon meringue that a combination of the two meets the Foie gras׳s need to blend into the sweet taste, but instead of jam we got meringue and to the sweet taste was also added sour taste, wow. #yammmmm
So, after ordering all the starters on the menu, no kidding, we finally moved on to the mains. We ordered the two mains from the fish area and Eden ordered the beef fillet, she was really enjoyed it, and the fish was great too. There is no greater appreciation than for a restaurant that has also invested in special flavors for the main courses.
Sea Bass Fillet (NIS 136), comes with gnocchi, argo mushrooms, porcini whipped cream and tomato crunch. The fillet was made wow with a precise salty taste, we also got a perfect mushroom flavor that really stuck to the gnocchi and gave it a delicious crust, the whipped cream wrapped everything in a warm and special flavor and the cracker placed on top fitted superbly with every bite. A dream. #yammmmm
Sea Bass (NIS 138), fish fillet that comes with Jerusalem gnocchi on the "Kasbia" axis (artichoke), green beets, zucchini and bakchoi flowers. I have already tasted gnocchi\pasta\ravioli dishes with Jerusalem artichoke sauce, and the taste has always been sweet but not balanced enough for me, and I am an artichoke lover (I will continue to mention this in every post, sorry). But here it finally blended stunningly, with a sweet and warm artichoke flavor, with soft gnocchi that was made like a pillow and fillet that we couldn’t stop eating. #yammmmm
This is it, we were left with nothing to order, so we had to move on to the desserts. For dessert, we ordered Chocolate Breadpudding (58 NIS), croissant crumbs with patisserie cream, and a salty chocolate sauce. Thank you so much Maree for finally break the curse of desserts in kosher restaurants and bringing me a delicious dessert! Creamy flavors with the deep taste of the croissant, and with how sweet this dessert is, it was also salty and special. Yam. #yammmmm
This is my first kosher #yammmmm that goes into my Top Yam list. So good.