Our first real meal in Haifa was an amazing experience from the second we
arrived in the restaurant and walked up a flight of stairs that looked like we
were entering into a rickety second-story run down flat.
We were warmly greeted by the staff in a beautiful room at the top of the
stairs and quickly escorted to an amazing cave-like room at the rear of the
restaurant which was bolted with bricks and had a small window with hanging
sausages wine and cheeses.
Before we even had a second to look at the menu or the wine list a
complimentary bottle of their own specially labeled wine Bilvad (which in Hebrew
means "only for ") 24 arrived. It was a special Shiraz, Cabernet Franc,
Carignane and Petite Sirah blend made by car with kitten in 2011 that was silky
smooth and gutsy at the same time.
We were so excited about the room and the wine and our waiter whose name
was Matan, which in Hebrew means gift, we only wish that he was a gift for
us.
We perused the menu and decided to order a bottle of white wine to start
and Matan was totally thrilled that we chose the Dalton Reserve viognier 2014
from the Upper Galilee Valley which was a wild yeast fermentation yielding a
creamy and mineral white wine that was awesome.
And then news arrived which was a rich macchiato of corn soup with coconut
cream. We knew this was going to be an amazing meal.
Rosemary grissini arrived with a very smoky smoked eggplant salsa as well
as a tomato salsa but we resisted knowing there was a lot more to come.
You wouldn't believe that Samuel ordered the beef sirloin tartare with
capers, black sesame tahini, shallots, chilies, and a dark toasted sweet brioche
cube as well as creme fraiche.
Will and I decided that we would order two appetizers and two main courses
and split them and since we knew that Samuel would not let us touch his sirloin
tartare we had one of our own and had to agree it was superb.
We however started with citrus-scented gravlax stuffed salmon with spinach
and cream cheese in a roulade that was delicious and truly made special by an
olive crouton crumble. I should note that both of the starters came with
delicious fresh radishes radishes as well as a roasted garlic with cream.
For main courses Will and I decided to split two items the first was a
pappardelle pasta with prosciutto chunks, sun dried cherry tomatoes, artichokes,
asparagus and baby mozzarella as well as melon to compliment the prosciutto. It
was quite perfect and also went very well with the red wine which we had just
started to drink. Speaking of wine. I should note that they use an Italian
sparkling water that is extremely soft and that we really like called
Ferrarelle.
Our second main course to split was the same one that Sam chose and again
one of his favorite items to be had during the entire trip. A beef fillet with
smoked goose, potato gnocchi, Chestnut Cream and Port sauce was definitely the
best piece of meat we had had in all of our three weeks here.
Believe it or not they have a three-course menu for 179 Shekelam which
included dessert. That's just over $47 at today's exchange rate. Can you beat
that anywhere?
The dessert we chose was a layer of Chantilly cream and milk chocolate
ganache with praline and bananas which came with a strawberry sorbet as well as
grapes and a nut crunch in toffee sauce that was simply out of this world and
one of the best desserts we had had during the entire trip. A second dessert of
pistachio creme brulee was so aromatic and delicious with caramelized apple and
vanilla crumble that was bruleed with a torch tableside by are absolutely
magnificently gorgeous waiter Matan and was an exquisite version of the crunchy
topped dessert.
We were thrilled to have this as our first meal in Haifa and had only hoped
for more like it since we were nearing the end of our trip
