"Dark tourism"

What happened to this restaurant?

Photo: PR, Assaf Pinchuk

• Food
• Recommendations and reviews
• My father Efrati

After years of not visiting the place, Avi Efrati arrives at the Dalal restaurant, one of the oldest and most stable in the area, and sorry to find outdated, irrelevant food, which in most cases is also badly made, and even more sorry that he chose not to stay home

My father Efrati

There are restaurants that have been here for years. Dalal in Neve Tzedek is one of them. In recent years, it has not been in the bright spotlight. Golan Gurfinkel's media profile, who has been leading it for many years, is also more modest than it used to be. On the other hand, she is certainly not hidden in a corner, lonely and forgotten. It is a popular and bustling place, located in the heart of Neve Tzedek behind the Suzanne Dalal Center, which is a top strategic asset.

Dalal operates all hours of her life as an eclectic Tel Aviv brasserie that runs throughout the day. The evening menu features all of the immediate suspects from France, Italy and the Mediterranean basin with a little wink from Asia. There were years that Badalal could not be eaten; There were years it felt mediocre. We were curious to learn what is happening now in one of the oldest and most active places in the area.

Although Dallal is not a chef's restaurant, Golan Gurfinkel wins the kitchen for many years and is clearly identified with it. In a scene whose instability is manifested, among other things, in a perpetual throne game between cooks and chefs, it is an appreciable stability. The space of the place itself, which is divided into many sub-spaces, now seems to be in need of a slight facelift. A decade ago, the traditional French kitsch-aware atmosphere was nice and well-deserved. Now the place feels a little crumpled, a bit neglected; Asking, not to say longing, for a slight facelift.

Parisian hamburger (Photo: Jonathan Ben Haim)

Badalal Parisian burger (Photo: Jonathan Ben Haim, PR)

We glanced at the menu. He elicited more than a yawn. A standard menu, what is commonly called generic, can also transmit joy of life. This menu was far away. When we looked at the fine fish that inhabit some of the entrees, for example, we discovered that it was Dennis and salmon. Since summer is already behind us and fish suppliers can already find normal fish, we raised an eyebrow.

Another eyebrow was raised in light of the time it took to arrange our pre-booked table until they came up with a menu and so on. Too little water and ice were put into the Champagne that populated the wine bottle, an expression of the amateurishness of a bar in which the wine culture is not very well developed. Of that, fair to say, we were less excited. Mostly because it's not sure in Tel Aviv that there are ten restaurants with bartenders capable of filling white / rosé / bubbly Champagneira Line.

We started with Crispy Saviche (NIS 58) and Spicy Fish Soup (NIS 78). We chose the Saviche dish because it was based on tuna rather than the basic fish. It also had guacamole, chili and coriander on three nachos and it was awful. The fish was not high-quality, bad guacamole, naughty nachos, and weed no less than shocking. However, prior to the raw materials and workmanship, this is a poor dish already in its concept. The only justification for such a basic treatment in Saviche is raw material that comes by direct flight, personal import from paradise. Any other local raw material, even one that exceeds at least three levels to what is submitted to us, must receive an upgrade to broadcast live.

You could also say it this way: It was the most basic Saviche dish imaginable, one that a 14-year-old would make after finding a basic recipe in the genre. For such a dish, they will not leave the house for a restaurant in 2019 until 2020. The performance also mentioned, as mentioned, the hand of a student, a cooking enthusiast, at home. The restaurant cannot have such a place.

The spicy fish soup held after the sabiche. He was not sharp at all, hardly spicy. It wasn't tasty either, barely edible. A faded, faded axis, devoid of depth and form, stood at its base, without any twist, without any touch. Hordes of fish chunks (generously, incidentally) were in it - dry, lifeless, not very tasty. My roommate gave up on them. Very hungry, I fished some of them. I fished and didn't catch. To continue to eat such chunks of fish is to opt for the masochistic option, even for those who are not out of the blue.

The music is dead, live the music

We proceeded to whole fish in a baked oven with green vegetables in yellow cherry tomato vinaigrette (NIS 136) and a Parisian burger (NIS 82). The whole fish was Dennis and you wouldn't be surprised that it was baked to dryness. What was supposed to be green vegetables in a yellow cherry tomato vinaigrette turned out to be a big dish with zucchini and some green leaves. If there was also a tomato vinaigrette, wait wouldn't notice.

The burger, on a brioche bun with caramelized onions, bone marrow and a truffle topping, was the only dish in the meal that could be described as 'okay'. Not unusual in its qualities but fine. The truffle whipping, some unsurprisingly, was not as requested and was also completely unnecessarily culinary. At least we could share the meatball and change it without eating.

He once led the confectionery in Dalal, the chef-confectioner of a pan. His desserts were deliciously delicious. He's not there anymore. Dessert known as' strawberry and pistachio. Classic (NIS 54) turned out to be the same. It had a pistachio cookie with layers of ganache pistachio, kadayif, vanilla mascarpone and strawberries on top, with strawberry sorbet on the side. None of the components were really made properly. There was unnecessary sweetness in them, they lacked balance, and the sorbet was industrial. Beyond performing the course, the dish did not feel fresh and fresh. We stared at her in frustration with the astonishment of this dastardly meal that we had just finished.

I have not eaten in a restaurant in a long time that feels like the kitchen is so neglected. Alongside neglect, food seems outdated, obviously irrelevant. The Dalal of this meal appears to be moving on old, ultra-low octane fuel. Since the findings seemed systematic and unequivocal, there is no escape from finding that right this winter is one of the worst restaurants in the area.

Although I have not eaten in Dalal for the past few years, I used to sit there several times in the past. True, they were uneven in their level but it never felt so bad. The requested home check here is one of the basics there is. The existence of such places, in such conduct, is not eternal, and that is to say the least. To the attention of the place captains.

Dalal, Shabazi 10 Tel Aviv, 03-5109292

Dalal (Photo: Meir Cohen, image processing)