a: Almost perfect

It is impossible not to take the hat off to Yuval Ben Neria for his new a, design and atmosphere this is a place that is wow.

Culinarily?

This is his best restaurant to date.

So what will make her truly perfect?

When the chef realizes he has it and releases a bit

Avi Efrati

02/12/2021

Thursday, 02 December 2021, 07:45

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

Restaurant a, sampled, engineered, meticulous and insanely invested (Photo: Amit Giron)

The Israeli restaurant scene bowed its head in the face of the harsh reality imposed on it by the corona plague. The more pronounced derivative of this image is expressed in much more caution and far less ostentatious openness. But when you enter the gates of the new a, which is professionally led by chef Yuval Ben Neria, it all seems like a thing of the past. Everything there is sampled, engineered, meticulously cared for and insanely invested, down to the last and neglected in detail.

a opened with an unprecedented financial investment in Israeli terms. And if Taizo, the big restaurant that Ben Neria has been leading in recent years, produces a sense of design nouveau riche and suffers from flaws (who said an indoor space that looks like Kapolsky coffee and has not been accepted), at a, it seems, nothing like that is present. It can also be said this way: in terms of design and atmosphere, this is an equally perfect place, one where they thought of everything and really did not forget anything. It starts from the location, in the Sharona Azrieli Towers. Park, get on the elevator and arrive at the restaurant entrance. No need to look for parking, no tedious walk from the parking lot to the restaurant. The location of the space, between the houses of Sharona and the view of the towers of the area, immediately sends to the big apple. There is no trace in the design of a Taizo swelling. Apparently she's upscale but nothing in her feels too exaggerated.

That's all the difference between pretentiousness and the real thing. Think about everything but nothing feels grandiose and loud, on the contrary. The larger space is elongated and has a long, elliptical bar overlooking a wall with bottles of sake. In addition to it there are tables scattered throughout the space. Throughout this part of the restaurant is the kitchen, which is half open. One can see the arms of the cooks and notice something of the happening, but not the whole thing. The huge storefronts overlook the houses of Sharona on the one hand, and the towers that inhabit Little New York, which the area connecting Tel Aviv with Givatayim is gradually developing into. There is another small space, separated by curtains from the rest of the restaurant, where fewer people sit and the level of hustle and bustle is much moderate. The acoustics, due to the Achilles heel of Tel Aviv restaurants, are excellent. There is music, contemporary, right and present, but it is not there to give head. The lighting level is accurate. Like the design, the tools also look and feel impressive but not exaggerated. The same goes for all the other materials used, on the floor, tables and chairs: elegant but not tall of the kind that evokes discomfort.In other words: a is a place designed from the foundation to Tefahot, which did not build itself to produce a vibe of Shuaim and counts.

Such is also the service, which was professional, kind and skilled, without over-indulgence.

If we recall the bizarre experiences to which we have been exposed in the mornings since the return of the restaurants from the Corona, it was impossible not to admire the professionalism of the staff at the meal we ate there just over three weeks after the restaurant opened.

Undoubtedly, when it comes to restaurants the "wow" coefficients in the new a are huge and numerous.

This is a place that takes the elite and prestige in Israel one step, if not more, forward and redefines them.

This is a developmental milestone, from which from now on they will think, design and manage other prestigious places so far.

A huge ambition for this is for Chef Ben Neria, who is known for being involved in all dimensions of the restaurant, including non-culinary ones, as well as for designers, from the Baranovich Goldberg office in collaboration with Pizza Kedem.

Last week

Kandinoff House: There are zigzag restaurants

To the full article

Agadashi tofu, absolutely good (Photo: Alon Mesika)

And now for the food. As with everything described so far, the effort put into the food is immense. For Ben Neria it always includes in-depth research, lots of experimentation and tremendous effort. Here it is even more evident from Bataizo. The menu is divided into bite-sized dishes, an extensive first course, many of which are relatively large and function as intermediate dishes, a small sushi section, mains and an old-fashioned grilled meat section. The division into categories was made according to the food handling technique: raw, fried, seared and grilled. On the menu, the prices of the dishes seem expensive, but when they arrive, it is obvious that they are large, really. You can choose the classic channel of two firsts and two mains but you can also easily go through like a few firsts and explode.

What is the food orientation? Asian, that much is clear. But if Taizo was an Asian facet, a is, it seems, a kind of journey to explore the Umami. Exposing the different face of the fifth flavor is the subject of research and the great goal of the kitchen at a, using a variety of techniques, ancient as well as contemporary.

So how was it?

Really good, at times even very good.

More than that: it is clear that Culinary is the best restaurant in Ben Neria to date.

Well, what else?

Well, it was delicious;

Very tasty even but somehow, a little tiring.

Did this fatigue come as a result of a bug in the dishes?

Except for one, not really.

But it seems that in almost all of them it was impossible not to feel a tone of overexertion, of having to give a lot, perhaps of an element or two too much.

When it passes as the second thread from it to the dish, a tiring cumulative effect is created, even when everything is really good and delicious.

Moreover, what has been described in the above lines as a journey in the wake of the Umami, which undoubtedly reveals an in-depth study of a wise student, not to mention a lift, eventually accumulates into a diner experience of too many Umami, leaving a rather one-phase feeling.

Glucose is lagging behind, or at least present in the right doses, and it is a significant step forward in development compared to Taizo and virtually all Asian restaurants in Israel.

a is undoubtedly one step above them, but the cumulative feeling was, despite the impressive display of purpose, of a degree of lack of diversity.

Koji calamari, too many ingredients (Photo: Alon Mesika)

We started with

(68 shekels). Three fingers from chopped lamb shank meat soaked in Amazaka (base of sake fermentation), on chestnut bread toasts, with yuzu aioli, Japanese mustard, egg yolk cream. The meat itself was excellent and the umami was refined, clean and non-invasive. Every detail sits in place, a beauty of opening.

We continued to

(NIS 58) - the perpetual dish of Japanese restaurants in Israel, which usually brings the diner together with greasy plots and a sauce / soup whose flavors are far too extroverted. It was clear that here it would go to a more refined place and so it was. Singaporean silk tofu, pickled radish, black shallots, radishes and koji soy and smoked porcini axis. Another layer of umami was exposed to the palate. It did not suffer from the familiar sandy evils of local agadashi tofu dishes and was much less greasy. The soy koji combined with the smoky porcini axis detailed on delicate umami capillaries and it was definitely good. But we opened in Umami and continued on to Umami.

Next:

(NIS 78). Here is evident the chef's tremendous effort to get everything possible out of the principled basis of the dish. There were Jordan mushrooms, portobello mushrooms and shiitake mushroom crumble, pickled shimaji mushrooms, mushroom garum, cauliflower cream, scallions and chili oil. It was a seemingly entree but it was huge, and could easily be used as a main course for vegetarians. The mushrooms themselves were of great raw quality and Umami is abundant in mushrooms, so he is present here with all his might, much thanks to the mushroom garum. The sweetness was added very gently and it was good that way. It was a very good dish that revealed significant effort but here too we started to feel the load of ingredients. There were too many Uami vendors in it. It was good, worthy and impressive in itself but in the cumulative effect the cohabitation began to be present.

We went for two

:

(NIS 128) and

(158 shekels) and we asked that they not come together but one by one. The calamari dish had local “deep calamari” entrees grilled with plenty of flavorings: shio koji, Japanese curry oil, fermented chili, calamari ink glaze, lamb garum and black pepper. There was already a real problem here. Far too many ingredients, overloading flavor elements that have joined together to create a rough feel, and far too much black pepper, which burns instead of pinching. Unlike the previous ones which were in principle delicious, this was a problematic dish that revealed a side not entirely due to the cooking of the most knowledgeable and invested chef in the field.

At this point we began to feel the attrition and the truth that it also turned out that we ate quite a bit of food. The butchers' share seems large on us in some numbers. We checked that they had not started working on it and were glad that it was indeed possible to give up and replace it with another dish:

(98 shekels) from the first.

Chunks of fish tails on fire on a "Gili" corn tortilla with yellow cherry tomatoes, toasted roast, Japanese curry powder and burnt corn aioli.

That was tasty.

The umami flavors here were less dramatic and very many other strong flavors were present.

It was good but again, very strenuous and did not really change the tiring feeling, which only intensified.

Cheese and pineapple mousse, one of the best desserts we have come across here for a long time (Photo: Alon Mesika)

We finished with a portion of

(NIS 52) which was an excellent dessert.

A mousse ball of cheesecake wrapped in a fire-baked pineapple, with English Sichuan cream, Amazque and brown butter.

It was refreshing, not too heavy, not too sweet, with a minimal and correct Asian-Umami touch.

One of the better desserts we've come across here in a long time.

It is impossible not to take the hat off to Ben Neria for his many achievements. a is without a doubt a particularly impressive restaurant. She has a lot of "wow!" That create new standards here in many ways. Only it is also impossible not to clearly refer to the whole picture: the food is good, at times also very good, but it is not the prominent "wow factor" in the project. It seems to me that there is another stage of evolution that is still ahead of Ben Neria: to realize that he has it and to release a little. Almost all of the dishes we ate, even those that were really good, could have been even better with a little less ingredients. A little release, a little freedom, opening one button in the metaphorical shirt; These will not hurt, will only benefit. As for the restaurants themselves, the process is complete. The balance between elegance and freedom makes the restaurant dimension in a near perfect. Now this should happen to food as well.

And after all that, the recommendation to get to a is still clear.

It is a truly stylish entertainment experience.

Considering the size of the dishes, one should not be alarmed by the prices because in the end one does not really have to leave a lot of money there to eat a full meal.

Our bill - NIS 482 before drinks and service, clearly reflects this.

We exploded.

It will be very interesting to see a in about a year.

There are all the conditions here for the development of a perfect restaurant, even if it is not there at the moment.

It depends unequivocally on the courage the captain will allow himself to demonstrate.

Will he stay in place and celebrate the exploding order list two months ahead and get stuck?

Or will he learn to take another step forward on the true ascent of the mountain?

We'll wait.

Account a (Photo: image processing, Walla system!)

• Food

• Reviews

• Avi Efrati

Tags

• Avi Efrati

• Restaurant review

• Yuval Ben Neria

• Restaurant