Well, is it worth the money?
The problem with Hiba is not the pricing, despite being very expensive, but the culinary
Avi Efrati
24/03/2022
Thursday, 24 March 2022, 08:50 Updated: 08:54
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Yossi Sheetrit in Hiba (Photo: Assaf Carla)
For quite a few years now, real luxury restaurants have hardly opened in Israel.
Restaurant is a dangerous field, a luxury restaurant leaves much less in the profit line for the owner of a successful shawarma stall - and after the corona it all becomes even more complicated, for all the known reasons.
that's sad.
A scene that does not have luxury restaurants is a scene that does not have fantasy, that does not have a dream.
Even those who can not afford to visit luxury restaurants on a regular basis, want to be able to go out and celebrate in a restaurant of this type;
Even just reading about it.
This is why I was very happy about the opening of Hiba, in stark contrast to quite a few critical voices who dealt with the place of such a restaurant, where a meal is priced at 450 shekels per head, with half the amount paid in advance;
And at the height of the omicron, which raged frantically in its opening days.
Yes, we need some such restaurants here, if there is anyone who is willing to take the risk and open them.
Among the chefs, it is natural and desirable that Yossi Sheetrit be the one to take on such a restaurant.
His resume page is full of proven successes at all stages of his career as head chef - from the French Violet in Moshav Udim at the time to the successful Kitchen Market and Mashia, which at its peak under his professional management was undoubtedly one of the best restaurants in Israel.
Along the way, Sheetrit leveraged professional success for a television career, and no less, for a thriving presenter's career, thanks to which he could, apparently, embark on an adventure.
Last week
It used to be a restaurant for the wealthy and nouveau riche, what a welcome change
To the full article
Tiny taco with tahini and ambala chicken, what about this and fine dining? (Photo: Official website, Assaf Carla)
Hiba is located in the Midtown complex in Tel Aviv and exudes contemporary comfort, in the spirit of contemporary Nordic design, with lots of soft and gray wood.
It consists of one space with 40 seats and a really open kitchen, where you can go for a round of observation during the meal.
Like the other project in which Pizza Kedem was involved, the designer of Hiba - restaurant a by Yuval Ben Neria - here too there is a considerable amount of citrus without going through an exaggerated sense of luxury of a place for savages and counts.
Culinarily, Hiba is definitely Sheetrit's biggest test to date.
Mashia was a fertile and successful cushion for his creativity and excellent control of a variety of techniques but there was no luxury restaurant where a delicious 13-course meal was eaten.
His great success in silk at its best, was expressed in the ability to take elements from popular Moroccan cooking from the home of mother and grandmother and assimilate them into modern and sophisticated cooking.
Together with a, Hiba was perceived in my eyes, therefore, as the greatest promise of restaurants in Israel in the current year and as a restaurant whose arrival is accompanied by considerable anticipation, mixed with reverence.
We have arrived.
Already at the entrance, even before we sat down, he waited for us, on a small and stylish tree trunk, entertaining the palate: a
tiny taco with chicken and tahini-ambala
.
This one and only defeat provoked an eyebrow-raising, not to mention puzzling.
What about this aggressive, not to mention violent, flavor compression and opening of the taste buds?
What's with that and fine dining?
Is this really a dish conceived by Yossi Sheetrit?
Salty satchel with smoked veal almond (Photo: Official website, Assaf Carla)
The following starters came together:
Jerusalem artichoke with "Gali" cheese
and
a Jerusalem artichoke brula
.
First of all, we relaxed.
The puzzling brutal burst from the taco had no trace here.
In both dishes, the Jerusalem artichoke was treated with a variety of modern techniques, skill and restraint.
Two other starters were a chubiza and
white
tartlet and
a cherry cracker, hot pumpkin, cilantro and garlic
.
On the small tartlet rests a hobiza stew and on top a white with cumin.
The dough did not shine, the hobiza stew was not convincing, the cumin was too strong and the whole dish felt quite failing.
The cherry cracker dish included a pumpkin seed cracker, a spicy pumpkin leaf and drizzles of coriander coli, paprika and honey sauce and garlic confit.
The M&N effort and investment, and an end result that may not have been as bad and sucky as the white tartlet but it is hard to say that the list or made the palate glands feel something reminiscent of the prestige and elite connection.
From the appetizers we moved on to the first four:
entarias and celery tartare
,
challah and burnt herb butter
,
pine nuts scordelia with kale
and
beets with sourdough salad and yoghurt
.
The tartar was invested.
It had chopped chunks of entias, chimichurri celery, pickled celery head, celery jelly and celery leaf juice.
But even here the investment was not charged in a successful dose.
Too much sourness broke every option to balance flavors, the fish chunks were swallowed up in it and the fact that on the way the chef put a purposeful display into the variety of uses of celery did not make it all delicious.
A really failed dish.
The beet portion in the sour salad did not work either.
She may not have been a resounding failure due to a blatant imbalance like the tartar, but instead of excellence she radiated banality.
The fact that an effort was also made in her did not save her from the sucking routine she went through.
The starter, "brioche" in the waitresses' mouths, with Turkish millet and hyssop on top, was good, and the dish in which Sheetrit provided his interpretation of the Greek scordelia spread, based on pine nuts, was, at last, something delicious.
The flavors of the pine nuts were distinct and refined in the spread and charred kale leaves brought a proper smoky touch.
Not amazing or impressive, but if that was the base level so far, we would have felt differently.
Desserts for dessert (Photo: Official website, Assaf Carla)
Another snack:
Salty satchel with smoked veal almond
.
The sotlatch, which is not the Turkish rice pudding, did not feel unusual in its qualities.
The big veal almond smoked properly but the beef axis glaze combined with the pomegranate concentrate had such a intense and blatant sweetness that the whole business was completely lost.
True, many of Sheetrit's successful dishes at Messiah at the time were reminiscent of good Australian wine, as opposed to good French wine - meaning they were rich, plentiful and extroverted.
Still, the sweetness here went far beyond any extroverted dish I have ever remembered from a real-life affair.
If anything, it brought back at once to the rather unfortunate taco from the opening of the current meal.
The main for distribution included
a roasted lamb shank with a concentrate of beets, roses and pistachios, on a stew of burgul, bhart, cinnamon and zarshak (Persian raisins);
Plate of pickled vegetables;
Tamarind sauce, coriander and onion;
And to the nose
.
The toppings were fun, even if we did not radiate any luxury, the meat softened well but just like with the veal almond, the over-sweetness kept it very, very far, away from the spaces of delicacy.
Two desserts had a custom dish of
tangerine cream with yogurt and zest
, and
four types of
patisserie , each one for each diner: Haman ear with almond cream and heart that was fine, nougat cream with nice pistachios, good klawa with pecans and coffee and kaymak with yogurt stone on cookie Milk from the cherry kernel - invested but not successful.
The portion of tangerine cream was very good, probably the only one in the meal that really delighted the palate.
The service was excellent, the deal also includes mineral water and herbal tea and the extraction fee is NIS 50, as is the average in restaurants.
A surprisingly good choice in terms of food costs in Hiba.
It was a meal in which a great deal of effort was expended, one that completely eliminates the preoccupation with high pricing.
This is the place to mention that a meal that includes two starters, two mains, two desserts, minerals and tea will cost in Tel Aviv close to NIS 700 before service, which means a lot of money for a meal in which less is invested and much less food is served.
The problem with Hiba is not the pricing, despite being very expensive, but the culinary: such a systematic parade of dishes many of which failed, only a minority was likable to good, only one of them very good and none excellent, it is a resounding and sweeping failure.
Sheetrit is one of the most valued talents in the industry and probably one of the few who does not suffer from malignant Abu Nafha Syndrome and absurd, embarrassing and repulsive self-inflicted doses.
A fun chef to see him succeed and profit from his talent and hard work.
But Hiba, the flagship project of his professional life so far and what was supposed to be his big masterpiece, is nothing short of a resounding flop.
No, surprisingly we were not exhausted from the long and multi-course meal and had a particularly pleasant evening, not least thanks to an intelligent and graceful staff;
But culinary is undoubtedly a failed event.
Can't believe this is the best Sheetrit can.
It's worth a whole lot more than that.
The huge investment should be applauded: it is not standard in terms of these days and in general.
Only the result, at least for now, is failing.
Hiba, 144 Menachem Begin Road, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 052-3852387
invoice:
2 meals - 900
redemption fee - 50
Total: 950
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Avi Efrati
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Yossi Sheetrit
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