In our current life circumstances, this place is nothing less than a miracle

At Hudson Lilienbloom (yes, the little sister of), you will find meat at the highest levels, which no other place in Israel is able to serve, at prices that are not only for the rich

My father Efrati

07/28/2022

Thursday, July 28, 2022, 07:25

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Lily Cut Steak at Hudson Lily (Photo: Dan Peretz)

2011 was the year that Matan Abrahams received the keys to manage the kitchen at Hudson Steak House in the industrial area of ​​Ramat Hay'il, Tel Aviv.

Until then there was good meat there, sometimes very good, as in several local meat restaurants that knew how to do the job.

Abrahams needed about three years to turn Hudson into a separate civilization on a completely different level than is customary here.

The task was completed somewhere between 2014 and 2015, when he was able to take control of the entire meat handling chain - from the way it was grown to the way it arrived on the plate.

Hudson has become a meat restaurant that is a category in itself, with unquestionable quality.

Before I started writing this checklist, I looked at my last review of Hudson, from June 2017. There was something painful about reading it: the prices.

NIS 162 for 400 grams of New York steak on the bone.

NIS 40.5 per hundred grams.

in the Hudson.

Those of the readers who don't understand the point and think it's an absurd amount, I've already lost, obviously.

Those who hang out in restaurants, eat meat, and perhaps have also been to Hudson sometime in the last year, understand her well.

The other steak we ate then was, by the way, 450 grams of entrecote on the bone, for NIS 234.

Try ordering these steaks now at Hudson.

Leave Hudson.

Go to another steakhouse, which will never be Hudson, but has "okay" meat, and order steaks like that.

No doubt, something very difficult has happened here in the last year.

In Hudson they raised prices not only because "they are Hudson and they can", but also because all the restaurants here had to do it.

How long will it take for the bubble to burst?

time will tell.

But we will not be talking about Hudson Ramat Hay'il today, but about its little sister - Hudson Lilienbloom, which opened about a year ago as a kind of common first daughter to Chef Abrahams and the Corona epidemic.

In its first year of operation, Hudson Lillenblum functioned as a kind of street restaurant.

There was no service, the food was ordered computerized via wall-mounted computer monitors, you could take it in a takeaway or eat on the spot, self-service.

Obviously, it was also impossible to reserve seats there.

The place was run as a variation on a street food diner.

No more.

In recent weeks, the restaurant has moved to a place where full service takes place.

These days the very computer monitors and the payment counters next to them have been removed.

Hudson Lilienbloom has become a restaurant for all intents and purposes, the bistro of Hudson Ramat Hay'il.

It must be said that the Hudson Ramat Hay'il has always been an expensive restaurant.

The amounts I mentioned above, from 2017, were considered very high at the time, and the fact that they seem standard to us now is of course an anomaly.

It's just that in view of the general situation, in recent times the North Source restaurant in Tel Aviv has become a place where a meal can easily be a matter of a thousand shekels or more for a couple.

The fact that it has an audience and that the place works very successfully is amazing in itself and reflects the kind of polarization that is emerging here, but to me it's also quite horrifying.

For those who have sadly realized that they will no longer be able to visit the best meat restaurant in Israel - because they can't reach it or because it is not entirely moral in their eyes - the bistro in Lilienbloom is nothing less than sensational news.

Huq and Cheddar Burger in Hudson Lillenblum (much cheaper than its brother from the north of the city) (Photo: Asaf Carla)

It is a small restaurant with an interior wing that holds no more than forty seats inside and a little more outside.

Its operation does not require the insane mass of manpower that requires a huge space like this at the soldier level.

The price level there is completely different and in order to adapt the place to the target audience, it also does not have huge pieces on the bone at those discouraging prices, but in contrast, it has a wooden grill.

All that remains is to check that Abrahams was indeed able to set the bistro the standard of quality that exists in the old mother restaurant.

We arrived in a family format - three carnivores and one vegetarian diner.

The menu at Lilienbloom is a sort of abbreviated Hudson, not including the large cuts, aged on the bone, which are very expensive.

As in the steak house, there are appetizers, under the "small" category.

After them comes a burger and sandwich section that starts with a basic butcher burger (NIS 64), sandwiches for NIS 58 to 64 and a vegan burger for NIS 78.

The "mains and cuts" category includes an entrecote skewer 250 grams for NIS 96, a Denver steak 250 grams for NIS 139, a New York steak 350 grams for NIS 169 and a Lily Cut 350 grams for NIS 175.

This is a price swing that puts the restaurant on a completely different place on the scale - completely accessible.

We went for two pieces -

(NIS 169) and

(NIS 175) - for the adults,

(NIS 78) and

(NIS 78) of Redefine meat - vegan, alongside

(NIS 44).

Let's start with the burgers.

The meatball, based on entrecote and sirloin, was great.

The best possible really.

Chopped and not ground meat, moderately compressed, moderately fatty and deliciously delicious.

It seems to me that when I order one for myself next time, I will choose the version that is less packed with sandwiches - a butchers beefburger.

The cheddar, bacon, sauerkraut and chipotle mayonnaise - great in their own right - were so dominant in the sandwich that they created a degree of spiciness in it that somewhat swallowed the meat.

The diner who ate it was completely happy, but it seems to me that in the parameters of connoisseurship, a little less of a steroid vibe is possible in the sandwich.

Redefine meat is a local meat substitute company that is currently on a PR campaign with a large presence in the chain. Its meat is completely vegan and contains an insane amount of protein compared to other meat substitutes (27 grams of protein per hundred grams of meat, more than real meat). Extreme carnivores will probably relate to such a dish in such a restaurant As some sort of quip, take a picture in the hall. We're against extremists on both sides. Besides, practically, since almost every dining table out there today has at least one vegetarian, even distinct meat temples have to be prepared.

Did the vegan burger taste as good as the meat-based one? No . Was it successful according to his method? Yes, absolutely. Even in terms of absolute taste values, it was not bad at all. Moreover, thanks to its high protein content and with all my love for animal protein, I allow myself to state that I would love to consume it, on a regular basis, once - Twice a week at home. Not when I come to eat the Life meal, yes at a non-binding everyday meal.

Last week

Give us more restaurants like this!

To the full article

New York Steak in Hudson Lilienblum (Photo: Dan Peretz)

And now for the main thing - the slices.

Both were amazing.

New York is sirloin on the bone.

Lily Cut - a cut located between the neck and the entrecote and actually more neck than entrecote.

The New York, not fatty at all, chewy, great in every parameter, was the best of its kind that I have tasted anywhere in Israel, except for Hudson Ramat Hay'il.

Yes, for the New York, the base bar of the parent restaurant is maintained.

Sirloin at the highest level is in general candy to me, and that sweetness factor of supreme meat at its best was present in the cut.

Pricing of NIS 48 per hundred is reminiscent of the one we met in Hudson five years ago.

Lily Cat is a fattier, juicy, full of power, wonderful piece.

Both cuts were seared with precision, arrived in a medium-rare state and even in memory of their taste, at the time of writing these lines, it is impossible not to salivate.

It was meat at its highest levels, which no place, repeats again: no other place in Israel is able to serve.

The wood grill adds another dimension of flavor, which is not available in Hudson Ramat Ha'il.

All the side dishes - creamed spinach, mashed potato, roasted potato in beef fat and tomato salad - were great.

The large Caesar salad, with plenty of Parmesan and croutons, which was ordered for the center of the table, was also particularly successful.

Airy chocolate mousse, not too sweet (Photo: Assaf Carla)

(NIS 38) and

(NIS 36)

for dessert .

The dessert prices also represent the accessibility of pricing here.

Where did you last meet a dessert with the prefix "3"?

Both sweets were totally worthy.

If I had to choose one, it would definitely be the airy and not very sweet mousse.

The next generation, unsurprisingly, flies on the cheesecake.

In the circumstances of our current life in the here and now, Hudson Lilienbloom is, then, nothing less than a miracle.

Not only Jews, or at least those based in Gush Dan, can eat (almost) all of Hudson's goodness, even full-fledged diners.

The price level there is no different and in some cases even a little lower than those meat restaurants that serve "good" meat.

This is, as mentioned, a league, not to mention a civilization in itself.

A meal based on the two portions listed above with two side dishes, a Caesar salad for two and a shared dessert will cost approximately NIS 424 per couple before liquids and service.

In terms of value for money, this is a meal that is undoubtedly one of the most justified and excellent offered here.

And congratulations to the Hudson captains for realizing, finally, that the real thing can also be served with a pompous and slightly less challenging operation for them, for the benefit of life itself.

The term win-win has never seemed so relevant as in the current context.

Count for four:

Huq and Cheddar Burger - 78

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