The view - bluff, the food - catastrophe
From the moment we sat down at Mena to the moment we left the place, an hour and ten minutes passed, and not because anyone restricted us, we just wanted it to be over
My father Efrati
11/08/2022
Thursday, August 11, 2022, 08:30 Updated: 08:35
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Bluefin tuna in Mena (Photo: Idan Ben Harosh)
Menachem is a deli-bar that was opened last summer on Yarakon Street by the young Omer Kauftail and Noa Berlinski.
It served as a kind of transit station for spent food on the way to the sea.
For this summer, Cowtail Berlinski decided to turn the place into a restaurant that was launched last May, with Yanon Elel, a graduate of the third season of "The Chef's Games" four years ago, in charge of the kitchen.
The promotional articles for the restaurant talked about the location and the stunning view of the sea, and we booked a table on the outdoor terrace.
We went up from the London Garden parking lot to the restaurant next to it, we sat down at a table reserved for us, which overlooked Yarakon Street, and we had a little fun: the most we could see were the cars in the constant traffic jam on Yarakon Street, the most we could hear were the sirens of nervous drivers with soot and exhausts as a bonus.
There is no need to condemn a restaurant for its location, but it is really unnecessary to brand it as having a great location in such an absurd way.
A few minutes and we understood the vibe of the "balcony to the sea" and asked to enter.
The interior space is tiny and consists of a very small bar where we sat.
Elel's menu consists of small dishes, starters and mains.
It is mainly a contemporary bistro where you find the familiar instant suspect blend combined with a proven attempt to give something more, to demonstrate mastery of techniques and if possible it will also be photographed well, for the glory of the Insta testimony.
No, there is no pretentiousness here.
on the contrary.
It is evident that the menu tries to be up-to-date while keeping true to eye level;
For this, the pair of young entrepreneurs should be appreciated, whose statement of intentions is not inflated.
The pricing is also, in these days' terms at least, completely reasonable.
It reminds us of what we paid in restaurants a few years ago.
All that remains is to hope for proper execution.
Mena.
Continuous culinary failure (photo: Idan Ben Harosh)
We started with
roast beef sirloin
(NIS 74) and
a nice red tuna special with watermelon and feta
(NIS 72).
The tuna dish had two slices of watermelon on their skin, pieces of feta, mini greens, almonds, chili and lemon on the side.
Visually, this was undoubtedly a dish to the glory of the "Chef Games" testimony - beautiful to the eyes.
Conceptual, what did we have?
Watermelon with feta, some frills, and nice red tuna.
come on?
Is this a thinking chef's dish?
Apart from photogenicity, there was nothing in this dish.
I had no claim to the quality of the raw materials here, but combining them together did not create any significant synergy.
Bottom line: just a Choponi dish.
And if the fish-watermelon dish wasn't something but also didn't commit (metaphorical) crimes against humanity, then the roast beef was already something-something.
Such a catastrophe, I don't remember when I ate here.
It comes - note the effort - with vine leaf stew, demi-glas, soft-boiled egg and Old Amsterdam cheese.
His doses are really generous but the result, oh the result.
Completely dry meat, much more gray than red, the kind that just shouldn't have been on the menu that day.
Did we accidentally knock you the roast beef?
And shoot him.
It is impossible to serve this to diners.
Even in terms of language, it is terrible.
Not even that: the vine leaf stew was really tasteless, the amateur demi-glace, the egg and the cheese combined all this into a horrible mess on the plate and a mega-attack on the palate.
It was a dish that tried to be invested but revealed hyperactivity not backed up by conceptual talent as much as performance.
We went on to
filet lebarak
(NIS 128) and
calamari pan
(92 NIS).
The fish had polenta, burnt tomato, broccoli and green beans as well as grated cheese.
Ideation?
As in the watermelon-fetta-tuna dish, here too.
Does polenta go with cheese?
Come on, let's add some greens and fish.
Another baffling dish, nothing corner conceptually nothing;
You come from heaven is superfluous in your palate.
Oh yes, the yellow-polenta, green-broccoli, red-tomato photograph beautifully.
Really very cool.
In the calamari pan there were not many calamari rings, in a proportion that barely held an appetizer, certainly not a main course, in choma pepper and cilantro, alongside sourdough bread.
This Chuma pepper wasn't bad, but we've obviously had better ones.
But that's not the point.
He certainly didn't have enough batter for the calamari to make a dish that justifies itself, even if there was also bread meant to soak it all up.
The second thread that ran between these meal portions, then, is a considerable intellectual immaturity of the person who signed the food.
With a kitchen of parts and half ideas you don't build a menu for a restaurant.
We shared
a pumpkin tart
(NIS 49) with a crispy dough base, sweet pumpkin cream, pumpkin seeds and mascarpone cream.
It was a rather amateurish dessert, lacking in excessive sweetness and continuing the line we met in the dishes up to it.
Last week
This place is full of magic, we have to wait for this magic to stick to the food as well
To the full article
Pumpkin tart (photo: Idan Ben Harosh)
Apart from a continuous culinary failure, the meal was conducted in a tense and not very pleasant atmosphere.
Not really professional in terms of service either.
In other words, amateurism also dominated this aspect of the evening.
evening?
The truth is that from the moment we sat down to the moment we left the place, an hour and ten minutes passed, and not because someone restricted us.
The reasonable person comes to the restaurant to linger a bit, to splurge a bit, to enjoy himself.
Two hours is kind of standard.
You can also do more than that, if it's fun.
When such a short time passes and the diners are happy to go, that means something.
What may have worked as a deli, doesn't really work as a restaurant.
Restaurant is a profession.
Love of food and good intentions are perhaps necessary conditions, but certainly not sufficient.
Before the well-intentioned but amateur place of the duo Kauftail Berlinski crashes, they would do well to hire the services of a serious consultant from the field.
Both the food and the "flour" there need a lot of improvements that are not sure that the working people have the power to do it themselves.
mena, Yarkon 88, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 03-6736136
invoice:
Red tuna with watermelon and feta - 74
Roast beef sirloin - 72 Grilled
fillet - 128
Calamari pan - 92
Pumpkin tart - 49
Small minerals - 11
Carlsberg - 26
Total: 452
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