An event of a different magnitude.
Daria (Photo: Ohad Kev)
For me, a visit to Darya is not a visit to another restaurant.
Not only is this the best kosher restaurant in Israel, for me it is one of the best restaurants in Israel in absolute terms as well.
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cannot exaggerate the meaning of the last sentence.
The competition for the title of the best training in Israel may not be particularly challenging, but for a kosher restaurant, being one of the best in Israel in absolute terms is already an event of a different magnitude.
Hillel Tavkoli, who professionally leads Daria, as well as the acclaimed Animar, managed to do there what it seems that no one before him has done - to set up a restaurant that even gluttons of white meat and vermin enjoy and do not feel like giving up anything.
Sympathetic palate opening.
Daria (Photo: Sapir Kossa)
I will not exaggerate if I say that if I had to choose between a visit to Darya and a visit to Animar, I would choose the former.
And not that I have anything against Animar, God forbid.
So we went to one of the best restaurants in Israel from our point of view, and this is a completely binding title, which imposes a significant burden of proof on the restaurant and on its head.
The gap between the polished and old-fashioned lobby of the Hilton, with the inevitable pianist, the air crews on the way to Israel and all this jazz, and the atmosphere in Darya - a sweet contemporary restaurant - is very noticeable. At Animar, the restaurant exudes class: modern elegance, meticulous and not too informal. These are old, established and fair restaurateurs, with a lot of style.
A roller coaster ride
90 shekels for a chick, what else can be said???
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Claas channel.
Daria (Photo: Ohad Kev)
The menu in Darya is divided into "plates", "small plates" and "large plates".
The saucers, on a kind of antipasti table at the end of the restaurant, looked tempting and we started with three of them: paul confit (16 shekels), pickles (18) and Padron peppers (18).
The three saucers were fun.
The Paul Agar added quite a bit of pleasant fattiness and spice with a degree of complexity, the pickled vegetables had a nice, not too aggressive, degree of spiciness, and the padrones were great.
Together, the three vials were collected for sympathetic palate opening, alongside alcohol.
We continued with the hamachi sashimi (88) and prixa polenta (85).
In the sashimi portion, there were not thin, very high quality pieces of machi, delicately touched with olive oil, fermented chili, fish ponzo and smoked lime, alongside cilantro and green onion.
It was a dish that the sounds of silence spoke of.
The components gave small, subtle pushes, designed to highlight and emphasize the raw material.
A completely delicious dish, especially because the fish was uncompromisingly high quality, but solid.
The friksa jumped to completely different realms.
At its base is grilled sojuk pickled tongue, in a fricassee dough covered with polenta, with za'atar aioli and greens.
It was a dish approaching perfection.
The meat in the sojuk is really delicious, the za'atar aioli spins it incredibly well, the polenta in the dough adds crunch, the leaves add a dimension of Persian vegetables and the whole - sometimes it's allowed to return to clichés provided they're relevant - is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
An equally great dish that closed a very worthy opening.
This is how starting a meal in one of the best restaurants in Israel should look like.
Internal operating instruction.
Daria (Photo: Ohad Kev)
without concessions.
Daria (Photo: Sapir Kosa)
This is a dish that went all out on Fine Dining and a big shout out to Tawakuli for the considerable effort to get water out of a stone but this time, for the first time, we felt the kosher limit
I arrived at Daria with an internal operating instruction not to give up the fish dish in sojuk, which I remember well from the previous review dinner here, as the glory of the creation.
So we ordered sea bass in sojuk (145) and grilled duck with shiitake and Sichuan salt (158).
The rather small sea bream was seared and arrived in a mesh dish under which dried hummus, herbs and hot oil, as a kind of coals that add their slightly smoky touch.
There were also roasted vegetables on the grill.
On the side, four round locho doughs, and saucers with chili-lime vinaigrette, jala and lettuce leaves.
A little bit of everything should be loaded on the palate and all this goodness made my palate very happy at the time.
This time the fish was a bit dry and casual and was swallowed up in the surrounding mess, which was well organized but the main thing was pretty much swallowed up in it.
disappointment?
We will not deny.
The duck dish had pieces of duck next to cream of shiitake mushrooms and wild mushrooms, white miso whipped cream and almond milk and wild mushrooms.
This is a dish that went all out on Fine Dining and a big shout out to Tawakuli for the considerable effort to get water out of a stone but this time, for the first time, we felt the kosher limit.
It is quite clear that if the cream and whipping were based on butter and cream it would be much better.
Stylistically, this is a dish that aims for an elegant Michelin classic.
We felt that all the impressive effort failed to breathe life into the duck and the whole thing was, despite the great investment, a bit boring.
The two main ones worked less well, then.
The fish was flawed in execution, the duck in concept.
leaves dust.
Daria's Flouda (Photo: Sapir Kossa)
hallelujah!
And I really don't remember when, if ever, I used this word in dessert contexts
So the opening was worthy of applause, the continuation less so and we reached the dessert - Floda (58).
The traditional Persian cup dessert, sold in carts on the street, was transformed by Tawakuli into a particularly delicious masterpiece.
At the base of the dish is rosetta and rose water sorbet that comes in almond milk soup and cold Zohar water, with rice noodles, grenadine syrup and berries, candied roses and pistachio nougat.
The dish comes in the given bowl inside another one, wider than it, with ice cubes that surround it to keep it cold.
The dessert stage doesn't tend to be the one that elicits emotional passages from me.
A dessert that is not really excellent is, in my opinion, a kind of unnecessary excess to end a good meal.
Most of the desserts are heavy and too sweet in my opinion and it is possible without them.
At review meals I order dessert mainly by virtue of being on duty.
Tavakoli's fluda is a completely different event.
He is just perfect.
Not too sweet, not heavy at all, that excellence sits at the base of each of its ingredients and together they come together into something truly wonderful, which leaves dust behind most desserts in reputable restaurants in Israel, and is even fur.
hallelujah!
And I really don't remember when, if ever, I used this word in dessert contexts.
The price did not jump.
The account in Darya (Photo: ShutterStock)
For the food described here, and without drinks and service, we paid NIS 586.
Not cheap, but it seems that the price level in Darya has not jumped significantly, while in most restaurants it has.
The starters and dessert episode reflected a restaurant at the highest level.
The mains were disappointing.
Is this still the best training?
Undoubtedly yes.
Even when weighing the less good dishes, Daria has no competition at all in the segment.
One of the best restaurants in Israel?
It is a bit difficult to sign such a statement if you take into account the main points.
Daria is still a recommended restaurant in my opinion, despite the plates, because when it's good there, it's really excellent.
and makes me want to go back.
Still, assuming that what was reflected in our dinner represents reality, Tawakoli definitely has something to work on to straighten the lines.
"Daria", 205 Yarakon, Tel Aviv, 03-5202127
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Restaurant reviews
Hillel Tawakoli
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