We were delighted.
Pescado (Photo: Dan Lev)
The factual truth about restaurants located in the periphery of Israel is unfortunate.
The factual truth about kosher restaurants, in the periphery and in general, is even more unfortunate.
In Pescado of Ashdod, something completely different is happening.
It has been operating for close to 14 years on the boardwalk in Ashdod, among everyday and completely generic restaurants and bars.
It is led by chef Yehi Zeno, as co-owner with Eran Zeno of "Zeno Fish", one of the largest fish merchants in Israel.
We went to Ashdod to check if it was still as good as we remembered it;
as it is usually spoken.
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When walking along the promenade in Ashdod, among the bars and restaurants, it is difficult to distinguish Pescado from all the other places operating there.
It looks like another place.
Inside the restaurant are two small spaces.
Inside is a little crowded, and outside with a larger spacing between the tables.
The design is classic, without any notable uniqueness.
It was equally possible to enter such a restaurant anywhere else in Israel or abroad. The service is very different from the one we are familiar with from Tel Aviv. There is no pretense to knowledge but there is a real investment in pleasantness, in a sympathetic diner interface.
Simple, but wonderful.
Pescado
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Unlike most dishes of the genre, which please the eye more than the palate, this was a great dish
The menu itself will be compiled in a sort of old fashioned brochure, the likes of which you will no longer find in contemporary restaurants.
It has a section of vegetable starters followed by a section of fish starters, mains mainly revolving around aquaculture fish with one steak, and a daily specials page with starters, appetizers and main dishes, based on sea fish.
This is, in fact, the interesting part of the menu.
We started with two appetizers - the machi sashimi (NIS 78) from the specials menu and potato salad and blue fin tuna (NIS 88) from the regular menu.
The sashimi dish had many pieces of raw machi, in a really generous dose, with celery, cucumber, hot green pepper, nuts and squeezed tomatoes.
It was a beautiful dish, with a color construction that belongs to the well-photographed genre.
Unlike most dishes of the genre, which please the eye more than the palate, this was a great dish.
A wonderful fish, with fresh, clean, non-overbearing touches, meticulous in moderation, that let the unusual quality of the fish, as well as its overwhelming freshness, speak for itself.
An equally lovely starter.
The blue fin tuna dish in potato salad looks like banality incarnate.
But nothing in this dish spoke of Nalia.
The cubed potatoes had a touch of fiery searing and together with precisely fried onions, just the right amount of spicy green pepper and wonderful blue fin tuna cubes, this was another dish that illustrates how simple-simple - when based on the highest quality ingredients and handled with care - can be wonderful.
We were delighted.
Rare value for money factor
Can't remember when I ate out so much and so well for such a price
To the full article
A fish dish that touches perfection.
Pescado (Photo: Dan Lev)
We gave up on the roasted pepper.
It was not needed.
The fish was a whole and complete world of content on its own
We continued with one appetizer, Toro Ashe Galiva (88), and one large main - red bream (245 for a 700 gram fish).
Toro is the most choice part of the fish.
This intermediate dish had about a hundred grams of toro tuna, exposed to direct fire, with minimal seasoning and roasted pepper on top.
Few words can describe how delicious it was.
This is a dish that is taken from the worlds of barbecue and whose taste qualities undoubtedly belong to haute cuisine.
A really wonderful fish, a precise minimal burn and an exciting encounter with the palate.
We gave up on the roasted pepper.
It was not needed.
The fish was a whole and complete world of content on its own.
Aquaculture has done the fish consumption in Israel a wonderful service.
Fish produced by it have become an everyday and available product, but you don't go to a restaurant for this type of bream.
The bream on the agenda in the current dish is the "deep sea bream", of fishing from the depths.
It is privileged, less available and much more expensive.
The fish we received, in tomato sauce, looked on the plate like the most ordinary dish there is.
A whole fish that looks like a "normal" bream, only bigger;
And what could be unusual about tomato sauce?
Well, so far we've had three noteworthy dishes but this is, without a doubt, the highlight.
The fish meat was nothing short of amazing.
The sauce, based on oven-baked tomatoes enriched with additional flavoring agents, was one that you want to eat by the spoonful.
The connection between them created a fish dish that touches perfection.
Upper kitchen.
Pescado (Photo: Pescado)
When you get to Pescado - and obviously this text is an unequivocal recommendation to do so - go for another snack instead of dessert
So overwhelmingly delicious so far.
Really wonderful.
We wanted to stop, linger a bit on the goodness, but the time allotted to us by the restaurant was tight and we had to order dessert.
Since the menu includes one steak, the desserts must be fur.
We ordered a hearty dish with pistachio sorbet (48) and Asher Yegorno came.
The drop in quality was sharp, sharp and noticeable.
The differences between what we had eaten so far and what we received were huge.
If I were Zino & Zino, I would gladly give up the one portion of meat, which is there on the standard of going to duty, and deprive the extraordinary talent of the craftsman in the dessert version as well.
When you get to Pescado - and obviously this text is an unequivocal recommendation to do so - go for another appetizer instead of dessert.
This is what I will do when I come back here, and I will without a doubt.
Completely reasonable pricing.
The account in Pescado (Photo: ShutterStock)
If you don't take into account the dessert course, Pescado is a restaurant no less rare.
It is overwhelmingly delicious, unmistakable and so joyful.
If you don't count the dessert, you don't feel like you're in a kosher restaurant.
In 2022, Pescado entered the regional "Best 50" list at number 24.
As has already been written here recently, this list is worth very little but it was nice to find Pescado on it last year.
Pescado was not included in this year's ranking.
George and John, on the other hand, was ranked at the top.
The meal we had recently at George and John was undoubtedly much, much less good than the one at Pescado.
It just shows, once again, the far-fetchedness of the ranking.
Either way, do yourself a favor and go to Ashdod.
If you do it after rush hour, the distance, at least from the center, is not great.
The pleasure is pure, the pricing is completely reasonable and the qualities, not including dessert, are rare.
Pescado, Martin Bover 1/12, Ashdod, 08-8523063
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