Mitch, a Romanian restaurant in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv (courtesy of Mitch Restaurant)
"I haven't cooked in a long time, because I have an amazing team here and people who know the job better than I do. But the idea started running through my head, and from there I couldn't stop it."
The hottest topic of conversation in recent days around the picnic-bar tables taken out of Mitch is the new "tourist menu," a laminated fusion of a sheet of paper loaded with words and images and finger-stain-free plastic, and what will surely be the last item allowed in the next sensory regulation workshop to be held in Israel.
To all the columns of "Eat Go"
Orit Moshkovitz is proud of this menu and laughs at it at the same time. That's part of her charm, and his, and Mitch's, a stimulating, passionate, color-laden place. A place of food, in short. It is doubtful whether it could have been done differently. Doubtful if it tasted as good.
Place of food. Mitch
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Mitch and Moskowitz's second term in the market began a few days ago with the same self-awareness that demanded a photo menu, and with the same self-confidence that now asks for a print phone "because it turned out lovely."
It started about five years ago as a Romanian restaurant a little further up, closed doors due to the pandemic about two years later, just to do some thinking, to converge into itself and continue to kick as a meat delivery and event venture that refuses to give up, and rightly so.
Now, in a kind of real estate hour partnership with the Shoponi bar — it's 11 a.m. to 00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, it's in the evenings and Fridays, at least for the next few months — it's coming back tighter, more focused and hungrier. And you should, too. In other words, it's not the tightness and focus, it's up to you to decide, but the hunger.
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Synergy partnership. Mitch (Photo: Walla!, Yaniv Granot)
Happy table opening. Mitch (Photo: Walla!, Yaniv Granot)
The menu will sometimes leave you with far too many large orders. That's fine, you'll want the vast majority of it anyway
The menu, as already made clear here in an almost blunt passage, requires guidance. It's very flexible, very modular but also confusing (and its puns are now more of a private joke than an actual assistance), and will sometimes leave you with far too many large orders. That's fine, you'll want the vast majority of it anyway.
It starts with a table opening section - Ikra, chopped liver and clotted leg (36 shekels per dish with bread, 20 shekels for tasting the first two), as well as pickles (home made, like almost everything done here, 18 shekels), horseradish and mujday, the mythological garlic spread - and continues from there to a pita dilemma or meat plate, but also with dishes of the same Iqra or chopped liver in a pita, Patrician sausage in bread and also plates with everything described here and a whole plot of stuff to take home.
The pictures, by the way, help only a little. The food that will soon arrive will help much more.
Ideal platter. Mitch (Photo: Walla!, Yaniv Granot)
The Iqra and chopped liver combination, along with the pickle plate, is a good enough starter for anything you want to eat here later.
The Romanian fish roe paste is made fresh here, providing in return for this effort a very airy texture, salty if it works well on both the warm uniform bread and the fork directly to the mouth. The chopped liver equates with a little more consistency and presence, but not close to the feta castings that suddenly get here and there around the city. The fried onion on top - a lot, crispy and sweet - makes the carbohydrate redundant here too. The pickled vegetables (cucumber, tomato, cabbage) provide the break your mouth and head need between spreads, with a cheerful squeak and a quick journey through time to Grandma's house, any grandmother.
Meaty joy. Mitch's kebab (Photo: Gil Aviram)
Missed. Moshkovitz (Photo: Gil Aviram)
Given that we covered the mezes, we continued from there to a pita with kebabs (49 shekels per couple, including lemonade in refill and fries, or 69 shekels for a triplet), one with a burger (69 shekels, at the same deal) and a hot dog with bread (one for 52 shekels, a pair for 80 shekels).
Let's start with the latter. A tall, thin brown hot dog is placed at the center of a large soft slice of white bread along with Romanian eggplant salad, and rolled up like a yoga mat into a show that is a bit phallic in its visual characteristics, but mostly delicious, because it forces you first to take control of the meat that stands out and confirm its qualities, and then deal with the bread and eggplant combination that compliments it and interests it enough to stay until the end of the date.
With some secrets. Mitch's Burger (Photo: Walla!, Yaniv Granot)
Delicious show. Mitch's hot dog (Photo: Gil Aviram)
The result of all this is a 230-gram burger that dodges toppings and madness and forces you to eat, you know, meat
The burger, also made by Moskowitz ("Shpondera and neck, with delicate seasoning and a few secrets", as she puts it), forgoes the classic bun and is put in honor of pita bread that arrives and undergoes a great steaming process.
The result of all this is a 230-gram burger that dodges toppings and madness and forces you to eat, you know, meat. The pita, with the same delicious eggplant salad and not much more than that ("only to be picked up for meat, not overshadowed"), takes you back to the days of spoonless skewers, and manages to do the unbelievable and fulfill what Jokowitz promised - to endure, and provide the perfect juicy last bite, the one that so often eludes you due to liquidation and receivership processes.
The kebab, of course, is an even happier version of it all ("Romanian kebab is the best in the world. Everything else is just meatballs," she quotes the sages of the generation), with grill-burning marks that are an ideal contrast to the softness of the pita, eggplants that actually only lift, and an additional acceptance in the form of the end that manages to be the last one standing on this dance floor.
The fries, by the way, elliptical slices of hand-cut potatoes, who would have believed, and then a fried double and an elaborate double, make this meal especially worthwhile, along with the poured lemonade. 20 meters from here, 49 shekels will not be enough for you for any component separately, let alone all three together.
An unusual deal. Mitch (Photo: Gil Aviram)
The last sentence will also determine the success of Mitch's current tour of the Carmel Market, a monstrous food court, packed with proven hits, stalls that have just opened and crowds (and far fewer vegetables and fruits and soul, but that's my usual complaint).
As such, people walk through an alley, peek inside and get a happy Welcome welcome. Some recognize her, some promise to return after the round, and some who don't need to hear anymore, go in and sit down. "This place gives me joie de vivre," Moshkowitz admits on her way to them with the photo menu, "I missed it."
Mitch, 30 Carmel Street, Carmel Market, Tel Aviv, 054-7503052
- food
- Food reviews
Tags
- Street food
- Carmel Market
- Romanian food
- Kebab
- Sausages
- hamburger
