Sante` restaurant by Chef Assaf Zrog, Kfar Saba/Yaniv Garnot
The drama increases even before entering Santa.
A female squad that a decade and a half ago would have drawn immediate comparisons to Sex and the City and today even he will admit that Sex and the City is impossible to watch (not the one back then and certainly not the abomination that is the sequel series) met with refusal.
Polite indeed, but one that makes it very clear that there is no place.
I don't know how many rejections this group has received over the years and I assume not many, because they are coming back to try their luck again, in the format of "maybe we can still try".
That the host will make an effort, of course, not them.
It only works as a show - a host seemingly checks, goes back and forth, asks and waits for an answer - but the bottom line is the same.
Kfar Saba, at least this evening, is a reality show waiting to be written.
It's already there - The Real Housewives of Atir Yeda, obviously - and a tense opening scene has already been built before your eyes.
All that was missing was that restaurant, the one that everyone wants to go to.
Now she is here too.
the missing link
Santa
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When the latter is coming, you really don't want to dilute the experience with things from China that won't survive the trip home
Santa (Sante`, to your smile, or to your healthy life, in French) does not come with statements and good news, and this is the best statement she can give, and the most successful news she could bring.
It makes sure to define itself as a bistro, and makes sure to cut itself off from its surroundings - the Oshiland shopping center - but strictness is one thing and reality is one thing.
This is an invested and pleasant restaurant, beautiful and welcoming, certainly on an Israeli scale and certainly when considering the reality of urban food and restaurants.
It is also, there is no way to ignore it, a restaurant that is located in the outer entrance plaza of a shopping mall, therefore paving the way for the car owners to park below and go up in transparent elevators and plan on the Max Stock, the gigantic, monstrous supplier afterwards.
There are more attractive palate-stimulators, true, but to Santa's credit it can be said simply this - when this next one is coming, you really don't want to dilute the experience with things from China that won't survive the trip home.
Instead, you do the same way back with a smile, and think about other, real things.
Shake Shack in Israel
The line is gone, the burger remains, it's time to pounce
To the full article
When things are real.
Santa/Walla! system, will generate money
An almost completely new and young team of cooks, led by an experienced cook, and led by a chef who does not exaggerate hand movements and decibels, and everything comes out roaring and erupting but not splashing
The restaurant opened in the middle of summer, and what was supposed to be a gradual run-in period turned, like everyone else, into hell.
Assaf Zrog, respectively, updated his resume with the line "reserves, war", and returned only after a few months to rebuild the bridge over the stormy waters.
He does it, at least from the side view, quiet and focused.
The kitchen is half-open, and a transparent window on the way to the bathroom allows another glimpse (uncreepy, I hope, because I was stuck there for long minutes staring), but the appearance is almost static as a whole, and fluid in the small details - an almost entirely new and young team of cooks, led by an experienced cook, and By a chef who does not exaggerate hand movements and decibels, and everything comes out roaring and erupting but not splashing, from the bar to the waitresses and beyond.
There are decade-old restaurants that don't know how to work like this.
Santa is already doing well.
And yes, it obviously affects the taste as well.
Static, but fluid.
Santa/Walla! system, will generate money
The plates are large, as is the food inside, and the prices align with Tel Aviv, although, as you can understand from the previous sentence, they provide much better value for money
The menu opens with a happy double-digit number of starters, and continues from there to three salads, an "Italy" wing and nine main courses, most of which are meat or fish.
Much.
A lot, with something everyone can relate to.
The plates are large, as is the food inside, and the prices align with Tel Aviv, although, as you can understand from the previous sentence, they provide much better value for money.
It starts with thick and warm sourdough bread with eggplant mousse and brown butter, which somehow infiltrated our lives without warning and became a staple in restaurants, without any complaints from us, leek confit in a tabon with grilled St. Mor cheese and hazelnuts (NIS 63), jumbo shrimp harayma with crab bisque (NIS 75), chicken liver brulee (NIS 65), roasted beets or colorful carpaccio.
Alongside these, a happy "Mexican" fish tartar (corn crackers, avocado, onion, hot pepper, cilantro and shata, NIS 71), polenta and mozzarella fingers (NIS 65) shines in your direction, which are less fingers and more like a wide, huge palm, and how good that size matters here, And also the tuna tataki bruschetta (NIS 75) which was built thoroughly and without fear of heights on a square of thick brioche, poured elements of pepper aioli, developed a penthouse of seared pieces of fish in their frame and did not forget a roof, in the form of anchovies.
Kfar Saba Towers, Elite.
Desires and hoops.
Santa/Walla! system, will generate money
At this point, you enter the intersection of good but sad decisions, the ones that will leave you at the end of the evening both satisfied and wondering.
Such starters, and the bread, two cocktails from the super-excellent bar, and you're already nearing the end, facing a rather large selection of options you haven't tried yet.
There is seafood pasta and the more classic temptation of cacho a papa (NIS 83), but the words "Assaf's tortellini" (NIS 99) and talk of handwork were whispered from the Italian quartet, so the choice quickly became clear.
And it's a good thing - a mascarpone filling and an impressively thick pastry shell, with mushrooms and bar blanc, which together made a thick and creamy winter on the plate.
The other mains range well - it seems from the plates that came out of the kitchen - between schnitzel and smash burger, entrecote skewer and chickpea souffle.
A recommendation for a white fish shawarma (burnt pita, fried onion, tahini, masoya, red onion and leaf salad, 109 shekels) made me want to and in the end lived up to the expectations and indeed encouraged the sitters to that type of sitting-rolling that you only need after you've eaten a lot, and that you don't regret on a plate
not from home
Santa's barula/Walla! system, Yaniv Granot
The dessert menu actually chose to gather and focus.
It has meringue sticks with mascarpone whipped cream and strawberries with strawberry coulis and basil oil (NIS 55), cheesecake with raspberry crackling, raspberry coulis and fresh raspberries (NIS 49), chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream "from the past" (NIS 55) and affogato (NIS 29) .
There is also a "vanilla brulee" with pine nut crumble and yogurt ice cream (NIS 49).
Now, I'm already at that stage of my life where I can't get excited about crème brûlée, and every once in a while it's even cool that "I make it at home just as well" simply because my persona wasn't annoying enough until that moment.
This, however, was something else, and at the very least silences personas.
The clue was in the words "Sammy Perdue", and the execution was a stamp.
A real stamp.
Cold that used to be colder, but creamy and not frozen-glacier, and delicious and delicate and what a wow dessert I don't really make at home.
Quiet and focused.
Zrog/Wala! system, will generate money
The couple sitting next to us at the bar finished an order that was completely different from ours, and kept looking to the side and wondering if they had made the right choice, until these looks turned into a dialogue of recommendations, which almost spilled over into exchanging plates and mutual tastings, before we set boundaries of morality and good taste.
This, at least in feeling, was Santa's intention.
True to those unspoken statements of hers, she works without confusing the mind and without bullying.
She did not come to "bring Tel Aviv to Kfar Saba", nor to do "Paris in Oceanland".
Instead, she smiles and treats you when you enter, wrapping you in a design that makes you forget the surrounding landscape which is a battery stand and absorbent papers as decoration for a store that really exists, and you don't forget that you came to eat, and for a week, and forget, then go home and remember that you want again.
A reality that is waiting to be written, a reality that has been written.
Sante, Atir Yeda 4, Kfar Saba, 072-2649288
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