Tzvi spent a lot of time before this trip researching restaurants and figuring out where he wanted to eat and using Chat GPT to make a neat little schedule of restaurants. And then we ate at almost none of them.
Part of the problem was that it was very difficult to find information in advance about which restaurants actually had sukkahs. The other part of the problem was that we really didn’t realize how the people who care most about eating in sukkahs are American tourists. The strangest thing was that all over the city we saw religious looking people eating indoors. I think it might just be another one of those things where Israelis have bigger things to worry about.
The Rose Garden, Part I: Maleo
After our Old City tour day we had dinner at Maleo, a meat restaurant in the Wohl Rose Garden, right next to the Knesset. First, we got there and discovered that they did not have our reservation for the sukkah, even though the hotel has specifically made the reservation for the sukkah. But they managed to fit us in anyway. Then my parents’ taxi dropped them off who-knows-where and it took them fifteen minutes to find the restaurant. Then Madeleine broke a plate.
Once we settled in, we actually had a very good meal. I had a really delicious steak. We ordered a bunch of different things—egg rolls, dumplings, skewers, Tzvi and a tuna roll. Madeleine and my dad had burgers. Tzvi and my mom shared a fish dish and a goose dish over soba noodles. I’ve noticed that even in the nicest restaurants in Israel they haven’t quite mastered the pacing of food. We had basically finished all of our food and the goose still had not come, which was fine because Tzvi and my mom were full, and then suddenly out it came. It was a really nice meal. We were also absolutely freezing by the end.
We knew it was my mom’s Hebrew birthday, so after the girls went to sleep, we ordered cakes to her room. They were yummy. And that was it.
Good day.
The Rose Garden, Part II: Rosie
We didn’t mean to have two different meals in the Rose Garden. On Tuesday after our Shuk tour day, we headed back to the Rose Garden, this time to a restaurant called Rosie.We had made the reservation a couple of weeks ago. We had not planned on eating at Maleo until we had to cancel whatever we had booked on Sunday (for lack of sukkah), which is how we ended up in the Rose Garden twice.
Rosie was basically a pizza-and-pasta place.
Once again, actually getting to the meal was an ordeal. As we were leaving, my mom realized that she had left her AirTag at the Delta store near Ben Yehuda. So me, Tzvi and the girls took a cab to Rosie, while my parents had to figure out how to get back to Delta, where there is basically no transportation because the entire area is under construction. They ended up arriving at dinner about 50 minutes late. But they found the AirTag. I am fairly certain they spent more money on taxis retrieving the AirTag than the AirTag and the bag were actually worth, but I think my mom was worried that someone would somehow steal all of her information through the AirTag. I don’t think that’s how AirTags actually work. [Tzvi: it’s not. Given that the things are intended to be lost, that would be a big flaw in the design.]
In the meantime, we sat down and ordered a few appetizers. I think we may have been too difficult for our first waitress. At some point, she just stopped coming back. We had ordered a Caesar salad for Hallie with basically everything on the side, and to their credit, they brought it exactly that way. It actually looked very nice. But I think that may have been the waitress’s breaking point. Eventually, we got another waitress who spoke perfect English and was lovely. My parents finally arrived, and we ordered pizzas and pastas. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the food, but it was fine. We skipped dessert.
Ezra: As in, please send help
Thursday night after we got back from Raanana, my mom wanted to go to a place called Ezra. It is one of those restaurants where you sit down and they immediately bring you approximately 20 salatim, and then eventually you order skewers or meat or whatever else you want.
I feel like every restaurant in Jerusalem is completely overwhelmed during Sukkot. Which, you would think, they would be prepared for. But apparently not.
The food was pretty good. All of the salatim were very good. I had steak skewers. Tzvi had steak and goose skewers. We’re not sure what my mom ordered – I don’t think she was sure what she ordered – but it was basically raw. It was either liver or sweetbreads. No one knows. It also took me approximately 20 minutes to get a fork. So overall, a decent meal.
Like a few other things on this trip, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as in, we never need to go back there again.
Sauce on the Side
I have to mention Caffit, on Emek Refaim, where we ate twice on this trip. It’s actually a great restaurant and both meals were good, even if the service is very slow (although where is it not slow in Israel)? Three specific things worth mentioning:
I love the fact that every café in Israel serves an Israeli breakfast where they give you a dozen different little dishes along with eggs and toast and coffee. It’s like getting your own personal breakfast buffet.
I also love that every café serves a sweet potato salad that’s basically covered in sweet potato fries. So good. Why cant any cafes make that back home?
Lastly, Madeleine has started to branch out from plain noodles and to eat noodles with sauce, although she’s often still hesitant when we order it, so a few times we ordered her tomato sauce or cream sauce on the side. The size of the bowls of sauce that she received in restaurants was comical, like way more than they actually would have put on then pasta had it been ordered with sauce.
Roladin
I don’t have anything specific to mention, but just want to put pictures here of these delicious pastries.
