Restaurant review – Adom

Seldom does the typical Tel-Avivi brings himself to go all the way to Jerusalem, if he doesn’t absolutely has to. Last Thursday wasn’t one of this rare cases as well as I gently forced my family to come and watch my graduation ceremony in the Hebrew University (not really forced, they wanted to come :] ).

It was also Safta Lia’s Birthday this day so after the exhausting graduation we went to try what the Jerusalem culinary world has to offer. While living in Jerusalem I was impressed with the Ethiopian food, the hummus places and the home-authentic cooking (Murduch style). Also I’ve been few times to the “Machneyuda” restaurant which is quite good, but it seems like they are trying too hard not to be full of themselves that it feels like they kinda are. Coming back to Tel-Aviv I found out there’s good Ethiopian food in Neve Sha’anan as well. back to Thursday, two restaurants didn’t have place for us so “Adom” was our third pick. Located in the Finegold quad (Jaffa st.) and functions as a wine bar at night.

The atmosphere is amazing, as it is set inside a stone hall with stone arcs and soft lights. Heavy furniture and antique-like glass bottles decorations.

The complementary bread with mayo (was it mayo?) spread was fresh and soft white bread.  I think it was a little bit cold in the center so there’s a chance it was reheated.

We all took one main course and passed on the first courses:

Shrimp in cream sauce with spinach and crunchy gnocchi (~100 nis). It looked good on the menu and Safta Jean and Saba Pablo truly enjoyed eating Shrimp (they don’t get to eat it a lot). But apart from it, it was not a hit. The sauce was too settle and the fried gnocchi were chewy and flavorless. They were just redundant. But even without it the dish was flat on flavor.

Lamb ossobucco with mashed potatoes and green beans (96 nis): The winning dish in my opinion. The meat wasn’t actually an ossobucco cut of the lamb as Safta jean noticed too, but was so soft and made well. With a red wine reduction as a sauce which was sweet, rich and intensified the lamb flavor.

Gnocchi with chestnuts porcini mushrooms (68 nis): wasn’t a hit either. I expect my gnocchi to melt in my mouth and they didn’t. They were too floury and heavy, like little bricks going down my belly. It was at the same level of the ready made dried gnocchi in the supermarket for 12nis a pack. The cream sauce wasn’t anything spacial and there were maybe 3 pieces of mushrooms. But it was a big portion so I guess some would find it good value.

Entrecot steak (109 nis). The meat was good, and it was a tasty dish. Very straight forward. 

The runner up dish: grilled squid in chilled gazpacho soup (82 nis). It’s a bold move to put squid in gazpacho that way but it went great together and overall a success.

 For dessert we took the strawberries- meringue Trifle (~35 nis). I had problem with this because it was just puree of strawberries without any fresh ones (although they are still seasonal) and all the meringue was on top, in a way I couldn’t get a spoon with all the ingredients at the same time (For me it’s crucial to be able to take one perfect bite of the dish). It was only okay.

The apple pie is usually the comparable dessert and the level of it reflects the level of the place at whole (a soup is also a good tester in a similar way). It was an upside down tart (~35 nis). The dough was only half cooked and the filling had squares of apples and very strong scent of cinnamon. The dough was well made and buttery but the filling was un-unified, made the whole thing collapse. It had to be smaller pieces of apple or thinner slices. It was swimming in a syrup that was too sweet and liquidy. The dough itself with the ice-cream could make a better dessert I think.

Just like the apple tart, Adom has it’s better and worse sides. It’s considered to be a known establishment but it’s sort of a place that won’t make it in Tel-Aviv. The dishes are not polished enough. Some dishes did reach there but some surprisingly very far. I’m guessing there’s a chance the chef knows better than that but his crowd tends toward simpler easy dishes. I do think they put the emphasis on the mood and atmosphere so gladly, this is a success. For the purpose of our event it was a good choice. But could be better.