Gaya Restaurant Review – Summer Menu Event

I was invited Sunday evening to join the launch event of the summer menu in Gaya restaurant in Binyamina. We were warmly welcomed by the chef Guy Ben-Asher and the rest of the staff. The concept of the place is an open kitchen chef restaurant and bar. There’s a vitrine in front of the entrance for the customer to see the raw meat. They also make their own sausages, and they are out for display as well. The atmosphere was very relaxed and comfortable and the service was smiling and kind.

Gaya’s menu is priced quite reasonably for some of the ingredients used and they change the menu twice a year to match with the seasons, so I’ve heard. We had a taste of pretty much everything, accompanied with wine matched by the chef.

The wine for the first round of appetizers was white Italian Roeo Arnies. It was a good choice for the beginning of the meal, light but not too sweet.

First thing that came to our table was the Shrimp rice dim sum with Fonzo sauce (42 nis). For this course I was expecting to receive chopsticks, it wasn’t fit to eat with a fork. It was well prepared and steamed. The sauce tasted a lot of ginger. Overall it was simple but well made.

The next appetizer was the Crabs Burek (puff pastry). It sounded very appealing and promising written in the menu, with Mascarpone and Waldorf salad (42 nis). It was a little over baked in my opinion and the crab was overpowered due to the amount of pastry, could pass unnoticed if you don’t know what it is.

The leeks Latkes with yogurt and cucumber gazpacho (36 nis) wasn’t one of my favorites. I just didn’t get it.

For the second round of appetizers we had Amphorae Chardonnay (Israeli), I enjoyed it even more then the Italian.

The flag dish of the place arrived, it was the Beet Pockets filled with Sainte Maure goat cheese with cream sauce and poppy seeds (38 nis).  I must admit I’m not a fan of beet, but I did enjoy this dish. The sauce was very good, though again the ratio of the filling / cover wasn’t ideal for me (more cheese please!).

The next dish was my personal favorite: seared squid with swiss-chard, cheek peas, pickled lemon and yogurt (42). I loved this combination of flavors and though it was a bit too salty, it left a crave for more, this is what I look for in an appetizer. The first Favorite of the dinner.

St. Peter’s fish fillet (65 nis) with caramelized beets and onions over crème fraîche . This fish is very common (and cheap) in Israel and it’s a simple and not so delicate fish. I wouldn’t serve this fish as a dish in a chef’s restaurant, maybe as “fish & chips” or curried. But this is only my opinion.

The other fish dish was the second favorite dish of the dinner for me. It’s a Sea bass fillet grilled with asparagus and yuzu (Japanese citrus) (95). It’s a lot pricier fish but the difference is huge. It was made just right, moist but not raw, the asparagus were citrousy and I liked it. Why did we get the radish again, I’m not sure. 

For the upcoming meat dishes we got a taste of Amphorae, Syrah- Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon, Unica (Israel). I only got a small taste of it but it was another good wine.

Then came the meats. The sausage dish: Italian style pork sausage with thyme and bacon over cooked cabbage and mustard (65 nis). It was the best meat dish out of the three, having an home made sausage well prepared together with the great cabbage made it the third favorite in my list! The other dish in this plate is Kabab (65 nis), came over-cooked and not particularly interesting.

Fries (15 nis)

Desserts: 

I always have place for dessert. Thank god. Not god, whatever.

Creame Mascarpone with poppy seeds and pineapple. It was a strange combination for me, though I like every ingredient on it’s own.

The second dessert I’m not sure if served as is or is it a taste of two unique dishes. Together I was very happy with it: Mousse of dark chocolate and very soft brownies over caramel. I wanted to eat the whole thing alone but my table mates were digging this dish as well. Usually I wouldn’t order the chocolate mousse or brownie at a restaurant but this was well earned as the forth favorite dish of mine.

So the bottom line is, that there are some very good highlights (squid, sea bass, sausage and chocolate dessert), and other things were simpler. The wine was matched well and the service was also above average. If you’re around Binyamina, looking for somewhere decent to sit, it’s a great choice.
Cheers!