Salame Bar – Tamar and I on an unexpected double-date

For a while now me and Tamar were planning on going to Salame-Bar. On a rare spontaneous moment on Wednesday night we decided to go as an alternative for the over commercialized “Taste of the City” that happened this week. I guess the rest of the eaters did go to that event because the traffic was jammed and the place was empty. We entered at 21:00 after parking in front of the place, and we were welcomed by Roee the chef and Tal the bartender, both owners of the place.

The atmosphere was, well, empty, and we were a bit uncomfortable to be too attended by the owners. This what made us feel like we were on a double date with these two guys. On the other hand, we received a superb treatment and service. Music wasn’t to my preference, but.. ho well.

 We were pressured to choose a drink as soon as we sat down, but we still weren’t ready for it. As a result, it was chosen for us by Tal:

Imported Spanish Rioja red wine (32 nis a glass). Why? I have no idea. We were served half a glass and were told how to taste and smell it (they make wine workshops in the early evening so Tal was on that mood I guess).

After raising a toast we wanted to check out the menu, which is priced reasonably (on top of that we obviously had coupons for the night).

We went for three dishes and the bread: Sashimi, Anchovy and Carpaccio.

Bread (15 nis) to begin with was very generous in size and was accompanied by butter, tapenad and pesto. I loved the pesto but the bread was too dry. We are too used to have a freshly baked bread when we go to restaurants so the re-heated-day-old french bread just didn’t cut it and was hard to eat.

Sitting in front of Roee while he was making our dishes at the bar, was nice to see. Here he was assembling our Sashimi dish:

Sashimi of Palamida with sour cream, radish, pickled lemon, calamate olives, green chilly oil and wassabi peas (40 nis).  It was a fantastic dish with many surprises to the bite. Sweet, bitter and spicy at the same time. I liked the fresh and clean feel of it and that the presentation is pastoral-painting like.

Then we got a small present inside a home-pickles jar, opening it we discovered pickled mushrooms (22 nis but was complementary). I actually like mushrooms very much and it reminded me of the Russian pickled mushroom. I would want this dish to have an additional twist to it that it lacked a bit. Maybe interesting kind of mushrooms or if it had more spices. I very much liked the presentation, though it could be even smaller portion to my opinion.

 Then we got the Anchovy dish (34 nis). Explained to be with fresh anchovies “like in Barcelona”. It was served over a toast brochette and tomato salsa, lemon paste and pickles. Tamar couldn’t have enough of the lemon paste, apparently her husband isn’t keen on tartness and she is, so it was an opportunity not to be passed for her to go wild. I liked the salsa as it was very garlicky and you all know I can’t resist garlic flavors. Something was awkward about the ratio of ingredients here, too much bread or too little anchovy. I had to pick up the anchovy off the bread with the fork so I can taste it solo. Other then that it was a good dish. Olives were redundant here as there was too much going on.

 At that point of the night, as we got to know our dates and they wanted to know a lot about us, another surprise hit. It was Roee’s Mom who came to visit baring not other than home cookings for Roee (yes, the chef). It wasn’t just another ordinary day, but was her birthday! So we were given Caramel-Vodka shots to celebrates Mom’s birthday.

We were already pretty full and happy and thought about cancelling the Carpaccio dish but Tamar insisted and I’m glad she did. It was Fillet of Beef Carpaccio with Truffles paste, Parmesan, balsamic vinegar and sea salt (48 nis). The making of:

The finished presentation with Sunflower sprouts. It was a good dish. I was excited about the vinegar being spayed onto the dish giving only a splash of sweet tartness and mostly aroma. Also the beef itself was heavily aged which gave it an exquisite meaty taste. I preferred not to put it over the bread and eat it as is. Problem was that the truffle paste (promised to be noticeable) was salty and some more kosher salt was added making it pretty savory when eaten without the bread.

All the ends of the bread were left on our plates, we ate only the soft insides.

Conclusions of the night:

Be ready to order a drink fast enough so you won’t end up with involuntary glass of imported pricy wine. The food is pretty good and presented nicely. This is the reason we went there and both of us admitted it was good quality food. Personal service is a good thing but too personal can be a bit intimidating. Roee’s mom saved us this time. How much? 200 nis overall, but with the coupons discount it came to 120 nis. Good value for what we got. Thanks!