Omer surprised me and took me to The Salon (Ha’Salon). I didn’t know anything about this place other than it’s Eyal Shani’s and it’s open only twice a week. Turns out that this place really made a buzz, a very unique kind of buzz.
Shani has several restaurants already in Tel-Aviv and had appeared in several cooking TV shows. He has his own followers crowed, a niche. My impression is that his philosophy to food is cooking simple dishes using the best materials and products that speak for themselves and he’s a big talker when it comes to food. A full of himself food bullshiter in other words. But we can forgive him for that if he makes great food.
It was certainly a different experience than the usual night out in a restaurant but was it in a good manner?
I want to write a few words about the ambiance and service we got but as it was more of a changing process I’ll write about it a bit later.
Most of the kitchen is out in the middle of the restaurant, with a big brick oven and all the mise-en-place ready in the middle of the bar, presented for the diners to see and smell.
We were seated on the tall chairs in front of the kitchen. This is what we were facing: cooked zucchini and green beans. Every time one of the cooks took a handful of the beans they spilled all around.
Also right in front of us the cooked cauliflower and eggplants were waiting for their turn to be taken and in the meanwhile spreading a strong distinctive fragrance.
The overly poetic daily menu of The Salon combined with the high pricing makes it appear a tad arrogant.
The wine:
The wine list had two parts – Israeli and French Bourgogne. Why only Bourgogne? I asked the cook in front of us and he explained that the Bourgogne Pinot Noir matches perfectly to the food. Pinot Noir isn’t my top choice, this is why I chose to get an Israeli glass of red and a French glass of white.
Clos-Du-Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet 2009 (56 NIS). Nice and gentle dry white, very French.
Judean Hills, Tzora Vineyards Israel 2010 (45 NIS). Was full and heavy, no complaints. Needed some time for ventilation.
I really liked the shape of the wine glasses
Little focaccia to start the meal with. Fresh, greasy, crunchy, appetizing.
A welcoming addition of fresh green hot peppers
I always prefer asking for the tap water, this way we get the nicest bottles.
The cook is preparing a dish of vegetables in front of us – but not for us. We’re just looking.
Another is preparing a dish with three colored tomatoes – just the seeds! It’s funny because I did the opposite – used just the tomato without the seeds.
Seared meat on top
The cook is so pleased with his own work, he takes a snapshot and immediately uploads to twitter.
Few words about looking at the team working in the open kitchen: it it was too slow. I guess for someone else it could have seem normal but it was very far from a normal kitchen. These guys were playing with the food, “petting” their ingredients… In one sense it could look like they’re really putting some love into the food. In the other sense, it’s disgusting. They’re almost masturbating over their dishes. For me it was a weird show to watch. Against everything I learned about cooking in a professional kitchen. For me it was always: work fast, work clean, neat, efficiently, professionally. For them it was: work slow, be wasteful (using one part of the ingredient and throwing the rest to the garbage), plating differently each time… One of the cooks was thinking about how to put the slice of pepper on the plate for over 5 minutes. How odd is that? It’s not like they were doing anything complicated.
Anyway, as I was saying, each cook has the privilege of working however he feels right if the end result is great food. This is what I believe. So it was time to taste the food.
Another odd twist to this meal was that our waiter looked like a cherub: chubby, curly blond hair and big blue eyes. He also expressed himself in this angelic manner whenever he approached us with a dish: “this is heaven on a plate”, “this is just a magnificent creation” etc…
So here comes the food:
Blue crab shawarma (140 NIS). He said it was heavenly but I disagree. It was crab meat fried and placed over smooth fresh tomato sauce. Very simple but missed on the seasoning mark.
Grouper tartar, olive oil and lime with green chilly and radish (140 NIS). Similar to the previous dish, it was too plain. Served with nothing, the seasoning wasn’t amazing, the ingredients were of good quality but it was something I can easily do at home in five minutes. In the meantime I’m not impressed.
We’re always enjoying picture taking!
I hesitantly asked for a lemon and got this lime. It helped.
Beet leaves perfume, horseradish cream (69 NIS). We got this dish on-the-house and it was my favorite dish of the meal! I really liked sipping the cold soup with the cream. Gentle soup meets the nose-opening cream. I was concerned at first it will taste like borscht but in spite of the color, the beets weren’t dominant, the bitter taste of the beet leaves is completely different.
The texture and color were perfect. I really enjoyed it.
As we were finishing our first courses, the atmosphere changed drastically. The music turned louder, the place got crowded and girls started singing and dancing on the tables tops. I did not see that one coming.
On to the main courses…
Minute steak, tehini, tomato salsa (120 NIS). Juicy and meaty slices of entrecôte seared in flames. It was very tasty and went well with the tehini paste. I wanted some more vegetables in this dish.
Oddly, this dish didn’t come with meat cutlery. I asked for a better knife and the cherub handed me the desserts pies’ knife. Getting weirder by the minute.
Omer said this dish is served inside a pita bread in the “Miznon”, Eyal Shani’s street food restaurant. Maybe the pita version is a better idea? We were missing something to wipe the plate with. We asked for a Challa bread we saw sitting on the other side of the bar. It was sweet and soft and a pleasure to wipe the plate with it.
Finished with the duck dish. Seeing how it’s composed in front of us.
The breast is seared pink and the leg is confit for hours. Two carrots as a vegetable.
The duck (190 NIS) was succulent and delicious. The sauce really tasty as well. A real pleasure after Herbert’s misfortunate duck dish.
We were already very full but managed to eat the whole duck dish.
Desserts…
Naked chocolate cake with sour cream (49 NIS). Omer liked it (he’s the chocolate expert). I thought it was fine but nothing to write home about.
The Cheesecake (49 NIS) was tasty but plain. Not too sweet, could be nice if it had any elements added to it to make a real “restaurant dessert”.
The verdict is rather complicated this time, you get mixed messages eating in this place: prestige, down to earth, a common-people tavern, only for the rich, sloppy presentation, serious business, unprofessional service. Anyway you look at it, I think it’s safe to say you don’t get the value for your money here (the bill came up to about 800 NIS for the two of us!). Better spend your money on a star Michelin restaurant in my opinion.
Strengths: quality materials, attention to the products, a lot of love (and time!) put into each dish, sitting in front of the cooks, cherub waiter.
Weaknesses: all the dishes are too plain, no sophistication, unbelievable pricing, what you read in the menu is what you get – only few elements in each plate, loud oriental music.
Who will enjoy it: Eyal Shani’s fans across the globe. Who will not: all the rest.
Ha’Salon
8 Ma’avar Yabok, Tel Aviv
