I was tempted to go for a fixed-priced meal with a coupon on Rokach 73. I remembered this restaurant as one of the best for seafood in Israel. We went for it. Made us think about these fixed-priced deals and how it’s affecting the total experience. I’m still not sure, what do you think?
This is what we had:
The special menu for the fixed-priced meal coupon holders. A starter, main dish, dessert, a beverage and a glass of the house wine per diner for 149 NIS.
The glass of wine was okay, nothing to write home about. The ambiance was romantic and dark. I think summer is nicer to visit as their balcony has more character than the dinning room, which is a bit old and cold in atmosphere. The service was professional.
Basket of sourdough bread and focaccia from the bakery accompanied by tapenade of black olives and fresh tomato salsa. What we got was eggplant spread instead of tapenade (maybe they ran out?). Three types of bread. Only one can be called sourdough, the tomato salsa was ordinary.
Purple calamari a la plancha served with bulgur tabouleh, Piri Piri sauce and thick yogurt. We asked to have the yogurt on the side. This dish was nice, pretty big for a starter, not too complicated.
Crab bisque, cream and brandy. I remembered this soup from when I visited this restaurant years back. Best dish of the night. Definitely the kind of things I want to have in a seafood restaurant – well made bisque. Read about the bisque we prepared in cooking school here.
Rokach steak – seared veal chunks served on a hot iron pan, arugula, balsamic vinaigrette and parmesan. The disappointment of the meal came in the shape of too thin slices of meat covered with a blanket of greens. Serving it on a sizzling pan over-cooked the meat.
Okay dish. One of the expensive dishes in the menu (110 NIS), can’t understand why.
It was served with a small salad, pretty good salad for a side dish with nuts, tomatoes and a nice vinaigrette.
Shrimp, calamari and mussels panache in a fish broth with tomato, spinach, cream and saffron. Nice classic seafood dish, I liked it.
Help with the photography 🙂
Belgian chocolate mousse, espresso cookie, caramel chili sauce, peanut. Thumbs up! The texture and consistency of the mousse was just right, the cookie was scrumptious. Too bad my tummy exploded already.
Milk ice cream with pink grapefruit, halva, tahini, citrus and caramel. Ahh! A halva monster is what we got! Anything else disappeared underneath. Too bad.
Finishing the meal
No doubt the price was a good deal for the amount of food we got. Nonetheless, we left with a tad sense of despair. I call it the 50/50 phenomenon, when half of the dishes were good and half not so much. Leaving you confused, wondering if you could have chose better. Or is it the coupon affect?
I heard that the Chef Eyal Lavi opened another restaurant, easy-going-lighter version of Rokach. Could be a good idea if he keeps his bisque.
73 Rokach Boulevard, Tel Aviv
0579443209
