We heard about Montifiore Seven when looking at “Chef-Tochal Festival” different participant restaurants’ menus. It sounded better than the alternatives so we went four of us to enjoy dinner. The restaurant placed in one of the “changing corners” as Omer likes to call them – venues that keep opening, failing, closing and re-opening due to bad locations. We know it’s not long before we predict this place to close its doors so we wanted to try it before we miss it altogether. The concept is another market based restaurant, with actual baskets full of vegetables in the middle of the dinning space. I wondered if we’re gonna see one of the cooks pops by to grab an onion and run back to the kitchen. It didn’t happen so it’s probably decorations only. There’s a long bar and a big space with table, but even with the last day of the food festival, the place was almost empty.
Looking at the festival special menu we could see a choice between several starters. All simple, tapas or charcuterie style. We had the Artichokes With Manchego Cheese and the Corned Sirloin from the special menu and also took Tahini And A Very Spicy Salsa Sauce (11 NIS) and Druze Fish Tartar With Avocado, Red Cabbage, Pine Nuts And Herbs (49 NIS). The artichokes weren’t bad but I doubt if they make it themselves, the Corned sirloin was pretty good but very small “charcuterie style” dish, the Tahini was very good and we enjoyed it with the Bread served for free with Za’atar and Pickled Lemon Spread. The bread itself was the cheapest most normal and common bread, nothing interesting, but it was nice to get these two condiments. We asked about the Tahini and turns out it’s “Hayona” brand. Very spicy salsa wasn’t spicy after all. And last, the tartar of fish, was a nice dish with a lot of pine nuts but too much red cabbage and served in a bit of an off-putting way.
In the main dishes category there had only been two options to the 84 NIS price (fish / veg risotto or beef tortellini). The two others were 15 NIS addition. We had many questions to the waiter and turns out that the pricier dish of Whatever The Fisherman Brought On Torn Pasta With Tomato Butter And Asparagus is actually today a filet of fish without the pasta (and without the asparagus and the tomato butter as we learned later from Sharin’s dish). I took the Tortellini Filled With Beef, With Forest Mushrooms And Red Wine Sauce, Roy took the Fish risotto and Omer ordered from the regular menu the daily special of Beef Stroganoff. I didn’t try the risotto but it was a very big dish. The fish dish was well cooked and with nice green vegetables like snow peas and green beans. The lack of other elements from the menu was upsetting. The Tortellini dish was the most successful I believe with a very nice sauce, seasoning and some vegetables. The pasta itself was well prepared and it was a small dish but delicious one. The Beef Stroganoff had pieces of fillet minion which is never wrong with sauce that was fine but I’m not sure had cream in it or not like stroganoff meant to be. Many forest mushrooms accompanied and were excellent and everything on top of a potato puree which was dull.
For desserts we had Yogurt Panna Cotta With Pear And Cinnamon and Chocolate Mousse With White Chocolate Ganache, Fresh Pineapple And Whipped Cream. They were both fun and tasty, simple though.
I’m a bit perplexed about this place. Nothing was remarkable, and whenever it was close to it, like with the Tahini and artichokes, it was just a matter of purchasing nice things. The description was more than once different from reality but the menu still have things I would be tempted to try next time. But will there be a next time? My gut telling me there won’t be.
7 Montifiore st, Tel-Aviv
03-5100094
OMG we’re celebrities! thanks for mentioning us in your post 😉
It was lots of fun, we should do it again, and soon!