Digging into dairy dishes in Mamilla - restaurant review

The owners, husband and wife team Lizi Halimi and Artur Elyashayev, are both business partners and life partners, although Artur has spent more time in reserve duty the past two years than in the restaurant. They are the parents of two young children. They opened their restaurant a few months ago after a renovation.

When my husband, daughter, and I arrived, we stood at the hostess’s stand for at least six minutes before someone came to seat us. Once at our table, we waited again for English menus, and then again after I asked to speak to the manager. It was not an auspicious beginning.

Artur came and said, “You really should talk to my wife. She’s much better at this than I am.” Our experience changed as soon as Lizi came over, and I felt like I had made a new friend. With her tattoos, and five earrings in each ear, she looks a little different than most restaurant owners I know.

As many readers know, I’m a bit of a wine snob, so when I saw on the table a “bottle of the month,” I knew it was a good sign. In this case, the wine was from Terra di Seta, one of two kosher wineries in Tuscany; and like any good bottle of wine, it has a story behind it.

“Ten years ago, we were on our honeymoon in Italy,” Lizi told me. “Artur keeps kosher, and it wasn’t always easy to find things for him to eat. We were just driving around, and we stumbled on this kosher winery. Now, for our 10th anniversary, we want to share it with our customers.”

“Why be Mehadrin?” I asked her. She said the proximity to the Western Wall means the restaurant is a good place for post-bar mitzvah meals, and Mamilla in general has many haredi visitors.

Lizi confided that her biggest problem is getting enough staff workers. The night we were there, a nursery schoolteacher and former waitress had to be begged to take the shift. One young woman was obviously in training. Lizi said she had come to the restaurant the night before as a guest, and she liked the food so much that she asked Lizi if she was hiring. That night was her first shift.

The idea of a brasserie, Lizi said, is that the menu changes according to the time of day. So there is a separate breakfast menu, and another for lunch and dinner. After the holidays, they will be opening a wine bar with tapas in the evenings. There is also a VIP room that can seat 50; the night we were there, they were setting the room up for a women’s study session and dinner.

For my appetizer, I chose the arancini (NIS 47), which consisted of three crispy risotto and cheese balls with mushroom and truffle in a rose sauce. I’ve never met an arancini I didn’t like, but this one was especially good. I had promised my husband that we’d share our appetizers, but I was only willing to give him half of one arancini. In return, I received just a little of his mushroom polenta (NIS 45), a large portion of grilled mushrooms on creamy polenta.

My daughter went for the fish tacos (NIS 57) – three small tacos with tuna tataki and aioli. The fish was fresh and of good quality. All three appetizers were excellent, and I would order them again.

For the pasta, Lizi suggested the spinach and cheese buccolini (NIS 74), a large pasta I had never tried before, in a sauce of white wine, thyme butter, and vegetable broth with toasted almonds. It was a unique and excellent dish.

We also shared a tartufo pizza (NIS 65) – a white pizza with a béchamel sauce, truffle puree, and several kinds of mushrooms. Very well made, and the truffle flavor was not overwhelming as sometimes happens with a truffle pizza.