Motza: A welcome break from reality in the Jerusalem Hills - restaurant review

“Please wait at our campfire pit,” the friendly hostess said, “and we will come get you when your table is ready.”

Down a little stone path was, indeed, a campfire pit with a warm, welcoming fire. The only thing missing was the marshmallows.

A few minutes later, the hostess came and showed us to our table. Motza, owned by two brothers from the famous Tzidkiyahu family, is basically a “fine dining” restaurant, but the service is still very friendly. Cliff and I were called chaverim (“friends”) at least 10 times during the evening by various servers, and the staff seemed to really care if we were having a pleasant evening.

The design of Motza is beautiful and gives you a feeling of luxury as soon as you walk in. There is a large open kitchen on the left, as well as a beautifully designed bar. The tables are spaced far apart, and the music is low enough that you can have an actual conversation with your dining partner, unless, like us, you’ve been married forever and don’t really have anything to say to each other. (Just kidding.)

It felt like a great escape from the past month of the war until Adi, who may be the best server I’ve ever encountered, put the menus on our table and said, “Chaverim, if there’s a siren, our protected space is downstairs. Now have a great evening.”

Maor and his brother Moshe grew up at Tzidkiyahu, which started as a small worker’s restaurant in Mahaneh Yehuda.

“We grew up with that authentic non-pretentious service, and we want to share the values of nature, family, and hosting with all our heart,” Moshe told me. “We want people to come here and take a break from reality and just enjoy themselves.”

Maor said that we could look at the menu but that Adi would tell us the things we just had to try. Our meal consisted mainly of appetizers, which turned out to be a great choice – one I definitely intend to make again on my next visit.

We started with focaccia and dips (NIS 36), which comprised an irresistible freshly baked focaccia, accompanied by a plate of spicy vegetables (that I mostly stayed away from), green eggplant cream that was outstanding, tehina, and grated tomatoes in olive oil. A great way to start the meal.

Adi insisted we try the oyster mushrooms from the Josper (charcoal oven). The dish was a large skewer of oyster mushrooms with a gremolata and lime on top (NIS 52). It tasted so much like meat that it was hard to believe it was vegetarian and makes a great choice for vegetarians. From the appetizer section of the menu, we also tried the fish cigar (NIS 54). I’ve never met a cigar I didn’t like, and this was no exception. On the plate were two long cigars topped with both aioli lime and a shoshka (red pepper) sauce. It was beautiful to look at and delicious to eat.

There is an entire section of the menu called “Raw.”As I love raw fish, we tried several of these dishes. The sashimi hamachi (yellow-tail) (NIS 76) was thin slices of very fresh yellow tail in a chili oil and lemon grass syrup. We also tried the red tuna bruschetta (NIS 58), which was a delicious take on tuna tartare, although the portion was fairly small, with the tuna on two bruschettas.

At this point, we were already getting full, but my carnivore husband was really in the mood for a steak. We shared a 330 gram entrecote steak (NIS 238), which was from Argentina and perfectly cooked.

Unlike many meat restaurants, the desserts are made in house. Adi suggested two desserts – bread pudding and almond ice cream. Both were excellent.