This is the first time I’ve started a restaurant review with a story about the bathroom. But there’s a first time for everything.
“The food was great, but do you mind if I tell you something not so great?” I asked.
“Sure. Go ahead,” he replied.
“The bathroom was pretty dirty,” I answered.
Before I even finished speaking, Yossi rushed to the bathroom, scooped up the paper towels on the floor, and began cleaning the toilet.
“The bathroom is cleaned every half hour, but there are so many people here that it just gets dirty so fast,” he said as he energetically scrubbed.
The encounter was an example of a restaurant that really cares about the guest experience. During our meal, four different servers came over to our table – which was set on the artificial grass outside the restaurant on a rare and blessedly cool evening in Beit She’an – and asked if they could bring us anything else.
Next to us was a long table of about 30 people celebrating a simcha, and there were numerous families out for dinner.
I have written before about why I like going to a “shipudiya,” based on the Hebrew word shipud or skewer. The first course is always an array of salads, usually with freshly baked bread, followed by two skewers of meat. If you stay away from the bread and the french fries (easier said than done), it’s even a low-carb meal. I like the idea that the meal is all-inclusive, except of course, for drinks. Because of the salads, you don’t need a first course, and pareve desserts usually aren’t worth the calories. Most skewers here are two for NIS 80, and you can mix and match as well.
Here there were several unique additions to the salad course. First of all, hummus is included, which it often isn’t in these types of restaurants. Second, there was a dish of thick slices of eggplant that had been dipped in breadcrumbs and fried. The inside of the eggplant was creamy, and the dish was simply delicious. We of course asked for a refill.
There were several unique salads that I enjoyed, including one with artichoke hearts and a smoked eggplant with mayonnaise. Unlike in other similar restaurants, the salads were not automatically refilled, but we were asked several times if we wanted specific refills. I appreciated the fact that less food would go to waste this way, although it did slow down the service. The salads were served with freshly baked laffot, which seemed to be made at least partly from whole wheat.
When it came to the main course, I couldn’t resist and ordered one skewer of goose liver (no judgement please, and no angry emails either) and one of pargit (spring chicken). Most dishes were NIS 80 for two skewers, although there was no price listed for the goose liver. Both were cooked perfectly and were very enjoyable. My daughter ordered one pargit and one chicken shashlik, and the chicken was a little dry. My pescatarian husband chose the fish, which was a whole amnon (tilapia), wrapped in paper and put on the grill. The flavor was good, although it is a bony fish.
The one order that was not successful was the falafel (NIS 45). The portion was huge but the falafel were dry. I’d much rather eat just the salads (NIS 36), which is also a great choice for a vegetarian.
We drank a carafe of fresh lemonade (NIS 22) with our meal.