Dining Out / Come for the view, not the food

My desire to dine at 2C, in Tel Aviv's Azrieli Center, did not start propitiously. The first thing that seemed to go wrong was when I tried to call to make a reservation, only to be met by an automated message which told me to "dial 1." I did so and after a few moments was greeted by another automated message that told me that all of the lines were busy but that if I left my name and phone number, my call would be returned. After an hour's wait and several more tries, I finally managed to get through to a genuine human being.

The reservation was easy enough to make but I did not appreciate being told in a somewhat officious manner that my dining time would be limited to two hours and that entry to the dining room was only allowed to those who ordered a main course. I asked what would happen if someone wanted to build a meal out of three first courses and was told that this was "not allowed."

Fair enough, I suppose, for everyone is entitled to run their restaurant as they see fit. On arrival I made my way easily enough to the 49th floor of the Azrieli Center, just to be told that there was no record of my reservation, despite all my efforts. I still convinced the hostess to give me a table.

The first thing to make its way to me was a platter containing an especially thick foccaccia, which appeared more like a puffy roll than the standard flat Italian bread we know so well. Also on the plate were three slices of dark bread and small portions of black olive tapenade, aioli and olive oil.

The roll, hot from the oven, was fresh and tasty. The bread slices, however, had neither of those attributes, perhaps because they had been sliced and kept in the open air for too long before being served.

The tapenade was fine, just salty enough and rich in flavor. The aioli was not as rewarding, having a far too sweet taste, not enough garlic and a not thick enough consistency. I noticed that several of the tables around me had also received plates of mixed greens and black olives, but for some reason, perhaps because I was not deemed worthy or someone forgot, I did not receive those.

As a first course I opted for the ravioli filled with goose liver. This was not so much traditional ravioli, which are which are enclosed on all sides, but more like tortellini - broad strips of pasta folded over on three sides to hold their filling.

That would not have bothered me in the least but the goose liver had been so thoroughly overcooked that its dry and bitter taste was like old beef liver. The truffle oil sauce could have saved the dish but that was neither creamy nor concentrated enough.

My main course selection was the goose leg confit. In its traditional form a leg and thigh of the goose are salted heavily, seasoned with herbs and cooked in their own rendered fat. The dish is then allowed to cool, stored in the fat and then reheated before serving. Cooking in this manner assures that the meat will have been saturated with the tasty fat and will be so soft that it will fall off the bone with the mere touch of a fork.

The dish I was served had no sign whatever of having been cooked in fat and was so tough that I found myself struggling to remove the meat from the bones. Had I been in a casual restaurant I would have abandoned knife and fork and simply taken the bone in hand to eat without any utensil other than my teeth, but did not think that appropriate in this somewhat faux-sophisticated atmosphere.

Dessert was what the menu referred to as a choco-coco affair, two slices of a half-frozen chocolate marquise set on a pastry-like bed of baked coconut. The chocolate was good, the coconut was too dry and best ignored, and the custard sauce served with the dish too diluted to have any charm. My closing espresso was fine.

When I dined here nearly 10 years ago I noted that it would take a hard-hearted curmudgeon not to acknowledge the magnificence of the panoramic view from the restaurant. That remains true and the restaurant retains its dark black, somewhat stark but appealing visual atmosphere.

What has changed is that in 2005 the restaurant became kosher. What hasn't changed is that there are still too many problems with the dishes served, the phone is answered aggressively, and the prices are too high.

My bill for one came to NIS 245 to which two glasses of the Cabernet-Shiraz of Galil Mountain Winery added NIS 60. I suppose I took all of this philosophically and did after all smile when the Beatles' "Let It Be" began to play.

Despite that smile, unless I hear that things take a dramatic turn for the better, I shall wait another 10 years or so to return.

2C: On the 49th floor of the round Azrieli tower, Tel Aviv. Open Sun.-Thurs. noon-midnight. Kosher.