Dining Out / Where unimpressive meets absolutely banal - Haaretz

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Thu., January 17, 2008 Shvat 10, 5768

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Dining Out / Where unimpressive meets absolutely banal

By Daniel Rogov

Tags: Pasta, Pizza, Israel

Tel Aviv's recently opened Allora continues in the tradition of its predecessor, Stuzzi, offering a wide variety of pizzas and pastas. Its menu also includes trattoria-style dishes. The trattoria is a simple Italian neighborhood restaurant, which serves up traditional fare with a warm welcome. As in many Tel Aviv eateries, the large bar seems just a bit too dominant in this small room. In fact, if more than two people are sitting at each of the five tables, the place actually seems crowded. A large patio, now closed for the winter, compensates for this.

We chose to sit inside because it was a very cold evening. Once settled, my companion opted for the lentil soup, which - based on a beef stock - was quite tasty; the lentils were just soft enough, the soup quite thick and flavored with just enough salt and pepper. In a phrase, a nice home-cooked soup. I chose the mussels, which were cooked in a rose-anise sauce of tomatoes; more of a soup than a sauce, it was well worth finishing off with a spoon.

However, the mussels themselves were somehow disappointing, as they were small and somewhat bland. We shared another appetizer: a whole eggplant that had been baked in the taboun oven with feta cheese. The eggplant was topped with chunks of tomatoes that had been sauteed in olive oil. In such a dish, it might be worthwhile using higher-quality cheese served in cubes.

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For our main courses, we ordered the seafood risotto and the osso bucco. A truly fine risotto does not actually contain seafood but the flavor comes through because the rice has been cooked in a rich seafood stock. Here, however, the dish was served with seafood, similar to seafood pasta. It was not a very impressive dish because the aroma and flavor of saffron, which is essential to the dish, was completely lacking.

My own dish, a veal osso bucco was quite good but not special, the marrow bone having lost its marrow probably because it was not seared top and bottom to seal it in, and the meat, although soft, was not quite soft enough to spear merely with a fork. The root vegetables served with the dish - carrots, onions, parsnip and potatoes - were good.

We closed our meal with espressos and a portion of the tiramisu, which was acceptable although a bit too liquidy and a bit too sweet.

The service, although basic, was friendly and the wine list, although short, offered some good choices. We opted for a bottle of the Valpolicella Classico of Tommasi. Our food bill came to NIS 250 and the wine added NIS 138 to the bill. Although not worth a special trip, considering the reasonable prices and the overall appeal of home-cooked cuisine, this is a good choice for those who live, work or are passing through the area.

Allora: Sderot Rothschild 60, Tel Aviv. Tel: (03) 566-5655. Open Sunday-Thursday from 12 P.M.-12 A.M.; Friday from 12-5 P.M.; Saturday from 5 P.M.-12 A.M.

The recently opened HaPa'amon, located in the heart of the Jerusalem Hills, has all the potential to be charming. With glass and wrought-iron walls that open to a view of the adjoining pasture and vineyard and the nearby hills, this could be the perfect place to sit for lunch while touring the nearby wineries or simply enjoying the countryside. Alas, all that would be required to have this dream come true is to elevate the quality of the cooking from the absolutely banal.

We were three people hungry for lunch so we started with four appetizers. The first of these, said to be a chicken escalope, was actually a dish of small chunks of chicken breast, tossed together with a teriyaki and peanut butter sauce. The chicken was dry and the sauce, which was supposed to add a Far-Eastern note, did little more than add far too much sweetness and stickiness to the dish. A warm mushroom salad of champignon, Portobello, forest mushrooms and bits of figs, topped with a honeyed vinaigrette sauce, was also far too sweet. A carpaccio of beef and grilled eggplant topped with tehina, sesame oil and a variety of nuts and seeds were more appealing, although equally sweet. While the dishes were generous in size, much of our food remained on our plates.

As a main course, one of our company ordered the 300-gram entrecote. The steak, grilled precisely as requested, was fine, with just the right amount of fat left intact. The steak was good enough to help us forget the rather ordinary and largely unseasoned boiled potatoes, green beans and carrots that accompanied it. The other dishes we tried were even more disappointing than our opening courses. The potato gnocchi were rubbery and the coconut milk and mushroom sauce reminded me of nothing more than the kind of white paste that children and librarians use. The chicken livers we ordered, although nicely done, were flawed by a red wine sauce so sweet that one almost had the feeling of sugar grinding between the teeth.

With our closing espressos, we shared one dessert. As many of the other courses, this one too came in a most generous portion, in this case of scoops of vanilla ice cream, coarse halvah. Although the halvah and nuts were tasty, the dessert was all too sweet. The wine list, mostly of wines from the Judean Hills is reasonable but we had brought our own wine with us and our bill for three came to NIS 360. The service, as might be expected was pleasant but extremely basic. As stated, the place itself is charming but I will only consider returning if I hear that the culinary offerings have taken a decided turn for the better.

HaPa'amon: Givat Yeshiahu (at the Srigim Intersection). Tel: (02) 995-1944. Open daily 12:30-11:30 P.M.

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