Atza’s location seen from Yirmiyahu street

Atza offers a very large variety of sushi and lots of stir-fry and other Asian dishes as well, and I was impressed by the quality and taste of the dishes and the attention given to the visual presentation of the dishes.

Atza is located, along with several other restaurants and businesses, in a small, covered outdoor mall built on the groundfloor of a new building complex in Romema.

If you’re arriving by foot, access to Atza is from Yirmiyahu Street, but there is a large, new underground car park right underneath the building complex (which when I last checked was still free). You cannot get to the underground parking from Yirmiyahu street. You need to drive first to Malchei Yisrael street (which is parallel to Yirmiyahu street) and then turn onto Brandeis Street. The parking garage is at the end of the block on the left (before the traffic light).

The Ambiance

The atmosphere and decor at Atza is extremely simple, and I think they deliberately did not invest much money in designing the place. The restaurant owners realized that what would draw people, particularly those interested in mehadrin sushi, is quality food at a reasonable price.

The seating area inside the restaurant is not spacious, but it’s much roomier at the tables outside. The outdoor seating area is covered, so you won’t get broiled in direct sunlight in the summer or rained on in the winter. The restaurant turns on outdoor gas heaters in the cold winter months.

The dining area inside the restaurant

The outdoor seating area

The Cuisine

The sushi makings, ie the fish and the veggies, look fresh and of high quality. You can see them in the windowed refrigerator at the ordering counter. Behind the counter you can watch the sushi chefs busily rolling out all sorts of sushi delicacies.

The sushi fixings in the display window

Atza has a menu in the old format, ie printed on paper, but they also have a digital menu on tablets with pictures of the dishes in full color. It is very convenient to browse the electronic menu.

The vegetarian and spicy dishes are marked on the menu so that you can find what you like and avoid stuff that you don’t.

Among the appetizers you will find chicken nuggets, vegetable egg rolls, spicy chicken wings, stir-fried broccoli and more.

Vegetable egg roll appetizer

For the main course, your main problem will be that there so many types of sushi and other Asian dishes that it’s hard to choose. They try to help you out by having a section in their sushi offerings called “the recommended ones” (המומלצים). They include all kinds of inside-out rolls (with the rice outside) with different combinations of fish and vegetables inside. The rolls are wrapped with a variety thinly sliced goodies like avocado, teriyaki, sweet potato in tempura, and panko, to name just a few.

Sushi maki with tuna, avocado and tempura

50/50 sushi roll – looks yummy, right?

Chinese chicken salad

Top: stir fried broccoli with meat, Bottom: stir fried broccoli

Sushi sandwiches

For people that want to order a joint dish and let their taste buds experience a bunch of types of sushi, there are sushi combination platters, including vegetarian and vegan combinations, combinations with sushi sandwiches and more.

Last but not least, I want to mention why Atza is presently very unique from a kosher perspective. About a year ago I attended a class given by Rabbi Moshe Katz, the head of the Kosharot organization, about the kosher issues that one must be aware of regarding fish. The rabbi mentioned that there was a serious problem that was discovered regarding the nori or seaweed paper eaten with most sushi. It was found that all of the nori was found to have insects in it, and that made it non-kosher.

Since that class, I did not partake of sushi with nori until I found out that Rabbi Rubin flew to China, investigated several nori factories and was able to arrange for a factory to produce nori without the problem of insects.

At the time of writing this post, I don’t know of any other restaurants using this kosher nori. If you know of others, please let me know using the contact form on the website.

Special nori seaweed paper with Rabbi Rubin’s hechsher

The Service

During my visits to Atza, I found the waitresses to be quick and courteous, and when the restaurant was not mobbed during peak hours, the food arrived fairly quickly. According to Google, the busiest times at Atza are Sunday and Monday from 20:00 to 21:00.

I highly recommend Atza for the excellent food and service and the top of the line kosher mehadrin supervision.

Restaurant details

Restaurant name: Atza Sushi Bar
Address: 9 Yirmiyahu St., Romema, Jerusalem
Telephone: 02-502-6232
Opening hours: Sun-Thu from 12:00-23:00 | Fri 6:00-13:00 | Motzei Shabbat 20:30-23:30
Kashrut: Rabbi Rubin
It is highly recommended to request to see the kashrut certificate to verify that it is still valid.

Menu

Appetizers from the menu

Recommended sushi rolls

Asian dishes

Directions

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The post Atza Sushi Bar in Jerusalem – Mehadrin Rav Rubin appeared first on Mehadrin Restaurants in Israel.

Reviewing a shawarma restaurant is more challenging than a standard sit down restaurant. It’s unusual to find any ambiance at fast food restaurants and so it’s less experiential, but we all have those times where we’re either looking to pay less for a meal or don’t have time for a regular restaurant or sometimes we just crave some simple “ethnic” food.

Shawarma plate with salad and french fries

Ambiance

Unlike many shawarma restaurants, Hello Yemen has plenty of tables ie you don’t need to eat your food squished up next to a wall. Another refreshing aspect of their service is the fact the tables are constantly being cleaned! Allow me digress for just a second about clearing tables. I think it should be standard procedure for anyone eating at a fast food restaurant that they clear the table after they finish eating and not leave plates, cups and dirty napkins on the table. I think that’s basic good manners (derech eretz in Hebrew).

Although people of all types eat at Hello Yemen the main clientele base is made up mainly of Haredi and religious people. That may be because of the mehadrin kosher supervision and it also could be due to the restaurant’s proximity to Givat Shaul and Romema, largely religious neighborhoods.

Located right next to the Yellow gas station on the main road into Jerusalem, there are parking spaces, but they’re not that abundant.

Hello Yemen’s entrance and adjacent parking

Hello Yemen’s Cuisine

The food at Hello Yemen is very good and the portions are generous. If want to order shawarma, you can have it filled with veal, turkey or chicken. The shawarma can be served in a laffa or a pita or if for the smaller appetite or for children, it can be ordered in half a laffa or half a pita. These meats can also be ordered on a plate which includes a salad, french fries and comes with either a laffa or two pitas. The plate comes with a very generous amount of meat and together with the side salads only people with really large appetites can finish all the food.

You can choose from veal, turkey or chicken shawarma

I took some of the food home in a people bag (aka doggy bag, although are you really going to tell your dog about this delicious meat?! That’s why smart people call it a People bag…).

The salad bar has the standard salads for a shawarma place: Moroccan carrot salad, dill pickles, chili peppers, Matbucha (Moroccan tomato salad) and Amba (an Indian sauce based on mango).

At the salad bar there are little bowls to take to your table

There are lots of other types of meat you can order like chicken livers, chicken skewers, entrecote steak, kebab, chicken breast, and Jerusalem mixed grill (mixed meats sauteed with onions). All these meats can also be ordered either on a plate or in a laffa or pita.

Service

The service at Hello Yemen is very good. The place is often packed with people ordering and they have plenty of workers to handle all of the orders. The staff seems to really enjoy providing good service and they work with lots of motivation preparing your order swiftly.

Friendly staff

There is a worker who constantly does the rounds cleaning the tables so you don’t arrive to a dirty table.

Restaurant Details:
Telephone: 02-652-2525
Address: 3 Weizmann Blvd, Jerusalem
Hours: Sun-Thurs: 11:30am-12:45am | Saturday: 1 hr after Shabbat-12:45am
Kashrut: Rav Machpud (Yoreh Deah)
It’s always recommended to verify that a restaurant’s kashrut certificate hasn’t been changed

Restaurant Rating:
Food: 4
Service: 4
Cleanliness: 4
Ambiance: 3+

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The menu in English and Hebrew

Directions:

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See the list of all mehadrin restaurants in Jerusalem

The post Hello Yemen – Mehadrin Shawarma at Entrance to Jerusalem appeared first on Mehadrin Restaurants in Israel.

Tortilla stuffed with chinese stir-fry or ground beef

The restaurant went through a major transformation few years ago. It used to be a typical mizrachi diner which was quite well known among traditional and sephardic circles and was a popular spot for high profile visitors such as former prime minister Menachem Begin, former defense minister Shaul Mofaz and former prime minister Ehud Barak to name a few. A few years ago, Mifgash Ha’esh was sold and the new owner continued the tradition of excellent dishes that the restaurant was known for but brought in the top notch mehadrin hechsher of Rabbi Landau from Bnei Brak (I inspected the kashrut certificate myself).

Mifgash Ha’esh is known for its meat dishes like its entrecote steaks, kebab skewers and chicken steaks but they have many other main courses and starters which are truly worthwhile. One of the starters which is really worthwhile is a tortilla stuffed with chinese stir-fry chicken or with ground beef. It comes with a chile sauce (not spicy) which you can dip your tortilla in. If you don’t like the sauce, the tortillas are really delicious on their own (33 NIS).

Another more traditional starter is the rich chopped liver with crisp toast (39 NIS) .

I was impressed not just by the culinary aspects of these starters, but also the aesthetic way they were served. The chopped liver is topped with a decorative dab of sauted onions, is served with crispy toast triangles, a small bed of lettuce, fresh tomato and a hard boiled egg sliced in a decorative shape almost like a sliced orange (see below).

Rich chopped liver, delivered decoratively with flower-shaped hard boiled egg

When you order a meat or fish main course, you are served six mini-salads with laffa bread to whet your appetite before the main course arrives. Alternatively, for a starter you can order several different variations of hummus (with mushrooms, a dappling of meat or with spicy sauce). I had the simple version with olive oil and it was amazingly good, probably one of the best I’ve tasted, even better than most of the restaurants that specialize in hummus.

Six homemade salads of your choice

I ordered the gourmet seasoned chicken steaks (85 NIS). They were very tender and well seasoned and came with two side dishes of your choice – in short – plenty of food.

Chicken steaks with side dishes of fries and salad

The service was quite good despite the fact that the restaurant was packed and the sanitation was excellent.

Mifgash Ha’esh also offers eastern European take away food for Shabbat on Thursday night and Friday and will take orders for kosher for Pesach food for pick up the day before the holiday.  

Restaurant Details:
Telephone: 02-538-8888
Address: 23 Yirmiyahu St., Jerusalem
Hours: Sun-Wed 11:00-23:00 | Thurs 12:00-midnight | Fri 8:00-14:00
Kashrut: Kosher (mehadrin) – Rabbi Landau, Bnei Brak
It’s always recommended to verify that a restaurant’s kashrut certificate hasn’t been changed
Website: none

Restaurant Rating:
Food: 4+
Service: 4
Cleanliness: 4+
Ambiance: 4

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The entrance to Mifgash Ha-esh on Yirmiyahu St.

Directions

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The post Mifgash Ha’esh – Mehadrin Meat Restaurant (Jerusalem) appeared first on Mehadrin Restaurants in Israel.