Israel is blessed with a long Mediterranean coastline. The gem of the Israeli coast in the Sharon area is Netanya, built on a bluff above the shore. Well-kept parks with walking paths and a promenade run the length of the bluff. Hotels, restaurants and some lucky residential buildings are built above, facing the sea.
The iconic Hayekev, a Netanya landmark, is one such restaurant, situated on this prime property.
Not long ago the folks from Hayekev opened a sister restaurant next door, called, appropriately, The View. The restaurant interior is beautifully designed with a sparkling bar and plenty of seating. But the best place to sit at this restaurant is on the patio overlooking the park and the sea beyond. The restaurant opens at 6 p.m., in time to catch the sunset over the Mediterranean and the sea breezes as evening approaches.
The View is a meat chef restaurant under the hand of chef Nati Arbiv. He comes to The View from successful nonkosher restaurants such as Jerusalem’s Machneyuda. The chef is gallantly meeting the challenges of the kosher kitchen, where the cooking is much more demanding. The View, he says with pride, brings Tel Aviv-level dining to Netanya.
One of the chef’s goals at The View is to blur the lines between kosher and nonkosher dining. And therein lies the secret of the menu. While the focus is the meat dishes, the chef wants his kosher diners to enjoy the flavors available at nonkosher restaurants.
And how exactly does that work?
You would never know it, but the supposed dairy products are nondairy nut-based imitations. The chef works closely with Israeli companies that supply specialty products exclusively for this restaurant, to Arbiv’s specification. These include organic cheese-like products and some processed meat products like the churrasco. No, you cannot buy these in a store, nor will you find them at any other restaurant. These are bespoke products designed by this chef, each for a specific dish, available only at The View.
We started our meal sharing one of the nonmeat dishes from the Appetizer menu. The forest mushrooms sautéed in chimichurri topped with vegan “cheese” and slivered almonds were beautifully presented and delicious. The “cheese” looked like crumbly Tzfatit cheese, but like so many imitation products, the parve cheese tasted better than the dairy version. The flavors were just perfect, mixed with the different types of mushrooms in a stir-fried sauce.
While the vast majority of the dishes contain meat, the chef will accommodate requests to adjust some of the dishes for non-meat eaters.
The Saigon dish from the Appetizer menu is an elegantly presented dish of crispy romaine lettuce leaves filled with cabbage and mixed vegetables in a vinaigrette sauce, and topped with slivers of meat.
“Can you hold the meat on that?” And they brought us a nonmeat version of this dish. The meat slivers on top of the Savion is the best part, we were told. But we enjoyed the parve version mightily.
The house bread was served with four dips that were each sweet, spicy, and tangy, by turn. The two rolls were so cake-like we were not sure that the bread required netilat yadayim.
For my main dish I chose the mushroom risotto from the Appetizer menu. This was a blend of risotto with champignon, portobello, Shimeji, and forest mushrooms. As each dish can be tailored to your taste, you can request that the dishes be spicy or less spicy.
GETTING BACK to the meat, which is what this restaurant is about, the menu offers a 250-gr. burger and grilled pargit. But it seems a wasted opportunity to go this way at The View. This restaurant is an opportunity to choose from almost a dozen cuts of steaks and ribs that we see only at more elegant restaurants.
My companion looked longingly at the smoked lamb spare ribs, which got an enthusiastic nod from Arbiv. Out came a huge wooden plank bearing 500 grams of glazed lamb ribs on the bone, cubes of roasted potatoes, and a mound of roasted vegetables, with surprises as he dug deeper. The glaze, we learned, was masala sauce, an intricate chef combination of herbs and spices that lent the meat a dark red hue. The meat was soft and cut easily, and very tasty.
It is hard to put away a dessert after a meal at The View. The deserts are designed to Arbiv’s specifications. We had a lemon tart with meringue on a base of crumble. It was a delightful combination of sweet-tart, and went well with the espresso.
- The View
- 6 Gad Machnes Street, Netanya
- Tel: 072-331-4144
- Kashrut: Netanya Rabbinate
- Open Sunday-Thursday, 6 p.m.-11 p.m.; Saturday, from after Shabbat till midnight. Closed Friday and Shabbat.
The writer was a guest of the restaurant. She is the founder and CEO of eLuna.com/, the premier English-language website for kosher restaurants in Israel.