A Jerusalem Kosher restaurant with stunning view of city
The restaurant is located on the top floor of the Jerusalem Gardens hotel and offers a beautiful view of the entrance to the city.
By RAFAELLA CHURGIN-GRADSTEINSkyline(photo credit: Courtesy)
The name "Skyline" promises dizzying heights, both literal and culinary, and delivers on those promises. This is a chef restaurant and everything – from the food, to the waiters’ attire (complete with white gloves) to the prices – makes it clear that this is a fine-dining establishment.The restaurant is located on the top floor of the Jerusalem Gardens hotel and offers a beautiful view of the entrance to the city. We arrived while it was still light outside and got to watch the sky darken. Unfortunately, the Chords Bridge wasn't illuminated that night, but if it had been, we would have had an excellent view.If it’s not too busy, the restaurant offers a tasting menu at 350 NIS per person, which I highly recommend for a special occasion. The tasting menu includes six dishes and two glasses of wine, a red and a white. The restaurant is a favorite in the ultra-Orthodox community thanks to the high level of kashrut certification. In addition to being mehadrin, they are OU-certified and all of the meat has a Rubin hechser as well as a private hechsher from Rav Weinberg in Jerusalem. For kashrut and culinary reasons, they make everything in-house.We started with an appetizer of chicken liver pate (NIS 72), which was served with pumpkin jam, a biscotti and a few greens. Both the consistency and flavor of the liver were excellent, though I thought it was better with the savory bread, not the sweet biscotti.Skyline (Credit: Courtesy)Next, we had an off-menu dish, the local specialty, Meurav Yerushami, which consisted of dark meat chicken (pargiyot), sweetbreads, cubes of entrecote steak, hummus and grey tahini served on a flatbread. It was served with greens and pickled vegetables. Though the flat bread was a little hard, the meats and pickled greens were delicious.The final appetizer we had was the duck bao (NIS 76), shredded duck in a sweet sauce on a steamed bun with a salad on the side. This dish was simply superb. The bun had the best consistency of any steamed bun I've tried, and the salad featured orange and olive oil beads, whose gel texture and cool flavor were a wonderful contrast to the spicy salad.The main course was entrecote (NIS 196), cooked to a perfect medium-rare, served with onions, mushrooms, sweet peas, mustard and chimichurri, each component integrating perfectly. This was one of the best steaks I have ever tasted. Due to an allergy, I can't have regular chimichurri, but thanks to Skyline's allergy-friendly policy, the chef made me a special chimichurri (the same happened with the bread, with our waiter, Yoni, tracking down a loaf of tomato-free bread for me).The table next to us had the same idea. A family of about 10 people, they ordered a 750-gram prime rib, which was served on a giant wood slab with three side dishes. At NIS 75 per 100 grams, it was pricey, but looked absolutely delicious.Manager Eli Berger recommended that we drink the Shiloh Cabernet Sauvignon Secret Reserve with our main course, which was an excellent choice.
While waiting for dessert, we went to the balcony to finish our wine and were treated to a lovely view of the Jerusalem skyline. The balcony overlooks the Ramada Hotel and you can see into the hills, filled with the city's twinkling lights.For dessert, we had a peanut-butter chocolate dish with whipped cream, strawberries and candied nuts, which was so good we wanted to double-check that it was non-dairy. Overall, a fantastic meal.“When the mashiach comes, first he’ll eat here and then continue on,” manager Birger said with a smile as we finished our meal. The restaurant often hosts events such as sheva brachot or bar mitzvahs, so it’s a good idea to call before coming.Skyline RestaurantJerusalem Gardens Hotel4 Zeev Vilnai St.Phone: (02) 655-8847Kashrut: MehadrinHours: Sun-Thurs. 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.The writer was a guest of the restaurant.
