A New Menu at the Hilton Tel-Aviv Lobby Bar Featuring Pastry Chef Idan Hadad

The Lobby Bar at the Hilton Tel-Aviv has been renewed and it is featuring a new menu and patisserie by Pastry Chef Idan Hadad, who has been the hotel’s head pastry chef in the last six months. The Lobby Bar is dairy and kosher.

We arrived at Hilton Tel-Aviv on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The lobby was recently renovated and the lobby bar was renewed and upgraded. The décor and colors are still Hilton Classic style with brown and beige colors, but the restaurant itself is elegant and up-to-date, the new menu is modern and classy, and unlike the hotel décor – daring and colorful.

The lobby bar faces the beach. It includes couches and dining tables, and an open balcony seating. The sea view is very calming. Once you wander into there, you feel you are on vacation. Service is quiet and efficient.

The menu is dairy and kosher; it includes a large variety of starters, salads, sandwiches, pasta, fish and more. The crown of the lobby are Idan Hadad’s cakes. Idan Hadad, 27, is the head Pastry Chef of Hilton Tel-Aviv in the last 6 months. Idan has an impressive resume, here is his brief bio:

Idan studied at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie in France and took an advanced program in making of Boutique cakes at the Bellouet Conseil in Paris. His mentor was Jérôme Langillier (world champion of pastry). During the years 2013-2014, Idan was the vice pastry chef at the Ritz Carlton Herzliya. Between 2015-2016 he was the pastry chef at the famous Herbert Samuel restaurant in Tel-Aviv.

I recommend asking what the cakes of the day are and even go and pick one at the cake display. I have to warn you though – all the cakes look fabulous (and they are also delicious) and it is difficult to pick one!
In our visit, we tasted a few courses from the new Lobby Bar menu. We started with two plates: Gnocchi Duet and Seabass Sinaia.

Gnocchi Duet

Potato gnocchi and beetroot gnocchi in Porcini sauce.  A fair sized plate of chubby Gnocchi that melts in the mouth in a accentuated porcini cream sauce. It is served with grated parmesan cheese. The potato gnocchi was somewhat large and slightly too soft in our opinion, but it tasted like heaven!

Seabass Sinaia

Seabass filet with tomatoes, fennel, red cabbage, small radish, cauliflower, chives, seared hot peppers, served on a bed of tahini. This is a lovely colorful plate that is also very healthy. The fish is crunchy from the outside and soft inside, goes very well with the seared vegetables (the radish is fresh), and the Tahini that is almost raw. I loved every bite!

Desserts and the Lobby Bar – Idan’s cakes

Cherry Blossom Tart

Tart of pistachio and cherry. It looks fabulous, really like a flower from cherries! The tart was very crunchy and the pistachio cream was excellent and not too sweet. On the top of the tart there is a white chocolate disc with spots of vanilla that is yummy to bite with the tart. I enjoyed it very much!

Milk Chocolate Bar and Hazelnut Praline

A very sweet chocolate-praline dessert wrapped with a crispy chocolate. It is rather light for such a mousse, very sweet and tasty.

With the meal, we had fresh juices; they make here fresh apple, carrot and orange juice.

The new menu of the Lobby Bar with the cakes of Idan Hadad make it a wonderful place to eat; it gives a descent competition to the local coffee shops and restaurants in Tel-Aviv.

Information: The Lobby Bar, Hilton Tel-Aviv, Kosher.

Disclosure: I was a guest of the place.