Raisa Bar is a happy flea market
cheerful and colorful bar. It is a place to drink, enjoy the happy ambience and
light, good drinks and refreshing Mediterranean food loaded with fresh herbs!
Raisa is situated in the informal
setting of the Jaffa Flea Market. This place puts you in vacation mode the
moment you lay your foot here! Strolling around the calm alleys and roaming
around the galleries is so much fun. Raisa fits well into it. It is a casual bar
with cheerful façade. Many people sit outside here, facing the alley and
looking at people passing by. The inside of the restaurant is a bit like a bar
with brick walls and a lot of wood. It is very happy here at night, especially
on Wednesdays’ jazz nights when they have a band playing here. We arrived for
lunch, and sat outside enjoying the cool spring breeze and the sunny weather.
We started with drinks. They
have a full alcohol menu with cocktails, wines and beers. The beers caught our
eyes, they have a nice selection of Paulaner beers, which we tasted at least 3
of them, in addition to the alcoholic apple cider.
The food here is meant to be
shared. Unlike conventional menus, the menu is divided into categories from the
Land, Water and Meat, and each category includes a number of options some
smaller and some larger, the prices vary from 20-96, which hints to the size of
the plate. Overall, it is inexpensive.
We picked a number of plates
from the land to start with: eggplant, tomatoes, and pizza, and the chef sent
us the bread.
Fired eggplant Carpaccio
A flattened roasted eggplant,
dates honey, tahini, and pine nuts (NIS 42). It was full of flavors and
included also small cubes of fresh tomatoes, red onion, a lot of parsley and a shiny
red chili pepper.
Tomato Salad
Tomatoes, fresh and roasted,
sliced on call, nuts mix, Tulum cheese (NIS 52) A rich salad with cherry tomato,
plum yellow and green tiger tomatoes, toasted tomatoes, red onion, Kalamata
olives, nuts and parsley. This salad looks so good that people stopped near our
table and asked about it and it tastes as good as it looks!
Pizza Bianca
Pizza Bianca with artichoke,
mozzarella, parmesan, basil and arugula leaves (NIS 56). We spent too much time
taking photographs of the food that it wasn’t hot enough when we got to eat it.
Still, it had thin crunchy dough and tasted great!
Bread
Sesame bread with zaatar with soft
cheese, tahini, oregano, olives (NIS 18). This bread was served warm and is
like the local bagels – hard to stop eating it!
Lamb cigar
While we were waiting for the
“water” and “meat”, the chef sent us the lamb cigar to taste, even though we
did not order it. It is Phyllo dough stuffed with braised lamb and chard (NIS
28). The dough is very crunchy and the filling has a strong lamb made Arab
style with a generous amount of fresh chard. It was served with dips and was
sheer pleasure!
Seared Fish Fillet
Seared fish fillet, with
artichoke, garlic, spinach, roasted tomatoes, olives, capers, herbs and fish
stock butter (NIS 72). This dish is a drawing! Served in a warm skillet, I
couldn’t stop staring at it. I took the small portion because we had eaten a
lot already so the full sized fish would be larger. The fish was crisp at the top
and melted in my mouth. It was placed on many seared vegetables - cherry
tomatoes, artichokes, and even slices of chili. While I loved the fish, the
vegetables were a celebration in my mouth. The sauce was lemon flavored and it invited
me to dip the bread in it! This plate is fantastic!
Butter Chicken Bagdad Style
Seared boneless chicken thighs
on flat bread, yogurt, homemade pickles, arugula and mint (NIS 72). A slightly
spicy dish, served on a flat pita with pesto on top of the chicken, a sexy red chili
pepper, fried tomato and plenty of greens. My partner ate it and enjoyed it
very much!
Crispy Bone Fire Potatoes
Crispy potatoes cooked and fried
with smoked spicy aioli (NIS 26). We both agreed that this is a must order side!
We could not stop nibbling it and the sauce was so yummy with it!
Homemade cheese cake
A classic cheese cake with
chocolate topping, done exactly as should be, not too sweet (NIS 34)!
Chocolate mousse
A two layers light chocolate
mousse with crunchy top and two tasty chocolate truffles – we loved it!
The food at Raisa is great for a
light meal; the chef Uri Levy uses local ingredients and a lot of flavorful fresh
herbs to bounce fresh food to a delight – “food that makes people happy” he
says! And this is exactly how we felt at Raisa – happy!
Information
Raisa,
Tel Aviv flea market, Not kosher
Disclosure: I was a guest of the
restaurant
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