A view from the top (restaurant review)

Jerusalem Post, Weekend Magazine; March 27, 2008

The newly revamped Hilton King Solomon Grill offers culinary excellence and old-school service. In this age of cut-throat competition, is this enough for a restaurant in Tel Aviv?

When I was a 20-year-old college student spending a year abroad in Israel, one of my great Zionist ambitions was to work as an Israeli waitress. What better way to experience modern Israeli life?

One of my first gigs in the service industry was at the executive lounge at the top floor of the Hilton Tel Aviv where VIP guests gathered for coffee, tea and refreshments. I remember that, while tips weren't always great, the manager of the lounge always emphasized quality service and impeccable presentation. We treated the guests as if they were kings.

Almost 10 years later it was my turn to be treated like royalty when I stepped into the King Solomon Grill. The elderly host immediately took my coat and approached me like a person worthy of a certain level of obsequiousness. The suited waiters exhibit propriety and knowledge. There was an immediate sense of classic restaurant pomp.

When the hotel opened in 1965, the Grill quickly became the prestigious, exclusive kosher restaurant for the Israeli and foreign elite. Back then it was located in a much bigger hall that seated about 200 (the current incarnation seats about 50). Jackie O., George Bush Sr., Jimmy Carter, Elizabeth Taylor and Kirk Douglas all graced the original dining hall. But with the growth of the Tel Aviv restaurant market and culture in the 1990s, the King Solomon Grill lost its edge. The former hall was turned into a banquet hall, and the Grill moved to its current location.

The hotel is currently upping efforts to reassert its prominence as one of Israel's finest kosher restaurants. Over the last few months it underwent a face-lift - the lighting, carpeting, positioning of tables were all updated. Based on my recent dinner there, it still deserves its legendary name, at least in terms of food, if not necessarily in design.

The interior looks like an extension of the five-star hotel with carpeted floors, tables and chairs draped with ordinary cloths and rather dreary paintings on the walls that look like they may have been cutting-edge back in the 1970s. While the design was lacking in contemporary style and conceptual invention, the meal, however, was first class. Uli Gold, chef of two years at the Grill, is versatile, creative and skilled.

The Mexican-themed seared tuna (NIS 69) on spicy corn cream, black bean and mango salsa, was a celebration of taste, structure and color. A tower of three perfectly cubed pieces of chili-crusted tuna, stacked atop tortilla chips, looked like an art installation. The deep burgundy cuts of tuna were soft to the knife and a little spicy on the palate.

The admittedly expensive veal loin was also perfectly cubed (NIS 194), crusted in oatmeal "muesli," and resting on an herbed polenta soaked in gravy. The moist and tender meat was, like the tuna, soft to the knife, and a little sweet to the palate. Some bites struck me as a little too salty. The caramelized fruit and vegetable side consisting of baby onions and pineapples was sweet but not overbearingly so, with chestnuts adding a warm, wintery touch. However, I hardly touched the herbed polenta, a chunk which was too heavy and not so appetizing. It formed the only real flaw of the dish.

Desserts are Gold's design as well. The chocolate fondue, a classic dessert, was just that: classic in taste and preparation.

While the offerings were among the best and most sophisticated kosher dishes I've tasted in a while, I wonder if, in this age of Tel Aviv cut-throat competition, the fine food alone will suffice to attract diners who are not guests of the hotel.

Overall, the ambience was intimate and comfortable, but it did not create for this former waitress an experience of aristocratic, crystalline wealth and luxury which would have justified such a pricey menu.

Hilton Tel Aviv, Independence Park,
(03) 520-2023, Hours: 7-10:30 p.m
Sunday-Friday. Shabbat has a buffet
menu during the day. Kosher.