After a 3-hour photography walking tour of Tel Aviv, we finished in Jaffa. By 1pm, we’d walked 12,000 steps and were hot and pooped.
There were a number of restaurants lining the harbour mostly with sunny terraces. One of the larger ones was “The Old Man and the Sea”:http://www.2eat.co.il/eng/hazaken-vehayam-namal/ and, as it was empty, I took the liberty of plonking myself down without looking at the menu.
Service was very fast and we quickly had menus and a huge array of small salads/dips were being offloaded on to our table (on counting there were 23), along with a jug of lemonade and large pitta bread. After marvelling at the salads, I got around to checking the menu and realised that this was all part of the deal and all we had to do was order a main, mainly either fresh fish or grilled meats. I settled for simple chicken kebabs and, having checked it was a fillet Roy chose fish.
The salads were wonderful but it would have been nice to have known what we were eating. But this is a ‘wham-bam’ sort of place and would have taken time, when their mission appears to be to get you in and out as quickly as possible. To be honest, I would have been happy grazing on the salads, but before we knew it, mains courses were being put down in front of us. The chicken kebabs were fine, but the greasy chips appeared to be microwaved left overs from the previous day. Roy’s fish was extremely bony, but he struggled manfully on.
As soon as we’d put knives and forks down, plates were cleared, and we were offered a dessert of small sweet balls of dough and tea and coffee: we declined both and the bill was brought – around £50 without service.
It wasn’t the best experience and all I could think about was the amount of food waste as I cannot imagine anyone finishing all the salad plates. My new motto, check the menu before you sit!
