Super HaMizrach

Menu
****
₪₪₪

For usual followers, you know how much I love to taste and write up restaurants in Israel. I write THIS review, 9 months after October 7 and six trips to the country since. After much shock and pain, I am ready to review again. Time allows us to heal. I hope this will bring some sense of normalcy to the chaos that is life in this holy place.

Chef Zachai Huiga struck gold again with his new culinary masterpiece, Super Mizrach. I will admit that I took the bait. I thought this was a strange name for a hip and chic restaurant, until I arrived for the first time. Then it made perfect sense.

Huiga crafted a real “speak easy” kind of hide away, perhaps fashioned after his secretive Jacko’s son or Zuta, abutting 1868 by a chef with a similar story to Zachai.

On Derech Bet Lechem, across the way from the Yellow gas station is a small bodega looking hidden away with Asian snack foods and beers and a small cash register and rubber conveyor like one might find on the corner in the Bronx but sundries like you would find in China town or Tokyo. They call a place like this in Israel, the Makolet. Except here, upon closer look the cash register is really a computer holding the names and reservations of prospective diners. The items are not for sale and the conveyor does not work.

A young man (or woman) asks for your name and gathers the day’s menus and escorts you through a narrow portal to a multi-layered, dimly lit dining establishment. Once inside the walls reverberate and the diners sway and hum with music jamming and the the vibe that is flowing.

Super Mizrach is a meat restaurant, but it borders on being pareve. That is because many of its main dishes are noodle, rice or fish based with loads of tofu options.

The menu is compartmentalized. There are yummy starters, a long list of bao bao bun options, Japanese skewers, a fun sushi array and some handsome vegan choices too all before we get to the “Mains”.

We started with some fun cocktails that were sweet and got us where we need to go. We then had the fried chicken and the smashed kebab bao bao. Both were exceptional but the smashed kebab was loaded with flavor. We ordered some fun skewers. I would be the first to admit that when ordering the foie gras – it was more for the novelty of the kosher delicacy than the taste. However, this was one of the most delicious things I have ever sunk my teeth into. It was delicate, flavorful and delicious. The fish shawarma was off the chain as well. Tuna tartare on crispy rice was remarkable.

We shared some pad Thai, and one non-kosher eater amongst us said it was the best she ever enjoyed. The Thai fried fish was served whole. It looked like something Luca Brasi might have known well. The seared salmon sushi was a winner. We acted like kids and asked for a bowl of nuggets that were better than Chick Fil A, (or so I was told).

Desserts were limited but who needs a large array when these three choices were this great: Caramelized banana with pareve soft serve in granola crunch and a great chocolate mouse served with frozen brownie. But the winner for me was what appeared like a fried egg but was a lime flan like jello that was as amazing to see as it was to taste. A feast for the eyes and belly.

In the eating world we rarely find a place with amazing ambience AND amazing eats. Super Mizrach is all that AND a bag of rice noodles. Come to the Middle Eats to taste the Far Eats (spelling mistake intended) at Super Mizrach and take in the sights and sounds and tastes of this spectacular place.