Based on its location alone, the high table adjacent to the inner glass wall at the Terrace restaurant could enter a competition for the most romantic piece of furniture in Israel. It is simple in appearance, but strategically positioned and topographically updated, and in my opinion also moved from its starting point, with the launch of the restaurant, so that it would synchronize fully and perfectly with the view. And given that this view is the Bahá’í Gardens of Haifa, everything is a bit more understandable now.
Most restaurants would take these data and not deal with them too much, turning in one swift decision from restaurants into tourist traps, and wondering why bother when the crowd will come anyway. Here, the table and the pair of open balconies in front of and behind it decided to do the opposite. Not to drag down, but to lift up.
There is no without it. Za’atar gnocchi at Terrace
Ben Gurion Boulevard in the German Colony has known more beautiful and simpler days than these. It is supposed to be normal and free of baggage here. It is supposed, if I understand correctly, to be Europe here. The restaurants on both sides of the wide street know this and hope for it, lit up with Christmas long after the new year has begun, and trying to get out of the tangle together. Nothing that happens around them truly depends on them, so the shared way forward is only gradual. For now, at least.
The Terrace overlooks all this sad occurrence from a relatively high angle, and with the broad back of the Botanica Hotel, one of the flagship destinations of the Fattal chain, and certainly one of its sought-after urban vacation offers. The road to it, as is customary in a country without a real Ministry of Transportation, takes you relatively fast and then very slowly, winding and complicated, but the moment you shed troubles and traffic jams, the disconnection is quick, and surrendering – from the rooms to the summer rooftop pool, through the wonderful breakfast, clearly one of the most invested in our country.
Here, they inhaled everything beautiful on the street and everything beautiful on the mountain, created a slope-vacation, and called on you to climb it. About the moment after the peak, and after the vacation, it is better not to speak at this stage (or at all).
The Terrace is supposed to connect the hotel to the street, and even more so the street to the hotel. Local tourists who come up to Haifa will usually have their dinner outside, and therefore the restaurant happily meets them the following evening. The residents themselves, on the other hand, are beginning to discover it more consistently and without dramas or a need for occasions. Most of the tables here – including large gatherings of young men and women – illustrated exactly that.
Its challenge will of course be to slightly lighten the concept of a “hotel restaurant” and open itself up widely. The stairs from the end of the boulevard, for example, lead you directly to it, without passing through the lobby, and everything else will be done by the food of Haim Dayan and Ziko Hagag, the excellent team and the general feeling of a dramatic location, devoid of dramas.
The menu, kosher-dairy, connects between the Mediterranean shores of Italy and the local Haifa port and at its peak succeeds in lifting its classics with seasoning from the Arab kitchen. The plates know how to contain both pistachio and polenta and basil and crème fraîche, and come out coherent and tasty. It is not simple, but it happens.
The starters (NIS 38-78) range between sashimi with smoked chili oil and a fish cigar with yogurt-tahini, a colorful “Insalata Inverno” with citrus fruit and a giant piece of brie cheese in a charcoal coating and a wonderful creation of tuna kataifi that makes a kicking taco, and ours. From there, one can and should continue to pizza (NIS 64-90) with cherry tomato confit and garlic or pistachio cream and burrata cheese, share a pasta dish (NIS 68-89, including winter salmon bucatini) and finish with fish (NIS 132-145) with roasted eggplant, over mushroom risotto or as part of a delicate dance together with mashed potatoes.
Whatever it may be, and however it may be, the gnocchi (NIS 82) needs to be on your table. It begins with a surprisingly delicate cream sauce and adds a clear and flowing dialogue of za’atar-pine nuts and then a crunchy crumble, but the story is the dumplings themselves. I hate, truly detest, the prostitution that was done to the word “clouds”. Here, it seems to me, I rediscovered its justification. Here, and only here apparently. The best in Israel.
The Terrace began running several good months ago, and used the winter to gain momentum and improve toward what is supposed to be a better season, minus additional potential wars, and plus tourists, if they indeed return there again, sometime.
Until that happens, it simply wants to be, well, Terrace. A place with air to breathe and air to cool, cocktails inspired by the name of the hotel and food that gathers something from every direction of the wind. All these join that table, and those two balconies, to create anticipation for a good evening, a better one.
Terrace, Botanica Hotel, 50 Ben Gurion, Haifa, 04-8473333