Update: The restaurant has been burned down and has not yet resumed its activity 🙁

Since my earliest memories of myself, I always loved to savor a good breakfast.

I don’t know exactly why breakfast is my favorite…. Maybe it’s because when I was little my parents let me play hooky from school on some Friday mornings and let me join them for breakfast in cafes.

Later on, when I grew up and until I moved to Eilat, my mother {who’s also my best friend} and I had a tradition of going to brunch on Friday mornings. We had breakfast everywhere! We checked out almost every breakfast meal offered in cafes in Jerusalem – our favorites were Tmol-Shilshom’s brunch buffet and the David Citadel’s hotel buffet breakfast.

Then we had enough of all of the cafes in Jerusalem, and we reached to Tel Aviv in the search of twists to our favorite meal – Benedict, Delicatessen, The Brothers, Hotel Montefiore and many others.

So, yes, sometimes it’s nice to have the holy trinity of Israeli breakfasts – omelets, salad, cheese – but who hasn’t complained at least once about the lack of diversity in breakfast served in most cafes? I we already decided we’re going to indulge at brunch on Friday or Saturday morning, then we want them to challenge our taste buds!

So when we received a warm recommendation from the oven {you’re about to understand 😉 } about “Rama’s Kitchen” we called to reserve a table without thinking twice; and it’s good we called because when I reserved our table for brunch on the following Friday, I understood the restaurant is very popular and they were almost fully booked.

The brunch tasting menu at “Rama’s Kitchen” may seem pricey at first {98 shekels per person}. I also wondered what kind of breakfast they could offer to make it worth this price, especially since most cafes/restaurants charge a max of 130 shekels for breakfast for two.

What you have to understand is that “Rama’s Kitchen” doesn’t offer you the standard breakfast.

You won’t get an omelet with onions and herbs.

You won’t get cottage cheese, cream cheese and tuna.

You won’t get a salad with only cucumbers, tomatoes and onions.

And you definitely won’t get bread that was heated up twice in the oven.

What you will get at “Rama’s Kitchen” is a full experience – breathtaking scenery, unique and interesting flavors and excellent service.

Don’t ask yourself if it’s worth paying 98 shekels for breakfast, ask if it’s worth paying 98 shekels for a journey you’ve never experienced before.

We started our little journey on the way to the restaurant – once we passed “Ma’ale Hachamisha” and started driving on the curvy roads surrounded by the mountain landscape, that characterize the beautiful Jerusalem. It’s the pleasant feeling you get when you go for a morning trip in a nature reserve.

The turn to the restaurant is marked with a small sign, you continue to drive a little further and get to a place that looks like a plant nursery or a nature reserve with a view of the Judean Hills.

The restaurant itself is located on a wide wooden terrace, which sits on a hillside overlooking wonderful views.

The place has a homey and rustic vibe – a heart-warming combination of big taboon oven on the left of the entrance, the wooden tables and the gorgeous dishes {I really loved them and after a brief search on the restaurant’s website I found out that they are handmade by local artist}.

When we entered the restaurant, at exactly 10:00 AM, the place was almost full, and yet there was a relaxed and pleasant vibe – a feeling that everything is flowing properly. The nonchalant atmosphere that prevailed throughout the meal and reflected in the exceptionally wonderful service of the staff, the dishes that came out just in time, not too fast and not too slow – just the right amount of time to allow us to fully enjoy our meal.

When we got the recommendation for brunch at “Rama’s Kitchen”, we were told to ask for a specific table with the most beautiful view in the restaurant, a small “island” that’s a few steps away from the big porch and surrounded by an amazing view from three directions.

Luckily, when I reserved the table, the host mentioned that this table is still free because they usually don’t seat people there during very hot days, but if we come on a nice day, she’ll save it for us – and that’s what happened! 🙂 There is no doubt that this is the most romantic spot in the restaurant, but even if it’s already taken don’t give up on the experience, every spot on the balcony overlooks this beautiful view.

The table was perfectly set for us and the hostess seated us without a delay. A few minutes later, the waiter came over and introduced himself as the beverages waiter and told us about the cocktails offered there, about the special production process and about the local products that they’re made of.

Now, just so you understand the situation, we got to brunch after a night of four hours of sleep and wedding with lots of alcohol – the last thing we had in mind was to order something that had to do with alcohol.
Regardless, we ordered two cocktails…. How, you ask? When a restaurant treats alcohol the same way they treat food, hires a waiter to explain about their cocktails in a great way {they are among the best cocktails I’ve ever tasted in Israel} and also offer a significant discount on the cocktail menu during brunch, then you have to be an AA member to give up on the offer.

We decided to go with a sweet cocktail – a Watermelon Margarita – a summer cocktail consisting of fresh watermelon juice {!!}, Tequila, Cointreau, lemon, orange bitters and Midori; And one spicy cocktail – Spicy Coriander – a fresh vegetable cocktail, consisting of gin and locally grown coriander, green chili liqueur, cherry tomato and cilantro.

Both cocktails were so special and reminded me of the cocktails we had in Thailand that also incorporated local herbs and unique flavor combinations.

Several minutes after the beverages waiter took our order, a nice waitress came up to us and explained about their delicious brunch and said we can order an addition of any dish we wanted from the tasting menu.

Let's put it this way, as much we wanted to order more and more, we just couldn’t – the meal they serve is just so filling.

In addition, every guest gets to choose a cold drink {lemonade or iced tea produced there} and a hot drink.

We ordered iced tea that was full of amazing flavors of verbena and other plants that are grown there and sweetened with honey. It’s highly recommended.

The dishes started coming out one after the other.

First we got amazing bread that they baked there and was decorated with sesame and nigella, baked in the restaurant’s taboon oven, served with a variety of dips and tasty snacks – goat yogurt, coriander pesto, Toma {a dip I just couldn’t stop eating, and is made from lots of garlic, potatoes, cream and herbs} hummus confit with sumac and excellent olives.

Along with the bread they served two individual dishes for each diner – beet hummus with tahini and chickpeas confit and roasted eggplant cream with basil and pomegranate extract. The beet hummus was excellent and the creamy eggplant was lovely… lacked a bit of seasoning in my opinion, but I like my food with a kick.

After we finished the first round, with a belly almost full, they served the second round, which also included three-courses: Maggie’s sprouts salad served on a creamy dip, with radishes, roasted peppers and popcorn capers {excellent twist by the chef!}, a “perfect” egg placed on a baked zucchini and cheese and a pastry with smoked goat cheese with sage, cilantro pesto and mountain herbs, figs, sliced almonds and purslane leaves.

The sprouts salad is for sprouts lovers only, as you can see in the photo, but it’s very special and is a wonderful alternative for the usual salads that are usually served at breakfast. I really liked the combination of the sprouts’ crunchiness with the cream cheese and salty capers.

The “perfect” egg really was perfect. I usually like my eggs well done, but this egg, cooked in its shell at precisely 65 degrees so that it creates the same texture of the egg white and the yolk is really a dream, and the combination of it with zucchini and cheese is nothing less than perfect.

The pastry we chose from the menu {you can choose one of three} was TO DIE FOR. The taboon gives it such a special taste! There are so many flavors in this pastry – sour, sweet, salty, and their combination still makes me salivate every time I look at the pictures.
During the third and final round we received two dishes: crispy chicken liver pâté and a platter with a few kinds of goat cheese.

This was the first time I tasted crispy liver pâté. Like almost anything fried, the liver pâté also gets an excellent upgrade.
Along with the pâté we got a cheese platter, with four types of sharp high-quality cheeses {the “hidden blue” cheese, Sainte-Maure, Shahat and Tavor}. All of the cheeses are made in a boutique farm called “Barkanit”.

We started eating the cheeses and the liver pâté separately, but after a few bites we understood the chef’s intention – the perfect bite was a combination of crispy pâté and strong cheese. The combination with each type of cheese produced a superb complexity, each tasty in a different way.

One thing we were missing in this round was some fruit – melon, grapes or figs that would complete the dish.
At the end of the meal we asked to swap the hot drinks with refreshing cold coffee.

When they served us our coffee, they gave us the dessert menu.

The truth is that we didn’t plan on ordering dessert, especially after this huge meal. But also in the dessert field, Rama’s Kitchen’s sales method is among the most successful I've come across. The restaurant offers their guests that order the brunch tasting the option to order half a dessert for half price – so if you’re totally full you could finish the meal with a sweet bite, and if you have some room in your separate dessert stomach, then you could taste two different desserts – half of each one 🙂
So we gave in… After a long debate between the figs panna cotta {apple granite' and coriander seeds syrup} and the chocolate-chocolate dessert {chocolate fudge cake with a nut marzipan and rosemary, white chocolate Ganache}, we decided to go for the chocolate.

I’m assuming that since they saw how much we debated between the two desserts, they decided to treat us and they served us half of each dessert!

The only thing is that Rama’s half really isn’t your typical half!

On the table were two huge desserts that no other restaurant would be ashamed to present it as a whole dessert on their menu.

And Oh-My-G-d they were absolutely delicious!!!!

So it turned out that what started as a lack of desire {and room in my stomach} for dessert, ended up in us licking the two plates they served.

But you only live once, right? 😉

So here’s to all of the good things in life!

“Rama’s Kitchen” – reserve your table now