Where else but in Israel can a bar be called Holy, the street address be on Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) next to the Great Synagogue, and the most popular cocktail be a Porn Star Martini?
Holy, which turned kosher a year ago, has a great vibe, with tables outside in the warm Tel Aviv evening, and an attractive crowd of 30-somethings drinking excellent cocktails and enjoying innovative dairy fare by chef Yuval Birenboim. We had planned to meet friends visiting from the US in Tel Aviv, and the Holy Bar was the perfect place.
There’s an amazing happy hour every weeknight from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., (except Friday, when the restaurant is closed), which offers a 25% discount on all food, wine, and cocktails, as well as 1 plus 1 on beer and spirits. With a deal like that, how can you afford not to go?
Holy has five partners. Ro’i Pe’eri started as a bartender and is today, at the ripe old age of 25, one of the partners. He is charming and loves his job. He asked about our cocktail preferences and basically brought us one of everything on the menu.
Holy in Tel Aviv offers great vibes
Mine was delicious, even if I might be a little embarrassed to order it out loud. As I mentioned above, it’s called a Porn Star Martini (NIS 56); it has vanilla vodka, white Cinzano, and passion fruit puree, and is not too sweet.
My favorite husband tried the Not Mary But Red (NIS 56), which has Ketel One Vodka, homemade ginger syrup, pomegranate juice, and smoked rosemary.
When it came to the food, I let Pe’eri choose for us, and we enjoyed every dish we tried. We started with a freshly baked focaccia (NIS 29) with garlic confit and herbed butter, which was delicious and piping hot.
We moved on to salads, trying three. My favorite was the beetroot salad (NIS 59), which had goat’s cheese, mint, croutons, and hazelnuts, although the Caesar salad (NIS 57) was a close second.
We tried several dishes from the “sharing” section. This included thinly sliced potato baked in thyme butter, with homemade schug and green beans, topped with burnt Bulgarian cheese and hazelnuts (NIS 59); and mushroom bruschetta (NIS 59) of mixed mushrooms in olive oil, garlic, and thyme, with truffle oil and Parmesan. We also had a delicious tuna sashimi (NIS 68) that I would go back for, although the portions of the fish dishes are small.
For dessert, we shared a slice of crack pie (NIS 44) with mascarpone cream and butter crumble.
To illustrate just how good the food was, I was in Tel Aviv two days later with three girlfriends to celebrate a birthday. I couldn’t think of any place I wanted to go more than Holy, so we went there and ordered almost the same menu (including the Porn Star Martini)!
For dessert, Pe’eri brought over a new dessert of dark chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache that was outstanding.
So if you are looking for a place to eat in Tel Aviv, make a reservation and check out Holy. You won’t be sorry.
Holy
1 Har Sinai St.
Tel Aviv
Phone: 054-916-0985
Hours: Sunday -Thursday, 6:30 p.m.-2 a.m.
Kashrut: Tzohar
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.