In central Jerusalem, on Music Square, walk down a flight of stairs into a dimly lit restaurant with chic blue lighting. The design is hip and modern. The music is loud. The cocktails are delicious and the food is excellent. You have arrived at Miss and Mr., where I have increased the average age of the guests by at least two decades.
I came with my son Netanel, who loves to eat and has just finished his second year of reserve service and fits in much better with the demographic here than I do. I had a sticker on my shirt with the number 300, as I was coming from a march marking the 300th day of the kidnapping of the hostages, including Hersh Goldberg Polin.
“Excuse me for asking, but are you friends with Rachel and Jon (Hersh’s parents) because I saw your sticker,” our waitress asked. “I’m good friends with Orly (his youngest sister), so I knew about the march.” Then she told us about the daily specials.
This is the dissonance of life in Israel today. But back to Miss and Mr.
Bringing Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
“They brought Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” said my 23-year-old son. “The atmosphere, the ambience, the design, the attention to detail – this is a high standard not only for Jerusalem but also for Tel Aviv.”
The music was loud, but after my first cocktail, it didn’t bother me anymore. Speaking of cocktails, they are very good here. On the recommendation of our waitress, I tried the Mrzolak (58 NIS), which consisted of gin, lemon, base and apple. Then, when chef Daniel Marciano came to the table, he recommended the Cocktail by the Chef (58 NIS), which consisted of gin, martini, elderflower and cucumber. At this point, I was glad I didn’t have to drive home.
By the way, Marciano is only 26 years old and is currently opening three new restaurants with his partners.
The menu focuses on appetizers with only four main courses. I often prefer a meal consisting of appetizers, so I was satisfied. I love raw fish and one of the specialties was a sashimi of amberjack, a meaty white fish that I particularly like. The sashimi was excellent. I was leaning more towards the foie gras, but my son persuaded me to try the red tuna tartlet (82 NIS), which consisted of red tuna chunks with spicy mayonnaise, shallots, chives and avocado cream, served in homemade filo pastry. It was very good, but a bit too spicy for me.
We also had the carpaccio (72 NIS) with garlic, mustard and aioli. It was thinly sliced as expected and Netanel and I fought over the last bite.
For the main course, I chose lamb chops (NIS 216) on a bed of freekeh risotto. They were excellent, but I would have liked a larger portion. Netanel chose sweetbreads (NIS 158) with root cream and msabaha (hummus with whole chickpeas). I tasted them and they were exactly as they should be – chewy and a little salty.
While we were eating, a group of 10 well-dressed young Israelis – the women wore incredibly high heels – spent far too much time taking photos for Instagram. That’s the kind of place it is.
Chef Marciano came to our table again.
“How was the food?” he asked.
“Delicious,” we replied and told him what we had ordered and what we particularly enjoyed.
“Now tell me what wasn’t good,” he said. “That’s the only way we can improve.”
I have to say that I was impressed by his attitude.
There’s a DJ every night, and by the time we left around 9:30 p.m., the volume had risen even higher and people were already lining up to get in. It was hard to wrap our minds around the fact that we were in the middle of a war—and maybe that’s the point.
- Miss and Mister.
- Music Square, Jerusalem
- Opening hours: Sunday – Thursday 19:00 – 24:00
- Saturday evening: after Shabbat
- Kosher
