"The Adom restaurant and wine bar is already an established veteran and some may say, even an institution on the Jerusalem culinary scene..." Yonatan Sternberg enhoys his night at Adom
The Adom restaurant and wine bar is already an established veteran and some may say, even an institution on the Jerusalem culinary scene. The restaurant was opened 10 years ago and according to illustrations on the side of the menu, over the years, Adom has served hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat to thousands of customer, poured X thousand of liters of wine (and several other culinary statistics), few restaurants in town can boast that kind of a track record.
The restaurant is situated in the Feingold Courtyard, a beautiful piece of architecture built towards the end of the 19th century. Over the years the building housed various offices including newspaper publications, histadrut offices and it was even home to the city's first movie theater opened in 1912.
Adom’s menu is wide yet not to long with a variety of fish, pasta, seafood, salads and meat dishes. For years their burger has been considered as one of the better patties in town and the wine and alcohol selection is genuinely impressive. Adom’s bar also prepares an assortment of mixed, shaken and stirred cocktails- if you’re in the mood ask the waiter for the cocktail of the day.
We started off with the goat cheese ravioli topped with a cream and caper sauce and the veal sweetbreads served atop cauliflower puree. Both portions were quite generous. The sweetbreads were prepared accurately, leaving them firm on the outside yet nice and moist within, after being seared on the skillet, the cook added slices of artichoke hearts, peeled cherry tomatoes, garlic confit and fresh lemon juice that brings out the flavor. The home made pasta was very tasty, the dish consisting of 5-6 triangular shaped dumplings filled with goat soft cheese and fresh herbs. While I enjoyed the ravioli, I would have preferred a bit less of the sauce. Before moving on to the entrée, we also tasted the mussels in white wine, herbs and butter – a very simple dish but when prepared well, all you need is a glass of white wine or a light beer and you could easily go through a pound of these black muscles.
While very tempted to order a burger or a steak, we decided to mix it up a little bit and ordered the fish of the day served with mashed potatoes and a of gorgonzola sauce. The sauce was delicious and using a small dose of pungent gorgonzola cheese really complemented the fish. Our second entrée was a very interesting dish – a Middle Eastern inspired risotto made with lamb meat, sundried tomatoes, coriander and pine nuts. I have to admit that I am still a fan of more traditional risottos with plenty of butter and parmesan cheese, but Adom’s version is quite a refreshing change and worth a try.
Again, it was time to decide whether we should order coffee and call it a night or sample something from Adom’s sweets section of the menu. Caving in as I usually do when my girlfriend suggest that we at least share one dessert ending the meal with something sweet. As long as it isn’t too heavy, I agreed. Most of the desserts at Adom are made fresh on the premises. We enjoyed a dish of crunchy kadaif noodles, caramelized fresh figs (the season is just beginning), vanilla ice cream and a dash of sweet pistachio puree. Light, refreshing and most importantly tasty. By the way, Adom also offers an attractive late night menu (starting at 23:00), special lunch menu on Saturdays and more.
