Inbal Gerzon and her friend enjoy a wonderful meal at Link - restaurant, bar and garden in Jerusalem
Link resides on Ma'alot Street in Jerusalem. Its owner, being fed up with historical building restoration, chose for its location an old kindergarten. Suleiman the Magnificent (who planned the ancient city of Jerusalem) might be turning in his grave right now, but Link presents a perfect combination of restaurant and garden that creates a magical countryside atmosphere, very appreciated in this hectic city.
Trees surrounding the yard lead the visitors inside the restaurant, while creating a time tunnel that disconnects them from the city and reunites them with these natural surroundings. Now you can take a deep breath, enjoy the fresh fragrance and blossoming nature and take a sit next to one of the tables inside the restaurant.
When we arrived at Link, manager Noam was waiting with 2 end-of-summer cocktails. One was sweet and sour, made with Campari and passion fruit concentrate that hid the bitter taste of alcohol, and the other– a wonderful combination of vodka and lychee concentrate, creatively added by basil leaves.
On top of the cocktails, Link's wine list was recently upgraded and these days the restaurant offers a wider local produce, with the intention of promoting Israeli wine and local labor. You can appreciate the variety of alcohol at the bar, especially on Thursday nights.
Link is owned by the warm Asalan family, and run by son Yehuda. Like any other family, Link too wishes to adopt as many happy clients as possible, to grow yet continue to preserve its home-like feeling.
Link's food menu, directed at everyone, is rich and wide. Since it was hard for us to choose, we found ourselves having a dinner for 2 that could have satisfied 4 diners. Our first courses included the country bread that was served with butter and homemade pesto, and the Yehuda salad (Yehuda Asalan's favorite) comprised of chopped tomatoes, radishes and onions with oriental spicing. We also got some soft raviolis with eggplant filling lying on a bed of goat yogurt and raw tahini, which blended excellently with a refreshing dish of beets and Sainte-Maure cheese, scattered with coconut flakes that gave it a royal flavor.
Our main courses included a dish titled Leah Meat Balls – homemade beef meat balls in rich tomato sauce, made by Leah, Yehuda's mother. With them we got the Alon, named after Yehuda's old friend: this is a famous dish in the restaurant, comprised of chicken cubes in curry, coconut milk and mushrooms, lying on a bed of white rice, next to a juicy salmon fillet in sweet citrus butter. Just so that we know for sure we did try everything on the menu, we nibbled on some crispy chicken nuggets with great curry-mayonnaise dressing - this is actually one of the reasons people keep coming back here.
We couldn't skip desserts, even when we were, as you can imagine, quite full. We had 2 of them: the golden cake was made of cheese, nuts and crispy pastry layers, and we had it all. The homemade Snickers bar – nut crunch, cornflakes and chocolate ganache – was served next to passion fruit flavored pastry cream with and chocolate tuile.
We left Link knowing that it won't be long before we would return. You can continue this beautiful experience at the recently opened Link in Mevaseret Zion, which is run by Yehuda's brother, Dudu Asalan. Business deals are offered daily between 12:00 – 18:00; club membership also offers client benefits.
