Did HaSalon Provide “…magic from a night you are praying will never end….”?

The short answer is no although that is what an article about the restaurant quoted someone saying would happen. Now for the long answer. Ha Salon is an Israeli club/restaurant hybrid concept. Sometimes club/restaurant combos are done well, other times not so. A lot of it depends on the crowd and atmosphere. Some of the more memorable ones for me would be Bagatelle in St. Tropez or even the Mayfair Club (in Vegas). Lets see how HaSalon stacks up. The restaurant is located where Majordomo used to be (which I thought was a good restaurant). We checked in and waited for our table at the bar. When our seat was ready, we were seated at the chef’s counter where we were told we would “interact with the chefs”. This did not happen once.

Anyway, our server came by and recommended a few items from the menu and we chose 4 of them. We started with beetroot carpaccio with creme fraiche. Beautifully presented but nothing spectacular tastewise.

Next, they brought us some complimentary flatbread which tasted pretty good, but the bottoms were very oily for some reason and they were served cold.

After this we had something similar to a beef kebab. This was very good.

At this point our server asked if we wanted dessert. I reminded him that we still had two dishes coming and he seemed confused and didn’t know what had come out and what hadn’t. Anyway, we ended up getting our last two items starting with the fish that was highly recommended. I thought it was dry and overcooked.

Then there was something I was really looking forward to – potatoes and caviar. The potatoes I had were still raw. The only good thing about this dish was the sauce and caviar.

At this point in the meal, I wanted to leave without having dessert. How was the “party”? It picked up as the night went on, but I feel like that only happened because a huge wedding party came in.

Overall, I think the experience was disappointing. I was not transported to Tel Aviv like it says on their website (and I have just recently been), and I did want THIS part of our night to end. The party feels bit forced and the space had a cold feeling to it. Service was off and the food was not that great. I would not go back.