Address: 237 Saint James Place
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 625.8800
Web: http://www.zahavrestaurant.com/Cuisine: Israeli/Middle eastern
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Atmosphere: Cost: 
Overall rating: Last night we we out to dinner with Wayne and Katherine. This place is the top rated places to eat in Philly and for good reason. Outside the building is pretty non-descript. Inside it is a completely different atmosphere. Everything is open, pretty much in two rooms. From anywhere in the place you have a view of the kitchen working on orders. It is warm and inviting.
Service is tapas style, basically small plates which are meant to be shared and should be. The recomended starter and speciality for the table is the Salatim & Hummus with Laffa. The Salatim is a selection of different dishes from chick peas to beats enjoyed with or without the laffa. Their hummus was some of the best I have ever had. As we went through and placed our orders, our waiter Eric asked us if we were sure we had not been there before. He said we were hitting all the best plates in our ordering.
I spotted the Jerusalem Grill, which was a mixed offal - "all the good stuff". I wasn't sure what it waas, but I from the vague description, I had a pretty good guess. Eric confirmed that it was heart, liver and testes from different animals. Mainly duck and lamb. I rouned my order out with Kibbe Naya (raw ground lamb) and The Jaffa (Branzino - a whitefish). Fried cauliflower, stuffed baby peppers, The Read Sea (seared tuna) The Turk (ground beef), The Farsi (lamb), The Galil (eggplant) and Fried Kibbe.
Nothing I had disappointed. The Jerusalem Grill was tremendous. It came with a side of a mustard like sauce, more sweet then spicy and laffa. The spice was only needed as an accent as the heart, liver and testes were extremely tasty on their own. I had not had raw lamb before, but it had a great flavor and texture to it, again the spices not overwhelming and letting the food stand on its own. Everyone really enjoyed their food and a good bit of sharing. The only off-note was in the Turk which Erica ordered. It was just too much spice for here and she felt was overwhelming. Not from a heat perspective, but just being too much seasoning.
For a drink, I tried their "Tel Aviv Black & Tan" which was a half and half of Goldstar Larger and Malt. I followed it up with just the Goldstar Malt as the meal progressed. Overall both were OK. There were good beers, but didn't really blow me away. They just seemed to be good middle of the road beer.
We finished up the meal with desrt. Erica and Wayne got the Roasted peach which was a cashew baklava, a peach and white chocolate panna cotta. Katherine tried their drink "The new milk and honey", which I had a taste of. It was really good, not overly sweet and I am sure could knock you back without realizing it. I had the Konafi which has a shredded, crunchy phyllo dough on top of ricotta, rose water and pstachios. It was deliciously sweet.
It was a great night overall and I look forward to going back there.
- Stephen