GAVNA RESTAURANT

Located off the beaten track in the Gush, this restaurant boast an incredible ambiance as well as a commanding view of the valley below and of Beitar and Tel Aviv, way off in the distance.

Five of us went there on a motzei shabbat (Sat. night). The place is rather small and it was packed. Our waitress seemed totally boggled by any request we made. On top of that, she did not seem to be too familiar with the menu.

From the get go, service was terrible. The appetizers we ordered came at the same time as the dinner. And dinner came in spurts- one plate, two more, and then two more. The time in between all the trips to the table was significant enough to notice.

For the supposed appetizers, we shared tapas and potato skins. The skins were not crispy at all. Plus, on top of the melted cheese on each one were fish crumbs. Why??? The fishy taste of the fish crumbs totally destroyed the sourcream and potato effect.

The cheese tapas were fantastic. The eggplant tapas were not anything to write home about.

Our main courses were: a personal pizza, spinach ravioli in red sauce, seared tuna with a sunny side up egg on top of it, fettucini with cream mushroom sauce and dutch oven rice and vegetable stew.

Let’s start with the so called stew: what came to the table was a long plate with a heap of veggies and along side of the veggies was a mountain of white rice. There was no liquid. It was up to the customer to mix or not mix the veggies and the rice. The taste was hearty. Again, nothing special. When they first brought this dish to the table, the veggies were hot in spots and cold in others. Could it be that it was heated in the microwave? Sending it back meant a long wait until it came back to the table.

The spinach ravioli was well received and enjoyed. The seared tuna was rated excellent by all who tasted it. We did not, so we can not say.

The personal pizza was nothing to brag about. It was tasty and a generous size. The people who tasted it (again , not us), said it was good. There was a shortage of cheese on it, however.

The fettucini was tasty. Frankly, they make it better at other places. Much better. At Gavna, the sauce was thin and not terribly rich tasting.

Only one of us ordered dessert, but we all tasted it. It was the best part of the meal! It was a pyramid of dark chocolate shell with sort of a chocolate mousse inside. The interior chocolate is infused with nuts and chiles. The combined taste of the hot chile and the sweet chocolate was sublime. Served with a whipped cream that is clearly made on the premises, the total taste combination was nothing short of exhilerating.

We probably will wait a long time before we go back there again. The restaurant needs to hire better wait staff and learn time managment vis a vis serving food. The food was tasty, but, frankly, nothing to write home about.