HABESARIT ON EMEK REFAIM

Located at 44 Emek Refaim St, in Jerusalem, this is the first meat restaurant in the Cafe Cafe chain of restaurants. Prices are moderate. The decor is nondescript. The chairs, in particular, are not very comfortable.

The food was tasty, but we have had far better. We were three people on a Wednesday night. We ordered lachma bajean and fried chicken wings for the table. The wings were great. The lacma was lacking in tamarind flavor, and instead of looking like little mini pizza disks, it was served on a flat crust looking like a small, personal sized pizza. Yes, it was good, but, again, we have had far, far better.

For dinner one of us had the mixed Jerusalem grill- a rather small dish of mostly chicken hearts. Two of us ordered rib steaks. One of us ordered extremely rare, and the other ordered medium well. The rare steak came medium and was twice the size of the other steak. The medium well steak came extremely well done and not very hot. It was placed on the plate with the less well done side facing up. When we tasted it, we discovered just how over cooked the steak was.

We had to ask for drinking glasses to be brought to the table. We had to ask for a pitcher of cold water. We had to ask for extra napkins. Considering that the appetizers were finger food, we should not have had to ask for more (paper) napkins.

Not once during our meal did our waitress ask if the food was good or if she could bring us anything else. We had to flag her down to ask for coffee.

We will say that the food was fairly tasty, but there is not much there to recommend going back. So be it.