entrecote

[Harry J]

Bsd. Hi;any info on a place in TelAviv called Entrecote?h

[Daniel Rogov]

Harry, Hi..

Following is my review of Entrecote, that printed in 2006. I have revisited and would not change a word of what I wrote in that review...

Best
Rogov





L’Entrecote Reincarnated

In its first incarnation, l’Entrecote was located on Tel Aviv’s Rehov Ben Yehuda. Opened in 1974, the restaurant featured fixed price meals of salad, entrecote steak, and a crème caramel for dessert all served up in a rustic and completely relaxed setting. Owned by Christian Zaradez, perhaps more famous as the chef of Jaffa’s Alhambra restaurant, and for many years operated by one or another of his sons, the little restaurant became a haven for simple and unpretentious French meals. When the restaurant closed in the mid-1990’s, there were already many other establishments that offered such fixed menu meals and its absence was not felt.

l’Entrecote has been reborn, and now in a kosher version. Gone is the once rustic setting in which wood beams and a rickety staircase set the atmosphere and in their place is a modern, upswing ambiance in which tints and shades of gray dominate, those set off nicely by orange backlighting behind the bar. Gone too are the attractive rickety old tables and checkered tablecloths, to be replaced by polished dark brown tabletops. What remains though is the fixed price menu the major feature of which is still, as the name of the restaurant clearly implies, the entrecote steak. .

My meal opened with home baked rolls and a well made tapenade, that Provencal spread made of black olives, anchovy fillets, capers and lemon juice. From here it was on to a green salad with walnuts that was in distinct need of more dressing. Additional creamy vinaigrette was brought to my table on request and that made the salad quite pleasant. From there, to the entrecote steak, which, despite the foibles of kosher meat was good, cooked medium rare as requested and with just enough fat left intact to add flavor. Gone in the name of kashrut is the cream-rich pepper sauce that was offered in the old establishment but that left me no cause for complaint for the mustard and herb sauce served with the steak was appealing. What I did miss was the Swiss style rosti that for many years was a staple at the Ben Yehuda establishment, a dish in which potatoes are boiled, peeled, grated and packed in a frying pan and fried in butter until golden brown. Happily, the thin chips served were an ample replacement, the chips being crisp, greaseless, just salty enough and full of flavor.

I decided to skip the so-called parve ice cream based desserts and settled for the crème caramel. Unfortunately, that suffered from the use of a parve milk substitute and lacked richness. Including a glass of the house wine (on the day of my visit the Merlot of Segal) lunch will come to NIS 61 and dinner to NIS 80. To either of those prices, a cup of espresso will add NIS 7. A reasonably priced and welcome addition to the bistro scene, especially for those interested in kashrut.

L’Entrecote: Rehov Ahad ha Am 28 on the corner of Nachalat Binyamin, Tel Aviv. Open Sun – Thurs 12:00 – 03:00, on Friday for lunch and Saturday after Shabbat. Tel: (03) 5163703. Kosher.

[David H]

I thought that the original Entrecôte was in Jerusalem.

[Daniel Rogov]

I thought that the original Entrecôte was in Jerusalem.

The truly original l'Entrecote was opened not in Israel but in Paris on Rue Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and then as now the specialty of the house was steak-frites. Somewhere in the 1960's several branches were opened in Paris and those branches may now be found in several other French cities. The food is the same in each of the branches but in my opinion tastes bests only at the original on F.D. Roosevelt.

The first l'Entrecote to open in Israel opened in 1980 in a building on Rehov Ben Yehuda (not far from the corner of Rehov Nordau). Set in a small, narrow building, with equally small dining areas on two floors of the building, the specialties of the house were onion soup au gratin, entrecote and roesti, that marvelous Swiss potato concoction, all of which were precisely as simple, delicious and reasonably price as one might have wanted. The restaurant was founded by Christian Zaradez who was also the owner of the then very prestigious l'Alhambra restaurant in Jaffa and he eventually turned over l'Entrecote to his sons, one of whom did actually open one in Jerusalem.

Neither Alhambra or l'Entrecote were kosher in the beginning, but both went kosher when one of Zaradez' sons became religious and when Alhambra failed to keep up with modern culinary trends and began to lose its most valued clients Zaradez perceived kashrut as a way to appeal to a new audience as a way to increase business. From the moment that the restaurant went kosher the quality of the dishes declined. When it went glatt kosher that marked the end of the Zaradez culinary supremecy in the city, for the only clients were the most orthodox who went there to dine on food long since passe, truly mediocre in quality and to pay high prices for the privilege.

Best
Rogov

[Charlie Dawg]

I have a culinary question about entrecote steak. Interestingly it was called the same in Russian. But in 20 years I’ve been in America I have never seen one. What’s the story with that and also what part of meat is used for it? Thak you.

[Daniel Rogov]

Charlie, Hi...

The traditional entrecote steak is a highly prized French cut of beef, always a boneless cut from the rib portion and at its best with lots of grain and a fatty rim left intact. Because the American butchering system is vastly different than that of the French, true entrecote is rarely found in America and what most menus list is actually the contre-fillet (cut from the lower part of the fillet, opposite the bone. The contre fillet can be quite tasty but simply is not a true entrecote.

My own three favorite cuts of beef are the entrecote, the T-bone and the Porterhouse steaks.

Come to Israel and ask for an entrecote steak at any but the better restaurants and what you will get is any boneless portion of beef, cut from who-knows-where that the restaurant thinks it can pass off as steak.

Best
Rogov