Hatzel-Banim: Eating food where he Crusaders walked - review

Hatzel-Banim Restaurant in the Caesarea National Park can set the record for the longest-running restaurant in Israel. You may have seen this restaurant in the past 55 years under its original name Hatzalbanim, meaning The Crusaders Restaurant.

“No, no!” said the rabbis three years ago when the restaurant became kosher. We cannot enshrine this dark period in Jewish history with the name of the restaurant. And so the name was changed to Hatzel-Banim, a small linguistic twist but close enough to preserve the fine reputation of the original restaurant.

Hatzel-Banim has a prime spot in the park’s spacious courtyard. A large number of outdoor tables fill the sunny courtyard and a row of tables overlook the sea. On this visit, we chose to dine indoors where it is warm and the view is almost as good.

Eating at Hatzel-Banim

We enjoyed the big indoor space with its light wood furnishings and the sun pouring in from the picture windows. We were just two people, but we were directed to a large table for six. And it was a good thing because the platters were large and there was lots of food.

The first thing we noticed, after the beautiful interior, is the service. I don’t recall any other restaurant of this size with attentive service like this.

“What will you have to drink?” a smiling waiter asked.

We shared one Mojito, keeping in mind the long drive ahead. It was excellent.

As each dish was placed on the table, the server declared the name of the dish. This showed a certain pride in the dishes, which were as attractive as they were tasty.

Full disclosure – my companion and I were guests of the restaurant. Readers may think that as guests our write-ups are biased. That is sometimes a consideration, but not at Hatzel-Banim. This is an excellent restaurant that deserves all of our praise.

YOU CANNOT go wrong no matter what you choose from the menu. We started with the classic grilled eggplant, which was anything but classic. Three swirls of eggplant in techina and a dab of silan (date honey), topped with slivered almonds were beautifully presented on an oblong platter (NIS 30). Really nice. We had this with the warm and crispy house focaccia hot, out of the taboun oven.

Then came the mushrooms, my favorite. This dish was made with a variety of different types of mushrooms, stir-fried with onions in teriyaki sauce. There was drama at our table as the dish was delivered on a wooden board bursting with steam (NIS 58).

The restaurant was anxious for us to try their locus shwarma, one of the specialties of the house. Cubes of locus fish (white grouper) are stir-fried with shwarma spicing and served on a hummus base. This was a big hit with my companion, who loves the shwarma spicing (NIS 72).

For our main courses, I chose fish and my companion chose meat. The sea bass fillet is baked with nothing more than olive oil, garlic, and herbs.  The fish was so delicious that I couldn’t wait to try cooking fish fillets in my own kitchen, the Hatzel-Banim way (NIS 135).

For his main course, my companion wavered between the pargit in a Spanish marinade and juicy kebab. The restaurant accommodates the indecisive with a little of both meats. The plate contained both a generous piece of pargit steak and Saba Jakie’s kebob. For 30 years, Saba Jakie has been preparing these kebobs in the restaurant kitchen. The pargit! my companion declared, is the way pargit should taste (NIS 95).

The policies of every restaurant come from the top. The service, the generosity, the atmosphere, and the quality of the food come from owner Moshe Ben-Naim, a restaurateur almost from birth. He started working at this restaurant when he was just a kid, first as a busboy and then as a waiter. He came from Or Akiva, a neighborhood that could be described as “across-the-tracks” from wealthy Caesarea.

Finding his passion in the restaurant business and encouraged by the owner, Ben-Naim worked at the restaurant until he became the manager, and ultimately the owner these past 14 years. Now the pleasant and charming family man mentors other young people in the ways of the restaurant business.

Hatzel-Banim, the Aresto Restaurant, and Ben-Naim’s other businesses are all run by family members. One of the motivations for making his restaurants kosher was to enable family members who only eat at kosher establishments to enjoy his passion. Thank you for a wonderful restaurant in a perfect setting, now kosher, so that we can all enjoy it.

Hatzel-Banim is in the Caesarea ancient Roman port area. First, enter the park to get to the restaurant. There is an admission fee into the park, which is discounted if you are going to a restaurant. Note that admission is free after 5 p.m.

Getting there: If you park outside the entrance to the park, walk over the dry moat outside the wall and through the ruins of the old Roman city. If you are not a walker, ask the guard at the gate to let you drive into the commercial area with the restaurants and shops.

• Hatzel-Banim
• Caesarea National Park 
• Tel: (04) 636-1679
• Kashrut: Badatz Beit Yosef 
• Open: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday until half hour before Shabbat. Saturday after Shabbat until 11 p.m. Closed Shabbat 

The author is the founder and CEO of eLuna.com, the premier English-language website for kosher restaurants in Israel.