Azia 19: A restaurant bringing Jerusalem to Japan - review

Azia 19, situated within the confines of a remodeled apartment on Aza Street, has finally done what no other restaurant in town has dared to. Instead of bringing Japan to Jerusalem, it has brought Jerusalem to Japan.

Azia 19 – a double entendre on the restaurant’s address and its Asian style – is the antithesis of everything that is wrong with Asian/Japanese food in Israel. The laziness and lack of appreciation for the ingredients, the dumbed-down flavors to assuage the Israeli palate, the confusing cohesion-less concepts. None are to be seen here. And it’s kosher!

“We’re bringing something different, an experience. We don’t disparage the audience, which is something a lot of [Asian] restaurants do, usually due to a lack of knowledge,” says owner Bar Yadid, whose family is deep in the Jerusalem food scene, already owning Station 9 and Focaccia Bar. They decided to go for a preserved building on vibrant Aza Street, home to mostly non-kosher eateries right next to “From Gaza to Berlin.”

WARM SATURATED colors, wooden interiors, a parade float decor, Japanese calligraphy (or shodo) scrolls and a poppy ambient soundscape create the neat, contemporary atmosphere of an Asian/Japanese joint.

What's on the menu at Azia 19?

The nearly-flawless selection spans about 20 unique dishes on a menu that changes daily. Usually one side of the menu is Izakaya-inspired tapas, and the other is dedicated to sushi. It is the brainchild of Yadid along with her partners and chefs, Tomer and Muha, who previously worked for powerhouses Satya and Chakra.

Taking the advice of Boaz, the extremely attentive and knowledgeable waiter, we went for a traditional first course of cold raw dishes and salads, then on to skewers and finally to heavier and broth-filled bites.

The Foie Gras Gunkan (“war boat,” referencing the shape of the nigirizushi) was promising. Under or over cooking foie gras and rendering its fat bitter is incredibly easy, but Azia’s careful treatment of the dishes’ elements avoided this.

I approached the Caesar salad with trepidation. Sans cheese and croutons, it could have been a sad excuse for a classic. However, the playful goma sesame sauce took over and transformed it into an entirely different dish.

Azia places its fish dishes at the forefront, both hot and cold. The fish is bought fresh in Ashdod and smoked for about a week – the Hand Roll (NIS 66) with Japanese Hamachi, relies on the fish’s sashimi grade quality, but as soon as you bite into the Yuzu Kosho, a wasabi-adjacent citrus based paste, you’re greeted with a total explosion of flavor. Never a dull moment.

The Forest Mushroom Kushiyaki skewer (48 NIS) was yet another example of Azia showcasing its source material, letting the texture of the meaty forest mushrooms shine. Then followed the sweetbread gyozas (Thymus glands, not Pancreas), encased like a mother cradling its baby with a beautiful crispy dumpling skirt.

THE EXTENT of Azia’s attention to detail and appreciation of ingredients comes through in ways us mere sushi mortals take for granted. The Koji Shoyu (soy sauce) choice that compliments many of the dishes is expertly picked. A step further than the average spot’s store-bought soy – the shoyu itself is fermented with an extra layer of koji (rice inoculated with Aspergillus oryzae), adding 10x more umami – the fifth basic taste besides sweet, sour, salty, and bitter – and a thicker finish. It is precisely in these minute subtleties that Azia proves its dedication to its craft.

“We’ve looked all over and tested dozens of importers for soy, yuzu, matcha, sake and the like, even asking many to make it kosher. You’ve got many options – but it’s not so simple to find soy that really hits the spot and isn’t just salty,” Yadid says.

IN AZIA’S world, even the Yakizakana dish (128 NIS), whose only ingredient is one charcoal grilled fish, gets a twist. The 3-day aged sea bass is butterflied in order to increase surface area and thus to maintain peak skin crispness, almost gaining autonomy as an entity of its own.

The meal was accompanied with a brilliant matcha cocktail, and an assortment of wines were offered, all of which were strictly Israeli: “Our entire wine menu is comprised of Israeli wines – Yaakov Uriah (of Psagot) stars in it. Both from an ideological perspective and the simple belief that Israeli wine has lots more to offer than people give it credit for,” says Shachar, Yadid’s fiancée (despite describing him initially as her husband, to which he replied, “she’s expediting!”).

The desserts included a brilliant coconut snow bowl (36 NIS), where iced coconut milk and cream are put through a specialized Japanese snowing machine, thus presenting the coconut in multiple forms. Resembles a tiny Mt. Fuji, and it’s edible. As well as a roasted marshmallow bite, and a dark chocolate pudding. These were accompanied by a nigh-perfect Espresso Martini Matcha dessert cocktail (48 NIS), a combination that even my wildest Valley Girl dreams wouldn’t comprehend.

In an age where Pan-Asian mediocrity that doesn’t seek to leave any lasting impact thrives, I hope Azia 19 can make a statement.

• Azia 19
• Aza St. 19, Jerusalem.
• Rabbanut Yerushalayim
• (02) 587-7722

The writer was a guest of the restaurant