Fresh the Market: Forget the grammar, enjoy the food - review

Despite its rather dubious English moniker, Fresh the Market is a very popular chain of seven dairy restaurants around the country.

We had lunch at the Hadera branch this week, presided over by chef Lior Aloni, and were impressed with the food, the service, and the ambiance, which was very friendly and welcoming.

Much of the food is prepared in an oversized taboon (clay oven) tiled in psychedelic black and white. It was the first day of the season’s rain and we selected our menu accordingly, looking for comfort food to stave off the cold outside.

Eating at Fresh the Market

For starters, my companion and I shared a dish of garlic Parmesan rolls straight from the taboon. These are bread rolls, very crispy on the outside and soft within, flavored with grated Parmesan cheese and loads of garlic, which suited us fine. The tomato salsa on the side was also full of garlic and spices, and the dish (NIS 48) was a hit for two rather hungry people.

For a main course, I decided to go vegan and liked the sound of fried mushroom salad in Asian sauce (NIS 69). It arrived very hot and consisted of a base of vermicelli, plenty of greens, and a very generous helping of cooked button mushrooms. It was very good. However, there are so many varieties of mushrooms around that it might have been more fun to use other kinds as well. The dish included green beans, rocket, and bean sprouts, and was far too much to finish.

My companion felt fishy and ordered sea bass, a fillet of our favorite fish served with sheets of homemade lasagna in tomato butter, with fresh spinach and roasted cherry tomatoes (NIS 109).

A small side salad of various tomato types, shredded carrots, and beetroot also appeared at our table. My companion assured me the dish had been exactly what he wanted.

A separate menu lists some luscious desserts (but why, oh why, do the menus in Israeli restaurants call them “deserts”?). We chose pecan pie in vegan pastry (NIS 49), served with vanilla ice cream. My companion virtuously declined to partake, as it certainly was very sweet and rich.

We both had two excellent cappuccinos to end this exceptional meal and returned to Netanya with very full stomachs, resolving not to eat another crumb for the rest of the day. Needless to say, by the evening we were enjoying a very light homemade supper.

The drive to Hadera took half an hour, and we both felt that the meal we had enjoyed was well worth the effort.

• Fresh the Market
• Canyon Mul Hahof Village, Hadera
• Tel: (04) 911-3233
• Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-11 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m.; Saturday, 6:30 p.m.-12 a.m.
• Kashrut: Hadera Rabbinate

The writer was a guest of the restaurant.