I’ve always enjoyed the restaurants in Beit Ticho, the historical home of the renowned late artist Anna Ticho. Although right in the center of downtown Jerusalem, Beit Ticho feels like an oasis from the noise and ongoing construction.
As long as I can remember, the restaurants at Beit Ticho served fish and dairy food, including the recent Eser, owned by chef Jacob Turjeman. He has now opened Mifgash Ticho in the same space, but this time with a meat menu. On the evening I visited, my companion and I sat in the large, beautiful outdoor terrace, which was just lovely as Jerusalem cooled down.
“I felt like the city needed a casual place for steak that was not overly expensive,” explained the self-taught Turjeman, who cooks creative food at his other restaurants 1868, Zuta, and JLM Sushi.
Starting our meal with cocktails
I invited my friend Laura Cornfield from my Ladies Who Drink group, so of course we had to start our meal with a cocktail. The bartender, Shmulik, is the long-time bartender at Zuta, and he and Laura are old friends. I went for the Mai-Tai (NIS 62) made with rum and orange liqueur, which made me glad I wasn’t driving. Laura chose the Clover Club (NIS 62), a pre-Prohibition classic cocktail made with gin and raspberry syrup, although here it is made with blueberry syrup. It was delicate and delicious.
For appetizers, I selected the beef filet tartare (NIS 68) served with a bone-marrow aioli on a toasted brioche. Laura chose the roasted cabbage skewer (NIS 58) with carrot caramel and mustard aioli. Both were outstanding, and I would definitely order both again.
Jacob added two appetizers that he chose – a sourdough focaccia (NIS 32) with smoked aioli and garlic confit, and greens fatayer (NIS 42), a dumpling stuffed with cilantro and garlic. Fatayer is an Arab or Levantine dish usually stuffed with meat, and this vegetarian version was unique and definitely worth trying.
Our server, Sapir, was not only familiar with the menu, but warm and hospitable as well. It was another reminder of just how important good service is to a diner’s overall experience.
A small, well-executed menu
There are only nine main dishes on the menu, although I would rather have a smaller number of well-executed choices than a large menu that is more hit-and-miss. Laura ordered the 150-gr. beef fillet in a red wine sauce (NIS 145), and because there is no fat on the fillet, it was definitely enough to fill her up even after I took a bite. The meat was outstanding, and I would go back just for this steak.
I asked Jacob to choose a steak for me, and he sent out the 400-gr. boneless rib-eye steak (NIS 350), which was pre-sliced and more than I could finish. This pricey steak had been aged in their refrigerator and had a deep, beefy taste.
As it was a rib-eye, it had a fair amount of fat. I usually cut most of the fat off steak, but here the fat melted in my mouth. It was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. I took the leftovers home and Netanel (my foodie son) grabbed the container out of my hands and tasted the steak.
“This is amazing,” he said. “You can taste the aging on it.”
Along with the steak we had delicious chips that had been cooked in beef fat, and fresh green beans with garlic.
When it was time for dessert, we were pretty full. I’m also not usually a big fan of parve desserts. But in the interest of research, Laura and I shared soft hazelnut ice cream with candied hazelnuts (NIS 48) that was so good we questioned whether it was really parve.
Mifgash Ticho has several private rooms for events and will begin serving lunch in the coming few weeks.
Overall, it was a fantastic meal in a beautiful setting, at a reasonable price. Highly recommended.
Mifgash Ticho
10 Harav Agan Street, Jerusalem
Tel: (02) 622-2313
Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 6 p.m.-11 p.m.
Kashrut: Rabbanut Jerusalem
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.