Let’s have lunch

Consistently ranked among the top 10 restaurants in the country, Chloélys now offers two business lunches.

By NORA BERLIN
Chloeslys 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Chloeslys 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Walk into Chloélys in Ramat Gan any lunch or dinner time, and you are bound to see familiar faces – not necessarily your friends and neighbors but rather former prime ministers, generals, celebrity lawyers and other VIPs. Chef Victor Gloger has been feeding the top figures of Israel’s business and political world for years, and he does it in style.
Gloger heads a kitchen that combines classic French and Mediterranean cuisines. Using exquisite ingredients thoughtfully and creatively in a variety of cooking methods, he prepares them in an open kitchen that allows diners to watch him work his magic.
Attention is given to every detail, from the level of service and knowledge of the stuff to the elegant interior – wooden floors, white tablecloths and dark wooden shelves laden with wine bottles, sculptures and cookbooks.
Chloélys offers an exquisite wine menu. In fact, it is the only local restaurant to win an excellence award from Wine Spectator magazine, and it has done so for four consecutive years.
Despite the fact that most of the restaurant’s clientele can put lunch on their expense account, even they are trying to show restraint these days. So when we heard that Gloger decided to offer his superb creations for a little less, we just had to have lunch there.
And what a lunch it was! There are two business lunches offered: Chloé for NIS 139 and Lys for NIS 109, and both are very good deals.
After parking in the restaurant’s parking lot and walking into the elegant dining room one midweek lunch time, and after trying not to stare at some of this country’s most rich and famous, we opted go for the more expensive Chloé menu, and it was a pleasure.
Homemade pickles, Santa olives, bread and butter are served to start with and, influenced by the company around us, we ordered two glasses of Chablis. After a long and painful deliberation, we chose to start with one tuna tartare with shrimp cocktail and wasabi sorbet and the crab cake with chipotle sauce. The tartare was very good, but it was the crab cake we really loved. Nothing like other fish cakes, this one was crisp on the outside and heavenly on the inside, with no mayo or bread crumbs – just the fish and immaculate seasoning.
Another shared glass of Chablis, and we were ready for the entrees.
A ballotine of sea bass with duxelles, rice and cream sauce sounded intriguing. Our friendly waiter suggested it, and we were happy we listened. It was perfect. Traditional ballotine is the deboned leg of a bird, shaped like a sausage. Here it consisted of two filets of fish stuffed with duxelles, a cornerstone of French cuisine. It is a finely chopped mixture of mushroom, onions and herbs, sauteed in butter and is most famously used in beef Wellington. Here it was delicate and perfectly complemented the fish.
The other dish, a gray mullet filet with beet gnocchi stuffed with Camembert and pistachio in sage sauce, was as pretty as the name suggests. I don’t remember ever seeing better looking gnocchi, and the fish was very well prepared.
Desserts are not a part of the lunch deal, but we still chose one crema Catalana with cinnamon ice cream (NIS 50) and coffee. A great lunch – one to be remembered.
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.
Chloéslys
Not kosher
16 Abba Hillel, Ramat Gan
(03) 575-9060
Business lunch is served all week, including weekends, from noon to 5 p.m.
Open Sunday to Friday, noon to midnight; Saturday noon to 4 p.m.