Not only for St. Patrick’s Day

The Temple Bar is a welcoming bar/restaurant that offers a great selection of food and a wide range of international beers.

By JONATHAN GILAD
Temple bar 311 (photo credit: Courtesy )
Temple bar 311
(photo credit: Courtesy )
It was a cold night, and I was looking for a watering hole where I could have a beer with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. We felt like a beer (or two) but were hungry too and wanted a place where we could talk. The Temple Bar was an obvious choice: near his home in Ramat Hasharon, with lots of parking space and lots of beer.
The Ramat Hasharon Cinema City branch of the Temple Bar is very spacious. It’s decorated as one would imagine a good Irish country pub would be – in dark wood and heavy furniture, ocher walls, a huge bar and lots of quaint items on the walls.
We were greeted by the hostess, who took us to the non-smoking area. There is a room for smokers, and it’s separated from the nonsmoking with double doors, which make all the difference. None of that fake separate smoking area stuff so common in the Tel Aviv bars.
There are many semi-private booths that allow for an intimate conversation and gatherings of small groups, and a seating area with tall chairs in the middle. We didn’t reserve a booth. Being a Thursday night, the place was packed so we sat in the middle area. Thankfully the music was quiet enough to allow for a very much-needed catching-up conversation.
My friend decided to order the local hamburger (NIS 56), which was generous, good and served with excellent fries. I took the waiter’s suggestion and got a delicious entrecote sandwich (NIS 64) with mushrooms, tomato and onion in good bread, which lived up to the waiter’s praise.
Although the place offers hundreds of different beers, some very rare and unique, and despite the fact that January was declared British beer month, we opted for the Belgian Leff blonde and brown, both from the tap (NIS 32-59). The beers are served in different glasses to match the brand. A very nice touch.
Unlike most bars, this place is run like a proper restaurant, with a large number of waiters and a rich menu, including pub food such as shepherd’s pie (NIS 61), Kilkenny dumplings (NIS 35), fish and chips (NIS 59) and other delights from the British Isles.
There are many other dishes, more suited to the local taste, such as chopped liver salad, herring filets, burgers and lamb kebab. And the regular bar food such as onion rings (NIS 26) and chicken wings to be shared by friends around the table, old-fashioned soaked almonds (NIS 15) and Belgian fries (NIS 26), which we were told were the best fries in the country.
The bottom line – it’s a great place before and after a movie, when you want to meet friends and don’t want to waste hours looking for a parking spot, and when you just have to get some of that welcoming Irish style.
The writer was a guest of the bar.

The Temple Bar chain of Irish pubs, in Ramat Hasharon Cinema City, G Center Kfar Saba, Cinemall Haifa and Cinema City Rishon Lezion, offers a vast alcohol list including rare beers and alcohol. Call if you want to reserve a booth.

Not kosher.