Some restaurants are located in stunning spots—on popular boulevards or bustling markets, outside the city with views of green landscapes or a wide blue sea. Others are in greyer places (but the most convenient for access and parking), like Raffaello.
This is a chain of Italian restaurants aiming high, focusing mainly in the north of the country (Haifa, the Krayot, and Nof Hagalil), but soon it will also arrive in the central region. Its first (kosher) branch opened 15 years ago in the Kiryon, followed shortly by a non-kosher one in the Castra Center in southern Haifa. The rest of the branches are also located in malls—intentionally. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill real estate and guest-capacity fantasies if you also insist on being in the heart of the city, for example. I’ve already seen places that send dirty dishes in an elevator to the basement due to lack of space, or restaurants where you have to cross the street—and the road—to get to the private room. That’s far from the case here.
At Raffaello, you’ll find it all—meticulous and spacious design, private rooms equipped with everything needed to host an event for 50 guests, and even a separate room dedicated to producing fresh handmade pasta. And I’m talking about every single branch of the chain. And now, we’ve arrived at the most important part: the food. Because here, there’s no sea view or trendy terrace to see and be seen—and in such a situation, the food must not fall short.
“We define ourselves as a fine dining restaurant,” says Shmuelik Ben Shimon, the restaurant manager. “We emphasize a relaxed dining time. With us, you won’t get a message that your table is for an hour and a half or two. People come here to eat and enjoy. There are small starters that come with a spritz cocktail as an aperitif, and there are appetizers, main courses, and also pizzas. That’s the DNA of every branch—the customer experience—and that’s what matters.”
Indeed, you can start your meal with an elaborate spritz cocktail at the especially affordable price of NIS 35 per glass (and prices go down the more cocktails you order), and continue with shrimp in chili butter and saffron, asparagus, broccoli, confit garlic, herbs, and toasted bruschetta (NIS 71), or pasta candies filled with cheese, spinach, leek, and creamed salsify (NIS 64).
Then you can move on to the more serious pasta section, with excellent ragù lasagna (made with fresh pasta sheets, as noted) for NIS 86, or quattro formaggi agnolotti—dumplings from the Italian side of the Alps near Switzerland, filled with mascarpone and ricotta, cream sauce, white wine, leek, confit garlic, spinach leaves, roasted cherry tomatoes, chili, and Parmesan shavings (NIS 79), sea bass fillet and asparagus on herb linguine in lemon butter, saffron, confit garlic, and leek (NIS 99), and awe-inspiring desserts like cannoli filled with mascarpone cream, Amarena cherries, candied pecans, and berries (NIS 47) or apple financier with baked almond cream, caramelized apples, hazelnut crumble, salted caramel, and a scoop of vanilla (NIS 44).
“Almost everything here is handmade, fresh every day,” says Ben Shimon. “And if it’s not made here, then it’s imported from Italy at the highest level possible. But our pride is the service. For every staff member, it’s a privilege to provide service, and this ideology proves itself in every single branch.”
Ben Shimon also shares that two new branches are about to expand beyond the northern region and are currently in development, revealing only that one will be in Netanya and the other in Rishon LeZion. Needless to say, they too will likely open inside malls, as spacious restaurants offering a different kind of experience—just like in Haifa.
Raffaello, 8 Fliman Street, Castra Center, Haifa, 04-6208753