When you go to Passador and notice that I wrote “when” not “if,” don’t make the same rookie mistake I did. When our passador (Portuguese for the waiter who brings you lots of very good meat) told me the nine types of meat we would be tasting, he told us, “and then either picanha or entrecote,” which I interpreted as meaning one of those two dishes would be offered.
When the picanha came cooked perfectly medium-rare, I took a larger than usual helping as it is one of my favorite meats. So when the entrecote came as the final dish, I could only manage one bite. He apparently had been talking about the order it is served in, not whether or not it was included.
Basically, everything here is included in the NIS 280 per person price tag – appetizers, main dishes, and side dishes. You can order as many “refills” as you want. If you want unlimited beer, wine, and soft drinks (and trust me, you do), add another NIS 40.
Then just sit back and enjoy the parade of food that makes its way to your table. The vibe here
is lively with the place packed on a Tuesday night, and the service is excellent. Diners are offered fresh plates halfway through the meal and fresh napkins at least twice. When a passador banged into our table, he was quite apologetic.
This place runs like a well-oiled machine. As soon as you sit down, the appetizers appear at the table. There was a homemade coleslaw, a lettuce salad, olives, and most tempting of all, a hot focaccia right from the tabun oven. I know you’re hungry, and it’s hard to resist freshly baked bread, but use your stomach real estate wisely.
Good variety of meats to try
There are nine meat dishes served here, as well as baked potatoes and roasted vegetables from the oven.
The first bite is a tartare made of filet mignon with lemon and herbs served on a crunchy, small cracker. This is served as you enter the restaurant before you even sit down, and it is a perfect way to start a special meal. Next was a chunky homemade chopped liver with onion jam that pairs perfectly with the focaccia that I told you not to eat earlier. OK, so have a small piece with some chopped liver!
Next came a small frying pan with some asado cooked in a whiskey glaze and brisket. Both meats were tender and delicious.
Then there was the picanha, a popular cut of steak in Brazil and Portugal with a thick layer of fat on top. It is one of my favorites and is not frequently served in Israel. By this point, I was getting full, but in service to my readers, my favorite daughter and I powered on through the pargiyot (boneless chicken thighs) that had been marinated and grilled, and onto a spicy sausage that is made in-house. I have a very Ashkenazi palate, so I took just a small bite of this one, and it was a little too hot for me.
Next came a homemade kebab, and I was already pretty full, but it was spiced beautifully and enjoyable. The next dish was goose thigh on a platter of rice with dried fruit. Maybe I was just too full, but I found the meat a little stringy. The finale, as I already told you, was the entrecote, and I really wish I had more room.
As we ate, I sipped on a kosher South African table wine that was quite good, especially at 40 shekels for all you can drink, and I was glad I had taken the train to Tel Aviv instead of driving.
One thing I really appreciated was that the portions served were all small, so there was not much waste, although the passadors kept asking if we wanted more of anything. I hate waste, so I appreciated that they tried to limit it. Netanel, the manager, told me that leftover food is donated rather than trashed.
“We work with three kinds of fire,” Gaby Zylber, a chef who trained in Michelin restaurants in Canada and is now one of the co-owners, told The Jerusalem Post. “I love smoking meat, and we have a big smoker where we make our asado and brisket. We have a Brazilian-style grill for the picanha, and we also use a direct fire grill for other dishes.
The idea of combining these techniques is to take each part of the cow and get the best flavor.”
Zylber and his partners, Matanel Shalom, Ran Dor-hai, and Asaf Einat own several restaurants, including the Whisky Bar and Museum and the Tasting Room, both in Sarona in Tel Aviv.
When the war began on October 7, Passador became a center for providing meals for soldiers.
“We had 400 volunteers – I don’t even know where they came from,” Zylber said. “And we donated 15,000 meals in the first few months of the war.”
Definitely make a reservation and go try it.
Passador
Yigal Alon 94
Tel Aviv
Phone: (02) 649-3932
Open: Sunday-Thursday, 6 p.m.-11 p.m., Saturday night from 8 p.m.
Kashrut: Tel Aviv Rabbanut
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.