Pita Basta offers Greek food with Jerusalem flavor

Like policemen, restaurant owners seem to be getting younger. Shlomi Bitan, of Pita Basta in Herzliya, is all of 23 and has just completed his army service.

The self-assured Shlomi, son of Moroccan immigrant parents, found a niche in the food market, importing the Greek pita gyros into the country to offer an alternative to the regular homemade variety.

Gyros (pronounced “eeros”) are a form of what we call pita but slightly bigger and crispier. They can be filled with a variety of meats and are popular as a fast-food alternative.

But it’s also possible to get your main course on a plate, to be eaten with a knife and fork, a far less calorific way of tasting the Greek-inspired food.

“Basta” means market stall, and the place is imaginatively decorated with green and white striped awnings and matching (plastic) cane chairs. There is both indoor and outdoor seating.

Having asked to have the loud music made quieter, we settled down in the cool interior of the restaurant to sample the food.

My companion chose the chicken livers (NIS 54), and a very large amount of the delicacy appeared. It’s not the easiest food to cook and get right, but the chef managed it perfectly, getting the livers well-cooked but not overdone. The faintly sweet addition of date syrup brought out the flavor.

I chose the pargit – strips of boneless chicken thigh flavored with garlic and smothered in Har Bracha tehina. This famous product is made by a Samaritan family living on Mount Gerizim who started the production of their tehina in 2002. It’s kosher, vegan-friendly and delicious (NIS 55).

We each had a side salad – a bowl of lettuce, radishes and carrot sticks, topped with nuts and seeds and a good dressing of lime vinaigrette (NIS 10).

Other additions were a bowl of french fries, fairly standard, and a baked sweet potato, which was wonderful and a perfect side dish to the meat (NIS 15).

On each table, there is an enormous box of tissues/napkins, which at first seemed out of place, until one realized that eating those pitot filled with meat and sauces can be a very messy business.

There are two desserts listed – malabi and pita Lotti, which is yet another pita, toasted and filled with chocolate, nuts and sliced banana (NIS 10). We decided to pass on the sweet course.

To drink with the food we did our usual combina (Hebrew for a quick and creative solution to a problem), and Alex ordered a draft beer and I a Diet Sprite. A quick dollop of the beer in the lemonade produced my favorite thirst quencher – a shandy.

Pita Basta is a chain with branches all over the country, and all are kosher. Highly recommended for a quick, satisfying and tasty meal.