Going back to the Tishbi Winery and Restaurant is always a positive experience, even in times like these. The veteran establishment is still run by the same family as the original pioneers who started the business more than a century ago. The staff doesn’t seem to change either, with chef Gunther Biedermann, the two Oshras, and pastry chef Maya Didi all making visitors feel welcome.
Of course, the food is now take-away, but you can still sit in the vine-covered garden while it is being prepared and enjoy what feels like an English summer in Israel this December. There are many places in the surrounding countryside for a picnic, and nature is welcoming. Bougainvilleas blaze on the hedgerows and the sycamores have not yet shed their leaves.
Deliveries are possible in all the surrounding towns but as Netanya doesn’t qualify we were happy to go and collect both a sumptuous breakfast and lunch for two, which was so generous it lasted for several meals.
The breakfast for two comes in a blue plastic basket that you get to keep. But all the containers and flatware are made of biodegradable bamboo that is both aesthetic and pleasant to eat from.
Each diner received a three-egg omelet, one plain, one enhanced with chunks of feta cheese, with a side dish of mushrooms and potatoes au gratin. The fresh buckwheat loaf came with packets of butter added to the dish but there were so many other additions I almost lost count. Small containers held tehina, cream cheese, smoked salmon with pink “caviar,” tzatziki, and olive tapenade. The basket also contains a paper tablecloth and two reusable BPA-free Govino “glasses.” (NIS 200) Three very aesthetic and original salads arranged on large oval bamboo serving dishes were produced for our inspection, to be taken away and eaten at lunch time. One was a mix of red lentils with cooked fennel and bulgarit cheese, another made from beetroot slices, cauliflower and chick peas, the third consisted of tossed baby leaves, endive and cooked carrot sticks (NIS 60). Several salad dressings were added and the one made from a mix of balsamic vinegar and date syrup was especially good.
Included in our lunch takeaway were a vegan option in the form of barley and buckwheat salad with diced veggies, topped with a flower made from endive leaves (NIS 60), two helpings of baked grouper served with pappardelle (NIS 180), seared tuna fillet on parsley root puree (NIS 170) and a large container of potato gnocchi with king forest mushrooms (NIS 80). We were only able to dip into this huge amount of food and can report that everything was delicious, with the fish cooked to just the right point. The tuna looked rare but was succulent and nicely chewy.
Desserts at Tishbi at the moment are limited to boxes of cookies that are also sold in the adjacent shop. They were, as expected, crunchy, sweet and flavorsome, and were the perfect accompaniment to the excellent coffees with which we ended this unusual meal.
The Tishbi website will be available in English from mid-December and contains menus, as well as all the historical information about the company.
Tishbi Winery
Kosher
Road 652, Binyamina.
Phone: (04) 638-0434.
Sun-Thur: 8 a.m.–4 p.m., Fri: 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.