A ‘river’ of sushi - Jerusalem's kosher Asian-fusion restaurant
River, a kosher Asian-fusion restaurant owned by chef Ariel Ben Zichri, is part of a chain of 14 restaurants. The Jerusalem branch opened almost two years ago, and offers excellent value for money.
By LINDA GRADSTEINRiver, a kosher Asian-fusion restaurant owned by chef Ariel Ben Zichri(photo credit: YONATAN BEN HAIM)
If you haven’t been to the Malha Mall recently, you are missing out on some good food. The third floor hosts the Malha Market, a group of small restaurants ranging from Fishy, which serves fish and chips, to Eight, part of the chain of chef Moshik Roth that serves small hamburgers and gazoz.I came to try River, a kosher Asian-fusion restaurant owned by chef Ariel Ben Zichri. River is part of a chain of 14 restaurants, with the first one opened in Rishon Lezion 20 years ago. Six of the branches, including the one in Rishon, are kosher.The Jerusalem branch opened almost two years ago, and offers excellent value for money. I told Ariel that I eat everything except onions, and prefer only mildly spicy. The menu, with photos, is on a tablet or on a printed menu, but I like being surprised.There are about 20 seats around the open kitchen. Those who can’t climb onto a higher chair (which was surprisingly comfortable) can sit at a regular table in the food court.First Ariel brought us two salads, not what I would ordinarily choose in an Asian restaurant. The first was the Bang-Bang Salad (NIS 36), a combination of cucumber, thin strips of beets, carrot in a slightly spicy peanut sauce that was absolutely delicious. The other salad, Som Tam (NIS 37), was thin strips of papaya with pomelo and cherry tomatoes in a chili lime sauce. It was also very good.Next was a variety of sushi rolls. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a bit of a sushi snob, and we make sushi at home quite often. I like a lot of fish in my sushi, and of course fish is the most expensive component of sushi. I’ve been to quite a few fast-food sushi places in Israel where you’d need a microscope to find the fish.Not at River. The fish was plentiful and included salmon, tuna and sea bream. The vegetables were fresh and did not overpower the fish. We had the yummy roll which had avocado on top and salmon and tuna together (NIS 41); deniso, a roll of sea bream with spicy chili (NIS 41); and salmon chimichurri, (NIS 41) an interesting combination of fresh salmon and chimichurri on top.For our last dish, we shared what Ariel called River’s flagship dish, Fire and Flame (NIS 51). It was a large portion of stir-fried wheat noodles with beef and chicken, carrot, cabbage and crispy sweet potatoes on top. Although usually served spicy, they toned it down for us, and although close to full, my husband and I managed to finish it off, even dueling a little with our chopsticks for the last bites.For the vegans among you, all of the stir-fry dishes can be made with tofu instead of meat, and the vegetarian sushi dishes are vegan.As we sat there, the sushi chef from Thailand was making a huge party platter of sushi that was stunning to look at. It had 120 pieces, with about 70% of them including fish, and 30% vegetarian (NIS 450). It looked like it could easily feed 10-15 hungry people. Ariel says he gets orders for several of these platters every week.While the kashrut is Rabbanut Jerusalem, all of the meat is Chalak, and the vegetables are all Gush Katif. I saw several haredi (ultra-Orthodox) people eating at the restaurant, and Ariel said that once he explains the ingredients, they are often happy to eat there.River also does delivery in most areas of Jerusalem for just NIS 11.
