Santi — Restaurant in Tel-Aviv

A great fine dining restaurant with an amazing service!

You do need to take into account that the dishes are quite small, but it was perfect for the type of sharing dinner we like to have as a couple.

For starters we ordered the white fish (I can't remember the exact type) sashimi with blueberries and yoghurt which was very fresh with a mild taste with hints of sweetness from the blueberries. Another dish we ordered based on the waitress's recommendation was the sourdough bread - which we usually don't order as we like to enjoy "real food" rather than fill up with bread, but this was a great choice (especially as we could have dipped it later at the sauce of one of the main dishes we ordered) and it was served with 3 interesting spreads. Lastly, we ordered the cucumber salad served with yoghurt sauce and togarashi - this was one the my favorite dishes of the entire meal and I really recommend it. The mini cucumbers were so crisp, and the togarashi added the perfect umami flavor.

For main dishes we ordered the skewer of oyster mushrooms the was a bit challenging to eat - the instructions were to take the skewer out and roll it in the mizuna leaves it was served on top of, which was kind of messy but the mushrooms were perfectly grilled and super juicy. Another dish we ordered was their famous kama tama pici pasta - served with chopped chives & raw egg yolk that created the perfect combination of herbiness & rich creamy flavours. This was another favorite dish and I really recommend to not skip it. The last main dish we ordered was the mussels in miso butter - it was very creamy and very tasty, especially the sauce that was soaked into the bread we ordered earlier.

For dessert it was quite hard to choose, but we ended up choosing the cornflakes dessert which is basically a half frozen cloud of cornflakes mousse, sitting on a creamy cream, all on top of white chocolate wafer crumbs. It was so light and fluffy, not too sweet and we just swallowed the whole thing up.

For drinks we ordered the spicy margarita & the basil 57 cocktails - both were great and quite alcoholic but very highly priced (66-68 NIS each).

To conclude, if you're looking for a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, or to share a dinner with a small group of friends, this is a...

We waited for more than 1hour and 30 minutes between our order and the last dish. We asked several times the waitress several times what'up with our plate. The first times she barely answered and only after we insisted she went to check in the kitchen (which is open on the restaurant). We saw that clearly something went wrong with the order when the cooks started to argue with her. We received our plate 30 minutes later. I asked the waitress what happened, she literally turned her back on us, did not answer, and chatted with her manager. He then came forward and did nit recognize the mistake, but said that the "buildup" of the dish took 1hour and it was completely normal. We gave him the opportunity to apologize and explain what went wrong but instead he said it was normal to wait for more than 1hour for a dish (a simple little square of fish). We also saw that same dish being served to other tables before us (while they had ordered after us). The manager kept the version that everything was normal. He then went to the kitchen and tried to figure out what happened, and we could clearly see something went wrong, but he wouldn't admit it. We have been to many great restaurants and michelin star ones, but this is definitely one of the worst experiences we have ever had. Being treated like fools while the food was just overhyped and overpriced is not a good sign.

The staff is extremely rude and the dishes are just like any other restaurant,...

The atmosphere is brilliant. The service is adequate. Not amazing, but definitely adequate. The decor is wonderful and different. The food has, to my palate, wonderful different and surprising flavors and mixtures. The presentation of the food is ok. Not wow. We found the food very salty. The only thing that was perfect all round was the oyster. Totally delicious. After we paid, we offered to give feedback. The floor manager came to take our feedback. We gave the above positive feedback, but also expressed the saltiness being too much. He explained to us that we are not used to the umami flavor and therefore it was too salty for us. We were stunned at such an arrogant and ignorant response. He also explained to us that many people have complained about the saltiness but nobody understands the umami flavor. With this response, it is clear that I will neither return, nor can I recommend this restaurant. In addition, the young family of one of the chefs came to eat and sat at the table next to us. A baby in a pram, a little girl, the mother and 2 other adults. The chef was in and out taking care of the children - taking the little girl to the toilet, to the kitchen, holding the baby etc. Generally there was a lot of commotion next to us and there isn't a lot of space. A real pity. Oh. Wasn't cheap. 2 of us and we paid about 750 nis including drinks...