Merkavá — Restaurant in Mexico City

Based on press, reviews and photos, I was very excited to dine at Merkavá. I didn’t expect my taste buds to sing like they have in Israel and New York, but I did want to walk away gleaming about the growing availability of Middle Eastern, Israeli and Jewish food in Mexico City. Unfortunately, every dish was a miss. First up: the matzo ball soup, which is not really Israeli nor Middle Eastern, but as an Ashkenazi Jewish tradition it’s still culturally relevant. While the ball was pretty good, the broth tasted of salty bouillon cube. I detected not even a hint of celery, carrot or herb, all non-negotiable for a well-rounded bowl. On the other hand, I did detect some floppy egg noodles. Nevermind that they defy tradition — the larger issue is that they are unnecessary as long as a softball-sized dumpling sits in the middle. It felt amateur.

The salatim were a flop. I sized down the order to lentils, falafel, baba ghanoush and beets. The mortar-like baba ghanoush (one of my favorites) was so bitter and texturally offensive that I sent it back — and I rarely do that. (“¡Pruebalo!” I wanted to say) The falafel were hard, dry and relatively mute. The lentils were mixed with garbanzo beans and some herbs that had turned brown from, I presume, sitting in a container for a few days. And finally, the beets. They sounded heavenly: tamarind, lemon, cumin, mustard seed and kaffir lime. What actually arrived — sad, bitter chunks with the glaze of overnight refrigeration — might as well have come from a can.

Had I been smarter, I would have ordered the hummus and the lamb shank. Hoping to reduce waste, I ordered the grape leaves stuffed with lamb and rice. They were faintly rancid and excessively oily. I left one behind.

Service was satisfactory. They were patient with my poor Spanish and somewhat understanding about the baba ghanoush. I’d have loved if they had an English menu for easier scannability, but such is a luxury rather than an expectation. Was it an off night or the norm? Not sure I’ll...

Great potencial with room for improvement. Particularly on the service.

We had difficulty understanding the menu and upon communicating this to the staff, they looked at us puzzled instead of giving us assistance. They resorted instead to recommending the most expensive dishes on the menu, which was a miss on their part. My wife requested a english menu but it was not available.

Also, didn't quite understand who our server was. We were greeted first with one person at the table who brought us the drink menu (we had to request a food menu, which seemed odd) several minutes after we asked for assistance from someone walking by, which also didn't assist much. We ended up over ordering food, in particular a underwhelming Calabasas Rellenas a La Brasas. Was led to believe the dish was a light squash dish with rice, meat and salsa, turned out to be a heavy cheesy dish and the most expensive we ordered.

The traditional pita bread was served undercooked. This just seems like a big fail for a mediterranean restaurant, like a mexican restaurant messing up a tortilla. Dont know what happened there! 🤔

PROS: The hummus of the week was delicious and so was the cauliflower roast. Hey also served a spicy green sauce that was light and flavorful... Yummy!

Overall would not return as the experience left a lot...

The restaurant is quite small but cute and cozy, however service was not. I was seated and it took for me to ask the waiter twice in 5 minutes for me date and myself to get menus. I had to ask the manager himself for the menus- the surprising part was that the restaurant was not busy at the time. After getting the menus we ordered the Knafe which was the only reason we visited in the first place and the waiter just sneered that they had ran out of it. We got up to leave but on our way out I asked the kitchen staff if they had any left (since I saw someone being served Knafe as we were walking out) and the kitchen said that it was being made fresh so they were out of ready made ones but that they could and would make more and would take just a few minutes. All of this happened in front of the waiter who did not care to even say sorry for the misunderstanding. We also ordered the traditional hummus which was alright- nothing too special nor bad tasting. The one thing that made it well worth it was the Knafe. It was the best Knafe I've ever had. Quite delicious with the right amount of sweet, cheese and the accompaning pistachio ice cream made it extraordinary.

Food was good and tasty. Service was lacking and wanting. I might go back just for the Knafe but I wouldn't take a date...