Updated March 2015
Derby Bar is a fish restaurant with a large sushi and fish menu. They also have a meat grill menu for those who want to go their own way. The menu models a steakiya or a dagiya to be more exact but this is an upmarket restaurant of the best kind. The atmosphere is very pleasant, the food is tasty, the service is good and the price is right.
The restaurant provides a very congenial dining environment. The decor is modern and clean, yet rich, with dark wood furniture and walls lined with wine. The restaurant is spacious with comfortable seating. Two flat screen TVs on either side of the bar broadcast sports events and soft background music further enhances the atmosphere. Towards the back is a very large room for private meetings and smachot. (You can learn more on our Smachot page.)
The meal starts in traditional steakiya style with a large spread of 8 or 9 salads, including fish dishes like ikra (fish roe spread) with onions, and marinated herring if you ask for it. If the owner recognizes you as a regular, he will bring out toasted white bread with paprika, zaatar and olive oil. The salads are particularly tasty and included in the price as long as you have a main course. The charge is 40 shekels per person if you dont order a main course.
The starters menu includes both fish and vegetarian dishes. We have visited Derby Bar several times, and on those visits we had occasion to try several dishes that we can warmly recommend: the fish falafel, which comes with two kinds of aioli, the eggplant carpaccio with techina and whole chickpeas. On this visit we enjoyed the stir-fried mushrooms served in a big bowl and easily large enough for two. The baked garlic cloves are an unusual dish, best spread on bread or toast and the delicious fried eggplant so much tastier than when I make it at home.
We recommend having a sushi dish for your starter or main. Half of the eight-page menu is a long list of sushi dishes. Derby Bar offers sushi made fresh at the bar counter, as well as a particularly tasty tofu tempura. Theres also a great selection of sashimi and nigiri. Previously we had the maguro sushi rice topped with fresh tuna a lovely dish. This time we had the Special Saka Roll, which has salmon, avocado and sweet potato on the inside, and outside of the rice a layer of seared salmon with panko (Japanese bread crumbs), almonds, scallions and teriyaki. The sushi roll was large, complex in composition, and melt-in-your mouth delicious.
Select your main course from an exceptionally full list of fish both sea and fresh water varieties are well represented. There are 11 fishes on the menu, in keeping with Derby Bars specialization. The mains come with side dishes, but they are not listed on the menu. They vary daily, depending on what is good in the market and the chefs inspiration that day. Whatever fish you choose, it will be perfectly baked, grilled, or fried to order: juicy and soft, just as it should be.
For diners who would rather something else, there is a shorter list of meats, a list of pasta dishes and a childrens menu. Again all dishes are cooked with precision and care. Choose from skewered pullet (pargiot), chicken breast, a 220 gram beef burger or, if youre particularly hungry, a 330 gr steak entrecote; again all freshly and expertly prepared.
Derby Bar also offers a nice range of pasta dishes with a good choice of tasty sauces: pesto, tomato and mushrooms. The sweet potato ravioli is particularly delicious: rich, satisfying and delicately flavoured. An absolute treat. Children can choose from spaghetti, mini schnitzels (schnitzelonim) with chips, fish and chips, or pargit with chips all equally popular and excellent value at NIS 48.
After all the salads and starters, we had one fish main of Grouper filet and the entrecote steak. Neither of us could finish our main courses. We were more than sated.
Of course we could still be tempted by dessert. We shared a plate of Belgian waffles with two scoops of ice cream (vanilla and cookies and cream parve of course, but you cant tell these days) with piles of whipped cream, strawberries all over, decorated with chocolate syrup. Something for everyone on one plate. At our point of satiation, that dish would have been enough for four, not to mention two.
The service was both polite and efficient; the dishes were served promptly and there was little waiting between courses. Linger if you will, but at Derby Bar, if you don't care to warm the seat for hours, you won't have to. B'teavon!
The restaurant is located in the Maccabi Center on Yigal Alon Street, just south and on the opposite side of the highway from the Azrieli Center. Derby Bar is one of several restaurants in the Maccabi center and the adjacent Electra Builidng and the area is well lit and hopping well into the night. Derby Bar is not visible from the street, so look for the large sign to Maccabi or the Assuta hospital. The restaurant is inside the courtyard to the left of the entrance of the Maccabi building. There is an underground car park in the building that lets out in the lobby of the Maccabi buliding, as well as street parking in the evening.
Eggplant carpaccio NIS 32, fish falafel NIS 24, fish dishes NIS 95 NIS 125, skewered pullet NIS 71, hamburger NIS 62, sweet potato ravioli NIS 62, maguro sushi 22/42, entrecote steak 139.
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