Joy Bistro

Revisited September 2024
Joy on the Mamilla Mall promenade is not a single restaurant, but is a food empire. At the center is Joy Bistro, a fine meat restaurant, and the one you think you know. Berlin Burger, next door, is Joy's casual burger restaurant. The top floor of the restaurant is the Momento simcha hall. In addition, Joy has a catering service to help you with your party at your location.

Joy has reinvented itself several times since its opening on Emek Refaim some 15 years ago. In those days Joy was a small restaurant with a long line of people waiting to get seated. Today the Joy empire is a group of quality meat restaurants and catering facility. The original team led by Shlomi and Alon, who founded this restaurant are mostly all still on board, and it is a pleasure to reconnect with this group of ambitious and successful business people.

Since our last visit, Joy on the promenade level has split into the Joy Bistro and Berlin Burger, also a Joy restaurant. Berlin Burger is young and fun, with neon lights and comfortable booths. Stop in with the family for reasonably priced burgers and chips. The food is Joy quality, but the portions are family-sized and priced accordingly. If you are after a simple burger, Berlin is your address.

While Berlin Burger is for casual dining, Joy Bistro has become the fine dining restauran,t with a new look and a new menu. The restaurant is a complex of rooms and seating areas on the promenade level and below. An elevator will take you to the different levels. The rooms have been refurbished and are now modern and minimalist. The plates and the cutlery are modern and sleek. The decor is simple and very pleasant for eating with your partner or with a group.

eLuna was invited to taste the new Joy Bistro menu, and taste we did, because as delicious all the foods were, we could not finish these generous portions.

We opened our meal with two dishes from the starter menu along with the house focaccia served with three dips. At the restaurant's recommendation we started with the Meat Cigars, a signature dish at Joy Bistro. Diners come from far just for this dish. The platter held three sticks of crispy filo dough filled with a mix of ground liver and beef. This is an Algerian family recipe that made aliya with the owner's grandmother. The cigars are served with tahini with spicy zhug. You don't want to miss this dish.

I would not have considered cured fish, but the Sea Fish Crudo was truly delicious and not at all fishy. Small chunks of cured fish in a light Ponzu and citrus sauce on on two pieces of toast. I enjoyed it much more than I expected.

My companion and I shared two excellent salads. I especially liked the Citrus Salad, often called Endive salad, because it is the endives that do it. In addition, the salad has a mix of lettuce, citrus fruit, candied pecans, in a vinaigrette dressing. The Caesar Salad is a tasty vegetable salad with croutons and lots of cherry tomatoes that gets its zing from chunks of grilled chicken. This salad is best eaten as the chef intended but you can ask for a vegan version, and have the chicken on the side.

My companion's main course was a huge 300-gram steak with a Portobello mushroom, grilled squash and mashed potatoes, in a delicious sweet barbecue sauce. The steak was grilled to a perfect medium, which was just right for this cut. He was aghast at what appeared to be pool of ketchup on the plate that turned out to be a beet sauce in wine which nicely complemented the grilled vegetables. This is an expensive dish, but like all of the dishes at Joy, large enough to share. If you can stretch your budget, go for it. With his steak my companion tried an Israeli beer from Shikma, an unfiltered India Pale Ale. Not a common beer, but nice.

I enjoyed the Sea Bass Skewer main course. This is actually a meal in a plate, with skewers of crispy grilled fish and vegetables on a bed of Pappardelle pasta. This was an absolutely lovely main course, beautifully presented, with a creative and delicious combination of flavors. Most meat restaurants don't do fish as nicely as Joy Bistro. Kudos to the chef.

Folks dining at Joy, who just can't pass up a burger, will find the Butcher's 250 gr burger on the Joy Bistro menu. This is an out-sized burger served on a bun with lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles and fries of course.

The service at Joy is friendly, and the servers know the dishes. It will be hard to find a nicer bunch of people. They are helpful and attentive, and our every request was answered with a smile.

I really like the restaurant, and will be happy to return.

From the Menu: Meat Cigars: nis 64 Sea Fish Crudo : nis 68 Citrus Salad NIS 66 Caesar Salad NIS 72 Sea Bass Skewer Pasta NIS 146 Steak with Portobello mushroom NIS 182 Butcher's Burger NIS 88

Note: The building itself at Mamila dates back hundreds of years. Theodore Herzl himself stayed in this famous building, known as the Stern House.

Joy's private rooms are available for event bookings.