Sheldon

April 2024
Sheldon is the stand-out restaurant in the Ramat Gan diamond center. This is a class act. Restaurants in the area of the diamond center are mostly grills, shipudiot, or greasy spoon restaurants. Sheldon restaurant is located in the modern Beit Oz office building. We were struck by the beautifully designed interior with neon colors. A full bar (with bar seating) and a covered outdoor porch for events. Sheldon is the venue of choice for birthday parties, family gatherings, and various events.

A good indication of this level of restaurant would be the hours. The restaurant offers a fixed price business lunch from 11:30 till 3:30pm. The restaurant closes in the afternoon, and reopens at 7:30pm with a different atmosphere for dinner.

Sheldon is a chef restaurant. Any time of the day that you come, you will be treated to the culinary artistry of Chef Lior Kadosh. Chef Kadosh comes to the restaurant with years of experience from well known (but not to us) non-kosher restaurants. Sheldon gives Chef Kadosh a platform for showing his skills. Every day, in addition to the standard menu, the chef prepares a special dish. Each day it is different, composed of the best ingredients of the day, from his creative mind.

We visited Sheldon on a week day just as it opened for lunch. The crowd started off slowly but within the first hour the restaurant was filled to capacity. The full menu offers a selection of moderately priced meat, vegetarian and pasta dishes, as well as high end steaks and salmon. The hamburger with fries seemed to be popular when we were there. This is not the ten-bis crowd. Most of the lunchers are young professionals who work in the area and come to the restaurant in pairs or small groups. They don't dally over their lunches. One-two and in an hour they are out.
Perusing the menu I noticed the great variety of vegetarian starters with some meat alternatives. Main dishes were mainly meat and fish. I began my lunch with the lentil soup, which was the soup of the day. This was a rich soup with plenty of beans, celery and other vegetables. The soup was tasty but as it was early in the service, the soup could have been hotter.

A very charming and friendly waiter, fluent in both Hebrew and English, explained the different dishes to us. We were especially attracted to the chef's special of the day main course. The day's special was meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce served with white rice topped with lentils. The four meatballs were in a generous amount of tomato sauce with chunks of tomato. The sauce was distinctly spicy, but not excessively so. The waiter referred to it as mildly piquant, which I would agree with. Israelis, he explained, have a higher tolerance for spicy food than foreigners. I was fine with the dish as the rice and lentils balanced the spiciness of the meat very well.

My companion deliberated between the vegetarian Fresh Corn Polenta and the Sauteed mushrooms. She finally decided on the vegetarian broccoli and cauliflower fritters. These were served with small dipping bowls of crushed tomato and humus. The fritters were tasty with and without the dips.

Both our meals came with a small bowl of fresh vegetable salad. This is part of the business lunch at Sheldon: Your main dish comes with a half liter bottle of water and a small side salad.


At dinnertime the atmosphere of the restaurant changes. The dinner sitting is for fun, music, dancing and drinks. Alcohol is a focus at dinner, with an active bar and a serious wine list, lots of cocktails and bottled spirits.

The dinner menu is very similar to the lunch menu, but but without the business lunch deal. The prices are slightly higher so the dishes many be a bit more generous.

Drinks are available by the glass, but if you are so inclined you can purchase a whole bottle of Jonny Walker or Chivas. These won't be at duty free prices. When you are a bit tipsy you will be forgiving of the English language errors on the menu.




From the Lunch Menu:
vegetarian broccoli and cauliflower. fritters NIS 58
Mediterranean spring chicken with roasted vegetables NIS 74
Chef Special NIS 69
Hamburger with potatoes/fries NIS 73
Salmon fillet on mashed potato NIS 89
beef fillet on mashed truffles NIS 169
Children menu: NIS 48

Broccoli and Cauliflower fritter starter