Slow & Bro, Raanana
The Czar's Table

Revisited March 2024
Fine dining in Raanana. Alas!
Slow & Bro Restaurant opened in the summer 2023. Since that time the restaurant has gone through major changes. From a restaurant that focused on just smoked meat, Slow & Bro has gone up a notch and become a fine dining restaurant. The smoked meat is still the highlight of the menu, but the atmosphere has improved, the service and the menu has been upgraded to the level of fine dining.

Once a family restaurant, Slow & Bro 2.0 is professionally run by a team of seasoned restaurateurs. Manager Mikhail, staff and chef have all brought their expertise to Slow & Bro from other quality restaurants. Coming from non-kosher restaurants, this is their first venture into the kosher restaurant world. Owner Igor and his team all originally came from Russia but Mikhail describes the cuisine as European. I see that. Slow & Bro serves the food of the Czars.

Slow & Bro Smokehouse is an unassuming restaurant located on HaTa'asiya Street in the Etgarim industrial zone. You might miss it if you don't know it is there. Clean set tables and light wood furnishings welcome you at the restaurant. The minimalist interior is the perfect backdrop for the food, which needs no fancy setting. The restaurant has a lovely patio facing the front. In the spring/summer this will be the place to dine. We dined to soft background music - for a pleasant change we did not have to ask that they lower the volume.

The predominant language is Russian but the menu is in English and Hebrew. Sloe & Bro 2.0 has a full menu of starters, salads and meats. There is a very complete menu of Israeli wines in a new wine frig. And lets not forget the desserts!

Mikhail likes his restaurant clean and orderly. The flatware and napkins are changed between courses. Serving platters come with serving pieces something you don't see in almost any restaurant in Israel. When I commented on this he looked at me like "of course! What kind of dives have you been eating at!" When a party of diners left the restaurant we hardly noticed as he quickly whisked their seats and swept the floor. Every diner comes into a freshly clean restaurant.

Our Visit to Slow & Bro 2.0
We were two couples for an early dinner mid-week. Following Mikhail's suggestions, we started with the S&B Appetizers. These were two small salads and a bowl of super-large olives served with just a few slices of toasted house bread. This is really just to whet your whistle and is not much to share, but there is plenty of food waiting in the wings.

There were two cocktails on the menu for the evening. The Aperol Spritzer, good but not our usual choice, was just the ticket while discussing the menu.

Vitello Tonnato is the restaurant's signature starter. Mikhail delivered the dish to our table with great pride. This beautifully presented unique dish consists of sliced picanha meat topped with a creamy mayonnaise-like sauce. In north-west Italy, where this dish originates, it can be a main course or an elegant antipasto at an elaborate dinner. Like all the meat at Slo and Bro, the meat was soft and tender. Picanha is similar to sirloin, reminiscent of good roast beef. It is tender and juicy with a lot of beefy flavor. The meat holds very little fat so it must be cooked perfectly.

We went on to enjoy two all-vegetable salads, each generous enough to share for the four of us. Whatever you order, don't miss the cherry tomato salad with herbs and lemon juice, or the crispy eggplant salad, with cubes of eggplant, red onions and tomatoes in a sweet chili sauce. Besides the fresh flavors, I love the way the dishes are presented. There is a great concern for the aesthetics. The platters are clean and precise.

And then came the pièce de la resistance  - the masterpiece - the 500-gr platter of smoked meats. There were 3 types of beef on the platter: sliced brisket, slices of picanha, and a mound of pulled beef from the asado. Pickled vegetables went well with the meat. This platter is the high-end main course on the menu, but there was plenty to go around. Other options on the menu are four individual beef platters, as well as chicken and goose. Ordering this combination dish was the correct, and economical, choice after the two starters and two salads that we had shared.

A Merlot from Ramat Hagolan winery went perfectly with our main course. Baruch Hatov Umeitiv.

Owner Igor is a smoked meat master. On a previous visit Igor gave us a short tour of the very small kitchen that is mostly occupied by the big black imported professional smoker. Neither Igor or the smoker ever rest. A blazing fire at the base of the smoker is fed on coals and wood from pecan trees. Igor monitors the time and the temperature of the different cuts of meat with scrutiny, to make sure that every cut is smoked just right. The meat requires periodic attendance and Igor is there to spray the meat with apple juice for both softness and flavor.

Hours: The restaurant open from 12 noon till 11pm. From noon till 3pm the restaurant offers a lunch menu. the Slow & Bro business lunch is the best deal in town in. The price of the business lunch is a fixed 55 shekels. The menu changes every day, and from week to week, but Thursday is always burger day. On an earlier visit to this restaurant, we saw the beautiful lunch platters and marveled at the low cost of such an elegant meal. Dinner starts at 6pm, when the full ala carte menu with all the smoked meats is available. It is best to have reservations.

A portion of meat is about 200 grams. Two people or more will prefer to order a combination platter of mixed meats, which includes three cuts of beef. One half kilo platter should do it for 2-3 diners or more if you order starters and the salads first. This gives you a nice variety and a taste of all the meats. The platter comes with pickled vegetables. The platter comes with cole slaw, the best we had anywhere and delicious fries

For 4 diners we recommend sharing a starter, two salads and one meat platter. A 500-gr platter of mixed meats comes in at NIS 250. This platter can be easily shared. This should come to about 200 shekels per person, a reasonable sum for the quality of the dining experience.

For a very decadent Shabbat, order smoked meats from Slow & Bro by Thursday for pick up on Friday. This will be a Shabbat to remember.

Parking: There is street parking in the evening. The restaurant has a free parking area in the back, accessed by a driveway to the east side of the building. Call the restaurant and they will open the barrier for you. The closest pay parking is in the Tai Center. This is steps from the entrance to the restaurant.

From the Menu:

S&B appetizer NIS 30
Vitello tonnato starter NIS 79
smoked brisket burger nis 75
crispy eggplant salad nis 58
brisket platter 200 gr NIS 90
chicken platter 250 gr NIS 75
picanha platter 200 gr NIS 120
asado platter 180 gr NIS 180
half kilo mixed platter NIS 250
sides NIS 17/27
kids platter (pargit or shnitzel) 39