January 2024
When did Machane Yehuda become the culinary center of Jerusalem? Which restaurants pioneered this market? Yehudit numbers among the first restaurants in Machane Yehuda.
Since the 1980's Yehudit has been serving up their traditional middle eastern dishes. Now a Machane Yehuda legend the restaurant is run by Mor, the third generation in this family-owned business.
Today Yehudit is a boutique grill restaurant, unique among trendy eateries in Machane Yehuda. This is a modest eatery on winding Haarmonim Street in the heart of Machan Yehuda, The one room restaurant has an open grill and a taboun oven. It is so homey it feels like they are cooking just for you.
The restaurant just reopened after a renovation and modernization. The boutique feel of the restaurant remains with some modernization and some menu upgrades including high end cuts of meat.
Israeli grill restaurants have a special place in our hearts and stomachs. Uniquely Israeli, just about everyone, residents and tourists alike, love the Israeli "steakiya." It would not be an authentic steakiya if the meal did not start with a table full of salads and a basket of fresh warm laffa bread straight from the Tabun oven. Jerusalem has its own vocabulary and in the holy city lafa bread is called Esh Tanur."
Ten salads were delivered to our table. The salads were tasty and not overly spicy. With the salads we were served a plate of lovely grilled onions, crispy on the outside, soft and sweet inside and a grilled spicy pepper. These were a treat with the crispy Esh Tanur hot from the oven.
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We were treated to tasty grape leaves stuffed with a vegetarian rice mixture. They went very well with the amba sauce that came with the salads. This is one of my favorite sauces for middle eastern dishes. The salads are included with your main course, but if you do not order a main course there is a charge for the salads.
Who isn't ordering a main course?
The house signature main dish is the kabobs. People come from far and wide for these famous Iraqi kabobs. The kabobs are nicely presented on a platter with a side of majadra, a mixture of rice and lentils. At Yehudit the majadra is topped with a generous portion of fried carmelized onions. Kkabobs are small meatballs flavored with green herbs, smoky from the grill. The majadra iwas a perfect side dish for the kabobs, and the onions on top were an added treat.
The menu also offers shipudim - grilled skewered meats and higher end "Specials." Deliciously grilled pargit, kebab and schnitzel skewers
are among the standard offering. The highlighted choices are the Premium Entrecote steak, organ meat skewers and at the high end lamb chops. Two skewers make up a portion, and you can mix and match them.
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It would not be a Jerusalem steakiya without Mixed Grill - Meurav Yerushalmi - and Yehudit is a Mixed Grill champion.
Grilled whole steaks (not skewers) are listed in a separate category that includes Rib Eye,
Entrecote, at the high end Beef Fillet Steak with goose liver.
Oh - and lest I forget - you can choose two side dishes with your main course. In a steakiya one of your choices will certainly be chips. Israelis will choose the chopped salad as the second side, but the restaurant offers
rice, salad, potatoes, or others.
Desserts are not listed on the menu but if I was a betting man I would wager on malabi and baklava from the market. These are the standard desserts that never disappoint. If you have not enjoyed either, this is your opportunity.
These desserts must be accompanied by a cup of authentic Turkish coffee, and nobody makes it like a steakiya. After all, some of the families that own the restaurants are in Jerusalem from Ottoman times.
Yehudit is a family restaurant. The menu offers a childrens menu of foods that kids like for just NIS 49. There are pay for parking lots near the restaurant and around Machane Yehuda..
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From the menu:
Starters: NIS 30 - 42,
Grape leaves NIS 38
Humus NIS 30
Main courses: skewers NIS 89.
Kebabs NIS 89
Meurav Yerushalmi NIS 89
Special meats: NIS 150 - 200.
Whole Steaks: NIS 168 - 288.
Children's menu NIS 60 |
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