January 2010
 Things are changing at the Daniel Hotel. Always a great hotel with good quality restaurants, things have just gotten better. Yaniv, the new hotel Food & Beverage manager is making changes, among them are changes in the hotel lobby restaurant.
Alma, in the Daniel Hotel lobby, is a full dairy restaurant open to both hotel guests and people from outside the hotel. The restaurant offers a breakfast menu with pastries, salads and sandwiches in the morning. At 1:00pm the restaurant opens the afternoon/evening menu which is much more varied and includes pastas and fish. Alma then becomes a fine dairy restaurant - certainly one of the best in the area.
 We visited Alma restaurant for an early evening dinner mid week. We immediately noticed the new lobby decor. There are fresh and new comfortable chairs around full size tables. The tables are nicely spaced for privacy. In the daytime the room is dominated by a gorgeous sweeping view of the sea. In the evening the atmosphere is intimate yet the room is well-lit by overhead table lights. There is live piano music several evenings mid week but unfortunately not on the Tuesday evening when we visited. Live music adds another dimention to the dinner and I was sorryto have missed it.
The menu, in both Hebrew and English, offers a nice selection of starters, main courses and drinks. My companion is partial to hot soup on a cold winter night. He knows his soup. and he just raved about the Alma rich minty pea soup. I was charmed by its presentation in a very modern and attractive bowl. I chose the antipasti brought to the table from the open buffet on the counter . We enjoyed this with a round of the house fucaccia served wtih three dips. Focaccia is made easy at Alma. The Netilat yadayim sink at the counter could not be more convenient. These starters were quite satisfying. The portions were tasty and plentiful.
 Alma has an impressive wine menu and a tempting offert to try a wine you may not know. A glass of the wine of the month runs you just nis 15 instead of nis 25 with one of the pasta or fish dishes.
We did as suggested and chose one fish and one pasta dish for our main courses with an excellent white wine.
Though all the dishes were tasty, the fish was the star of the show. The sea bream (denis) dish, a lovely plate with two coated fillets served on a bed of cooked vegetables was simply outstanding. This is an excellent dish expertly prepared and highly recommended. The pasta, extra wide long noodles in a mushroom cream sauce was tasty and enjoyable comfort food. There was plenty of both dishes for us to share.
One of the things I enjoy about hotel dining is the service. You can count on having mature well-tarined staff. The waiters dress appropriately. There is a responsible person in charge. So it is at Alma restaurant. The service is respectful and professional.
We rounded off a lovely dinner with an individual size crumb-top cheese cake - a sweet ending to a thoroughly enjoyable dining experience. Highly recommended.
Starters: approximately nis 38, fish nis 88, pasta nis 52. Total bill for a full dinner with wine: nis 250. |