Hahoma Hasinit,
or in translation "The Great Wall of China" restaurant is in south Tel
Aviv, close to the old Central Bus Station in a predominantly commercial
area. I am sure that parking during the day is dreadful, but at night
and on motzai Shabbat there is plenty of street parking. The Beit Hadar
parking lot is a very short walk from the restaurant.
The owners of this restaurant are Chinese who converted to Judaism.
I entered the restaurant and were greeted by several smiling faces. Once we chose a table, a waiter immediately followed us and put down a plate of pickled cabbage, carrots, and peppers.
I received a menu in English and my husband received a menu in Hebrew. For appetizers, we ordered the vegetable dim sum and the won ton soup. We decided to splurge and split an order of egg rolls, too. The dim sum, a set of three steamed dumplings with a vegetable filling, came in a bamboo basket accompanied by a soy-based sauce. They were light and fluffy, just the way dim sum should be. The won ton soup broth was good and had lots of sliced lettuce and coriander in it. The won tons in the soup were simply the best won tons we ever ate, in Israel or elsewhere. I normally don't order egg rolls in Israel because I am always disappointed, but these were the best egg rolls I have ever had in Israel. The sauce accompanying the egg rolls was not the usual sweet, sticky, red stuff one gets here, but a light sauce that added a pleasant sweet flavor to the egg roll.
For a main course I ordered rice noodles with tofu and vegetables in a brown bean sauce. The noodles were described as fresh and hand-made in the Lan-cho tradition. I don't know how close they were to the Lan-cho tradition, but I do know they were delicious. The dish was subtly spicy.
My husband checked both the English and Hebrew menus, looking for the spiciest chicken dish he could find. He finally settled on chicken Szechwan. The waiter asked whether he really wanted it 'hot, hot, hot?' My husband said yes. Well, it was the hottest, spiciest dish my husband or I had ever had in a Chinese restaurant. My husband is a spicy food freak, so if it was spicy/hot for him, it will be unbearable for most people. It was also an enormous portion, full of fresh vegetables in addition to the mountain of chicken, and very tasty. It was accompanied by a bowl of steamed white rice.
The bill for all of this food, plus two bottles of mineral water, was 107 NIS. In addition to an extensive a la carte menu, there are business meals for 20 and 28 NIS.
The waiters smile and the food was superb. The restaurant is clean but not elegant or fancy. I'll eat here again whenever I am in the neighborhood.
The restaurant business card advertises that take-away is also available. |
