Updated October 2013
eLuna visited this restaurant on Chol Hamoed Sukkot, September 2013. Here's what we discovered:
Maalot restaurant is a sleeper. Small and inconspicuous on this residential side street off busy King George St, Maalot is a hidden jewel. When you are looking for a boutique restaurant, fine food and good service, think Maalot. This is not an inexpensive restaurant, but you get a very high end meal at a fair price.
 Having heard much about Maalot, my companion and I stopped in for an early dinner at the restaurant. Because it was early we went light. At the restaurant's recommendation and we were eatin gin the Sukka, we started out meal with the focaccia and spreads. Then we each had a starter and we shared one main course.
The menu offers a large selection of Tapas, followed by a good selection of main courses. The tapas are amazing. Each one is presented in a unique way and each is a celebration of flavors.
We were so impressed with the tapas that we could have made a meal of them. But the main courses were so attractive we decided to go the conventional route. My companion was aching for one of the heavy meat main courses, but we agreed to share the salmon dish, which we agreed was tasty and filling.
Maalot is not an inexpensive restaurant, but you get value for your money. The menu is the type that you will find at some of the very high end restaurants in Jerusalem, yet the prices at Maalot, for this level of dining, are reasonable. eLuna gives Maalot the highest recommendation. Not to be missed.
May 2011
submitted by David Woolf
Last night, Fran and I and our son Yitzi had dinner at Maalot restaurant in Jerusalem.
We had bid on an eluna.com auction and won the dinner voucher valued at 200 NIS. When we called to make a reservation we were told that the regular chef Gad Yaari was away and that it would be worth our while to wait for his return. So a couple of days ago, we called the restaurant and after determining that Gad was back, we made a reservation for dinner.
First a few words about the restaurant and the chef.
Maalot is located at 7 Maalot Street, which is a small side street that runs off King George just  north of the Yeshurun Synagogue and just south of the Bezalel/Shatz Friday craft market. Many years ago, the building used to house Agas V'Tapuach (now at Kikar Safra) and is just west of the parking lot for the Red Heifer.
The restaurant is small, with a few tables inside and a few on a fenced patio facing the street. It is simply furnished and has a very relaxed atmosphere. If you were looking for a very elegant place to eat, this is not the place for you. But if you are looking for good food and good service, you have come to the right place.
The chef Gad Yaari, looks very young, so we were kind of surprised when he told us that worked for many years at 1868 (the meat branch) as the sous chef and then as the head chef before moving to NY and working for a number of years at leading New York eateries. Along the way, he was "chozer b'teshuva" and returned to Israel. He laughingly told us that at that time, he had more hair on his head than on his beard, while today he sports a beard and a closely shaven head of hair beneath a very large kippah.
And now the important part...the food. The restaurant calls itself a "Bistro and Tapas Bar". For those who are wondering, "tapas" is a Spanish word for small snacks and if you have enough of these, you can create a very nice "tasting menu" which will not break the bank.
There are between 15 and 20 of these on the menu and are priced between 15 and 25 shekels each.
Because it was after Pesach when we were looking to get rid of some of what we had gained during the holiday, we decided to sample many of the tapas and not order any main courses. I might say that there were a number of items on the menu that were tempting, especially the tasting dishes where you could sample portions of different kinds of fish or meat. We were kind of worried that sticking to tapas might not be filling enough for the three of us, but in retrospect, it was a very good decision; one that gave us enough of a sampling to want to return and have a real main course in the future.
We stuck to meat and vegetable tapas (and try the fish on another visit) and ordered about 12 different dishes including blanched asparagus, stuffed mushrooms with olives and sun-dried tomatoes, lamb kebabs, entrecote (probably the juiciest cut of steak that I have had in Israel), beef and leek meatballs, duck breast skewers, eggplant soup, and lamb and pomegranate stew. We began with freshly baked bread accompanied by 4 small dips which were all tasty. We really enjoyed each dish; each of us had different favorites but every dish was done well.
We still had room for a dessert and we chose a nut tart with a passion fruit parfait (outstanding).
At the end of the meal, Gad came out to speak with us and we asked him whether his Friday offering (which is take away Shabbat meals) were of the same gourmet standard or whether they were typical Shabbat fare? He said that it was similar to what we had eaten and from his description of the pricing, it seemed to be quite affordable. He also told us that everything is prepared fresh; nothing is sitting and then re-heated.
The hashgacha is Rabbanut Yerushalayim, tho' Gad told us that all the meat that he uses is glatt/chalak, the fowl is all mehadrin, the veggies are all chaslat and it is all bishul yisrael.
In short, the three of us ate for under 300 shekels (including the voucher) and including the tip. We left very satisfied and will definitely return. We are adding this restaurant to our list of favorites in Israel.
Maalot is happy to host your next simcha.
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