Grill Bar, Mevaseret Zion

August 2025
It is a great pleasure to see folks enjoying food and each others company. This is part of the joy of visiting Grill Bar Restaurant in Mevaseret Zion and what makes this a "feel-good" restaurant.

Grill Bar in Mevaseret is the younger and more modern branch of the well-known veteran Gill Bar restaurant on Hasoreg St in downtown Jerusalem. The Mevaseret branch is a very large family restaurant with plenty of space for single diners, families with and without children, groups, and smachot.

The restaurant is in the new modern beautifully designed Country Park neighborhood complex with restaurants, boutique shops, recreational, and leisure activities. This is a gorgeous complex unlike any that I have seen elseware in Israel. Each restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating, parking, and plenty of space. automatic doors, buttons and tech gadgets.

In a word, Gill Bar is a modern take on a classic steakiya. Owners Ran and Eran relied on their previous restaurant experience and designing every detail. The tables are just the right size for this style dining. The dishes are exacting and aesthetically presented. The menu has all your favorites with a variety for both standard and high-end dining and sharing.

Our meal started with a table full of salads (NIS 22 per person) served with a basket of fresh warm pitot straight out of the tabun oven. These will all be replenished by request.

Starters that did not come with the table salads are on the appetizer menu. There is hummus with different toppings (meat, chickpeas, or hot mushrooms) and the ever-popular grilled eggplant. While the salads are iconic in a steakiya, and it is tempting to make a full meal of them, we cut back knowing that there is a lot of food ahead.

My companion arrived at the restaurant all psyched for shipudim. And for shipudim we had come to the right place. Two shipudim (skewers) and a side dish make a filling meal. You can choose different shipudim and mix-and-match which is especially fun. Prices listed on the menu are per shipud. For the side dish we chose the rice topped with beans and we added a separate bowl of chips (parve).

Of the wide variety of shipudim my companion chose the pargiot (dark meat chicken), and chicken liver shipudim. We left the kebabs and the high-end entrecote steak skewers for another visit. The pargiot meat was soft, with a light sprinkling of grill seasoning. The chicken livers were tasty and soft on the inside but could have been improved with a condiment, perhaps an onion marmalade. Both skewers were grilled to order while we were enjoying the salad and humus course.

The menu also offers higher end steaks and meat platters like lamb ribs and fillet mignon. There are a variety of table-size platters with a mix of meats but all the courses were large enough to share

Though Grill Bar is most definitely a meat restaurant, the menu also offers fish dishes. I enjoyed the thick piece of grilled salmon served with a green salad. The salmon comes with an additional side dish, so we chose the chips (fries), which are parve here. The portions are very generous and needless to say, could not be finished.

A good meat meal goes naturally with beer. Grill Bar offers Weinstephan beer on tap, a European beer that is not offered at standard steakiyot. The Weinstephan brewery dates from the year 1040 and boasts that it is the world's oldest brewery. Perhaps Chaucer enjoyed this beer, or Rashi, a few hundred years later.

It's not just the food that makes eating at Grill Bar such an enjoyable experience. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, the waiters are courteous and efficient. This is a perfect place to bring your friends and guests to show off modern Israeli cuisine at its best. It is also a great restaurant for birthday celebrations. Order a dessert and the restaurant will add the sparkler and happy birthday music piped over the loudspeaker so that we can all say Mazal Tov.

Where do the diners come from? We asked. Folks come from all over, says Ran. Near Jerusalem but not in the city, close to Beit Shemesh and the cities around, Mevaseret Zion turns out to be an excellent location. Mevaseret itself has a mixed population that is reflected in the diners at the restaurant. We saw a healthy mix of Haredim, datiyim, and secular diners, all in it together. There were families, couples, baby carriages and handicapped diners. This adds to the festive atmosphere of the restaurant.

From the menu House salad starter NIS 22 per person, Humus appetizer. Meat: NIS 59, chickpeas NIS 32 Skewers between NIS 48/50 Entrecote steak skewer NIS 75 Fillet Mignon (300gr) NIS 220 Lamb ribs NIS 198 Premium platter 1.8 kg NIS 980 Grilled fish NIS 125 - 145 Cake NIS 48. Grill Bar offers a business menu served from 12:00 noon - 4:30pm. The eLuna voucher is valid from 4:30 till 7pm