Hasulam Restaurant
April 2024
Hasulam Restaurant merges family and the arts. Dad provides the culinary arts. He is a professional chef with an impressive record in the kitchens of fine hotels throughout Israel. Mom is an artist and an art teacher. Her signature is apparent throughout the restaurant, in the many bowls and ceramic dishes and pitchers all hand made in mom's Hasulam art school. Thus, Hasulam combines the culinary arts and the plastic arts.
This is a family restaurant where every family member has a role.
The restaurant is run by son Shachar together with his brother (now in miluim) and their excellent staff. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, young and trendy. The clear menu is available in both Hebrew and English.
The restaurant is named for the kabbalistic ladder (sulam) referenced in the Zohar. Jewish mysticism teaches that our earthly universe, described as "the world of Action" (Asiya) evolved from higher and more spiritual forms of existence, known as "Formation" and "Creation." Hasulam takes you up a rung in that ladder of formation and creation in both the culinary arts and design.
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Hasulam offers a rich dairy menu all day from 8am till 10pm. Breakfast is served till 12:45 pm. The Hasulam breakfast choices are omelets, vegan dishes, specials and sandwiches. Gourmet omelets include 2 eggs, cheeses, dips, vegetables, spreads, halvah served with salad and bread. Another version of this breakfast includes salmon. If you prefer a vegan breakfast you have come to the right place. In the vegan breakfast lentil and herb pancakes take the place of eggs, and are served along with non-dairy spreads and plenty of bread.
What is an Israeli breakfast without shakshuka? And Hasulam offers a red-hot pepper shakshuka to start your day. You can skip all of these and go straight to the tabun stone oven baked focaccia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip. A good list of salads and sandwiches are also available on the breakfast menu.
Whether you come to Hasulam for breakfast or later in the day you will not miss some of the chef's signature dishes available on the breakfast and on the lunch/dinner menu. Grilled Camembert is one such specialty as is the hot open sandwich. In the Grilled Camembert dish the Camembert is placed in a Dvora pita with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, roasted in a stone oven served with onion jam, walnuts and balsamic glaze. Beware! This is served to the table hot.
My companion feasted on the crispy hot open sandwich declaring how this is the way he likes to eat (if he has to compromise on a dairy menu). The open sandwich is seasoned with pesto and homemade sun-dried tomatoes. crusted with bechamel and mozzarella topped with a sunny side up egg.
We arrived at Hasulam just in time for their lunch/dinner menu which opens at 1pm.You won't find the standard items like spaghetti and pizza on the main menu. No standard dishes come out of dad's kitchen. Only unique and creative dishes at Hasulam.Each dish is unique and so filling that any one or two dishes is a whole meal.
Leek comfit is a house favorite. Sliced leek is cooked in aromatic olive oil with herbs and served with tomato seeds and Parmesan cheese. I would call their pasta dish ravioli, but Hasulam calls it Cheese Cappelletti. Round pasta florets are filled with cheese and topped with either a rose sauce or white mushroom sauce and slices of cheese. You choose.
My favorite dish was the spinach and Ricotta Canelloni. Oh yea. This rich creamy dish came to the table scorching hot. The creamy sauce crusted with mozzarella was perfect with the canellioni This was everything you would hope for in a creamy carby lunch dish.
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In addition to the artistic foods, the sculpture and the artwork throughout the restaurant, the structure and the interior design has its charm.
Four years ago, the family realized a dream and converted a private house on the main street of Karkur into this restaurant. This house was standing for years, as you can see from the mature greenery and trees on the property.
There is a covered porch that they call "outdoors" and an inner seating area and in addition a private room for small get togethers. The decor is rustic, about what you would expect in this once rural part of the country. Dine at rustic wooden tables on almost-comfortable chairs. There is a roll top desk at the entrance and a bronze statue by mom in the inner room. I I was sure that the wooden floorboards and tiled floors were original but i was told that the room was refurbished to look original. Success.
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The restaurant has a private parking lot in the back, accessed through a driveway on the side of the restaurant. There are clear signs as to where to enter. You'll want to park in the back, in the restaurant parking lot, because the entrance to the building is through the back. We are big city folk so when we saw a parking spot on the street we grabbed it. Then we had to walk around the building. Keep that in mind.
From the Menu:
Grilled Camembert NIS 58
Hot open sandwich NIS 52
Salads NIS
65
Salmon fillet NIS 106
Spinach and ricotta cannoli NIS 62 |
