Cafe Shlonsky

Ahuza, the main drag, dominates the Raanana restaurant scene on the one side, and Etgarim, the Raanana industrial zone with the Renanim mall, on the other. Can a restaurant survive not located in either of these restaurant centers?

Cafe Shlonsky, in the heart of a residential area, will not be the first restaurant to thrive in a new location outside the traditional restaurant centers. Cafe Shlonsky is located at the base of Hanesiim Street at the corner of Shlonsky St., thus the name of the restaurant. Take Hanesiim St. north till you are almost at Weitzman and on your left you will see a commercial center at the corner. This building has several functions, among them the restaurant.

Owner Eyal insists that this is a café, but the full menu gave us the distinct restaurant impression. Why café? Eyal wants you to feel comfortable just having something small but you can also have a full meal. The café has a relaxed informal atmosphere. Seating is on modern stylish colorful chairs on cement floors. This is a family-friendly restaurant with several menu items for kids. Push a few tables together and there is seating for a group. The background music is light and pleasant. There is both indoor and outdoor seating.

We visited this restaurant on a cold rainy mid-week evening and to our surprise the restaurant was full. Newly opened but with a word-of-mouth buzz, this restaurant is already enjoying good business and it is wise to have reservations.

A look at the menu (in both Hebrew and English) and you will want to order everything. There are many unusual and attractive options. Breakfast served all day varies from a simple pastry and coffee to a full meal of bread, cheeses and home-made salads. There is also a children’s breakfast for nis 26. And my gosh, pancakes! Served with whoops! Sour cream. Oh well. The menu continues with a fine selection of salads, sandwiches, pasta, and original desserts.

Nothing like a hot bowl of soup on a cold evening. My companion chose the recommended Jerusalem Artichoke soup served with bread. Not a soup fan I usually steal one spoonful of my companion’s soup just to satisfy my curiosity. But this soup was so good that after my first spoonful I could not help but steal a second. My companion was very satisfied as he loves thick, creamy soups.

We then shared an order of lasagna and a quinoa salad.The lasagna was served in a metal baking pan brought from the oven to the table. The pan contained one large square piece of lasagna covered in a very tasty tomato sauce, sprinkled with grated cheese. The lasagna was delicious and a good combination with the very large quinoa salad. Always curious to learn new ways to present quinoa, I was impressed with this salad made of quinoa, tomatoes, greens and slivers of roasted almonds. This salad could easily serve as a side dish for four diners.

A visit to Café Shlonsky is not complete without one of their amazing desserts.
“If I see another chocolate volcano dessert I will cry,” I told Eyal after he recommended the Shlonsky chocolate soufflé. This is not what you are thinking, he assured us. Out came a tray with three mugs: one with the baked fudge chocolate, another mug with ice cream and a third with whipped cream. Your job is to put it all together on one spoon, a delicious challenge indeed. This dessert takes about 15 minutes to prepare so it is wise to order it up front with your other dishes and not wait till the end of the meal as we often do. Just to convince us of the quality of the other desserts we were offered a taste of the chocolate filled cigars and sure enough, we found another delicious dessert.

There is something comforting about seeing the owners sit down to eat at their own restaurant. As we were getting up, Eyal and his family were sitting down to a meal at the restaurant. B'teavon! we said, and indeed we were sure that it would be.

Soup nis 32, Lasagna nis 46, Quinoa nis 40, Souffle chocolate nis 34.