Sara’s Place, Raanana’s kosher American diner, was reviewed on these pages years ago, and was due for a fresh look. So it was fortuitous that the most of the restaurant’s comfort food menu is available to be enjoyed even during the current lockdown.
Sara’s Place
Most of the comfort-food menu of Ra’anana’s kosher American diner is available for deliveries during the current lockdown.
Sara’s Place regular menu comprises seven sections: Appetizers (NIS 26-36), Grill (NIS 57-77), Sides (NIS 15-24), Sara’s Bistro (Main dishes: NIS 48-39), Deli (NIS 46-60), Children’s Menu (NIS 36) and Desserts (not available for delivery). The first four categories offer vegetarian and vegan options.
Recommended representative dishes from the main menu sections (in the order listed above) include: crispy, flavorful onion rings, with two dips (Russian dressing and BBQ sauce); Jack’s Junior, a thick, juicy hamburger topped with fried onions in balsamic vinegar, a sunny-side up egg and shreds of pastrami (served on a burger bun with Sara’s secret sauce); the house salad with chicken – a generous, healthful tossed salad, with plenty of morsels of nicely seasoned white meat chicken, accompanied by a savory honey-mustard vinaigrette; and Sara’s corned beef sandwich, an overstuffed version of the classic deli sandwich on seedless rye bread, enhanced with grilled onions, hardboiled egg, lettuce, garlic aioli and buffalo sauce.
Deli sandwiches come with a choice of coleslaw, potato salad or pickled vegetables/a pickle. The coleslaw consists of coarse-cut cabbage with fine flecks of carrot, drenched in a particularly zesty slaw dressing, completing a meal that will have you reminiscing of good times in your neighborhood deli back in the US.
As a postscript, I will just say that the fact that Sara’s Place does not deliver desserts might be a slight disappointment, but it takes the pressure off of having to decide which one of the six tempting, creative sweets to order. When the diner reopens, it will likely be worth a special trip just to indulge in dessert.
Sara’s Place
Kosher
Ahuza St. 88, Raanana.
Tel: (09) 974-4089
Lonestar Tacos
There are precious few places in Israel where one may enjoy authentic Mexican food, and even fewer places specializing in TexMex. Add to that mix the requirement that one may order breakfast tacos first thing in the morning, and we are down to a grand total of one: Lonestar Tacos.
As the name suggests, the cuisine hails from the Lone Star State, Texas. Indeed, owner Ronny hails from Austin, where he lived until moving to Israel and embarking on a career as a chef, most recently in the kitchen of La Brasserie. When the popular 24-hour restaurant of the prestigious R2M Group was forced to close because of the pandemic, the suddenly unemployed Ronny decided to strike out on his own.
These days, he and his girlfriend turn out breakfast tacos six mornings a week from their home in north Tel Aviv. For the time being, these delicacies are the only items on the menu; in the future, they may expand both the hours and the number of dishes.
Judging from reactions so far, that day may come sooner than expected. It is not unusual for Lonestar Tacos to sell out, thanks to the quality of the food and very affordable prices: NIS 12 per taco, or three for NIS 30.
There are four tacos on the menu, building on the basic ingredients of fluffy scrambled eggs and a dab of cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla. The variations on this theme include adding one of the following to the aforementioned filling: potato, bacon or sausage. While the potato is vegetarian, there is also a vegan option: a fried mixture of cauliflower, dried mushrooms and walnut rolled tightly in its tortilla with pico de gallo (NIS 30 for two).
Condiments are a rather piquant tomato salsa, or an even hotter Mexican wasabi (in the case of the vegan tacos, cilantro cream and hot sauce). The tacos are not large – they are not burritos, after all – but a pair would be a satisfying breakfast for most, and a trio certainly sufficient for even the most voracious of Mexican food aficionados.
Orders are accepted most days for the next morning, for pickup between 7:00 and 10:30 (when permitted by lockdown regulations), or delivery between 11:30-12:30. The delivery area is rather limited – north Tel Aviv only – and there is a nominal delivery surcharge of NIS 12.
Lonestar Tacos
Not kosher
Bnei Dan St. 74, Tel Aviv
Tel. (052) 468-8044
The writer was a guest of the restaurants.