By GLORIA DEUTSCHRosetta(photo credit: DAVID SASSON/COURTESY OF THE RESTAURANT)
If location is the most important element in opening a restaurant, then Rosetta in Ra’anana has chosen well. It’s on the corner of the main drag, Ahuza, and the sweeping Ben-Gurion Boulevard, which in turn is home to the city’s Yad Lebanim cultural complex.It’s also a place nicely suited to social distancing, with seating for 120 spread over three separate areas: interior, outside patio and sidewalk tables.Opened about a year ago, Rosetta caters to families, with child-friendly menus, as well as couples having a convivial night out. A kiddie meal costs NIS 45 and includes a dessert of ice cream.The menu, which is changed every day, has some really original options, and we sat down to sample the offerings with eager anticipation.As the orange soup came highly recommended by our be-masked and enthusiastic waitress, Shira, we chose a shared bowl and two spoons, plus some bruschetta topped with fresh spinach leaves, cranberries, pine nuts and feta (both NIS 65).The soup was hot to the point of boiling, very thick and more suited to a Canadian winter than Israel in August.Having said that, it was very good, full of carroty, pumpkin and sweet potato flavor, creamy and slightly sweet.The bruschetta provided an exotic accompaniment and a good mingling of flavors.A meal from Rosetta in Ra'anana. (Courtesy)When it came to ordering the main course, my companion, in a fit of nostalgia for his days as a medical student in Liverpool, chose fish and chips. I picked the baked salmon with salad.Once, cod was considered the lowest form of piscine life, but today it seems to have been elevated to fishy heights. This fish and chips consisted of fillets of cod deep fried in a thick batter worthy of any Liverpool chippy.The chips – french fries – were your usual frozen variety, which had been only semi-revived in a hot oven.My dish was a large salmon steak with skin removed, flavored with thyme and served with parsley-aioli sauce, with a strong emphasis on the aioli side, which suited me fine, as you can’t go wrong with garlic.The side salad was exceptional, a bowl of tossed leaves, plum tomatoes and purple onion slivers in a very good honey mustard dressing.The desserts (NIS 39) were imported from a central dessert emporium, so I suppose that Rosetta’s chef cannot take credit for the divine lemon tart I enjoyed or the fudgy chocolate dessert my companion indulged in.To drink with our meal, we each had a glass of Baron Herzog Chardonnay (NIS 35), a wine I could happily drink all day long, although, as my friends know, I won’t touch alcohol until the clock reaches six.I was intrigued by the breakfast menu, which includes Eggs Benedict, since the classic version of this dish always includes forbidden pink stuff, and this is a glatt kosher restaurant. Apparently, salmon is substituted for the unmentionable, and this version even gets approval from the great Jamie Oliver.We ended this very pleasant meal with two cappuccinos, one regular and one decaffeinated, and look forward to visiting Rosetta again in the future.Rosetta141 AhuzaRa’ananaTel: (09) 890-7110Open: Sunday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-11 p.m., Friday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday night after Shabbat until 11 p.m.The writer was a guest of the restaurant.
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