Kosher Food and Drink

I’m a life-long Marylander, and while I love to travel and try new restaurants, there’s a whole set back home that are my bread and butter, so to speak. Reviewing a restaurant that you have a long history with is a tricky business; rose-colored glasses or previous problems can both conspire to give a less than fair review to an establishment.

Today’s review is of Al Ha’esh Israeli Grill (4860 Boiling Brook Pkwy, Rockville, MD 20852; (301) 231-0839; al-haesh.com; under Vaad HaRabanim of Greater Washington (“Capitol K”) supervision; meat), which is a restaurant inside Moti’s Market, a local kosher supermarket here in the Silver Spring-Rockville area. There are not a lot of kosher sit-down meat restaurants in this area; in fact, Al Ha’Esh is pretty much it unless you head to Washington, DC for Char Bar.

Al Ha’Esh is in a supermarket, but to their credit, they try to create a wholly separate restaurant theme. The ambience was very good; tasteful decorations, pleasant music, and tables that were spaced very nicely. The problem is that the view out the windows is the parking lot, and it’s not very nice. A more aggressive approach to that aspect of the ambience would do well for them.

We were seated quickly – we came at about 5:30PM on a Sunday night, so it wasn’t overly crowded. I was really impressed by the service – all the waiters had more-or-less uniform outfits, and they were at the table frequently. Our interactions with our server were also very pleasant, including a confirmation of our order, and it was clear that some training was in evidence.

Al Ha’Esh starts you off with some toasted pita and tehini, and then some pita. I don’t think either of these was revolutionary, but they were well-executed.

The menu is pretty much what it says on the tin: Israeli Mediterranean grill items. The mainstays (shwarma, falafal, kebabs, schnitzel) are all available. The mains are in the $20-$40 range, biasing more towards the lower end of that, and the kids menu is more like $12. This is a fairly affordable restaurant, which is a nice change of pace. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something more spectacular, the menu tops out at a 12oz ribeye, which is not really the showstopper you might be looking for at an important dinner. There are some wines and beers available, but if you’re looking for a deep cellar, this isn’t the place for you. No mixed drinks were available.

My wife ordered the lamb kebab, and my son ordered the schnitzel burger. I had the Jerusalem mix. My daughter, as mentioned previously, had a hot dog. The food came in a reasonable time frame. I wouldn’t call it quickly, but we weren’t waiting too long. Plating wasn’t particularly visually impressive, but it was neat and tidy, which is good enough for a restaurant at this price point.

I thought my Jerusalem mix was well-constructed and was cooked just right, but tasted a little too salty. The French fries and basmati rice were nice enough, but not particularly remarkable. I had a small bite of my wife’s lamb kebob, and was more impressed – excellent spicing and texture, with flavors that stood out, but didn’t overwhelm. I didn’t try the schnitzel or hot dog, but my son did report that his schnitzel burger was delicious. (The hot dog appeared to be a plain old hot dog. Perhaps that’s for the best when it comes to a kids menu item.)

We did spring for some dessert, and ordered the lava cake with some paerve ice cream. I was too stuffed to eat any, but I did have a nibble of the cake and felt it was rather dry (an opinion shared around the table). On the other hand, the dessert as a whole got eaten pretty quickly, and I thought the plating was really rather good, easily the best of the night. (I think they noticed I was taking pictures by this point.)

I had to flag down our waiter for a check. I know it’s always a fine line between your diners feeling like they’re being ushered out versus getting them out the door on their desired time frame. The meal came out to about a hundred bucks plus tip. That’s not an unreasonable price for a sit-down restaurant with good service and decent food, so I walked away pretty happy with the pricing.

On it’s own merits, I’d say Al Ha’Esh is a “good enough” restaurant. I really did like the service, and it had food that was more hit than miss. The ambience was mixed, but certainly adequate. The problem is that there’s nothing terribly special about it; it’s too safe, to the extent that I’d almost call it boring. There’s nothing at Al Ha’Esh that would entice me to eat there outside of some sort of family dining event (in this case, welcoming my wife back from a trip). My advice to them would be to try harder with the menu. There’s room for more interesting items at the $30-$50 level, and I’d like to see them experiment more with that. By all means, keep the affordable core, but give people some interesting options on top of it.