Family-style Israeli food at NENI

Israeli food is hot. Hummus is flying at us from all sides, and more and more restaurants serving food from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are opening. This autumn, restaurant NENI will open in Amsterdam, where the food and interior will make you feel like you’re sitting on a terrace in Tel Aviv.

Who: Haya Molcho and her four sons
Where: In the former Citroën building in Amsterdam Zuid
When: October 2018

What’s new?

It’s not entirely new, because NENI already has locations in, among others, Vienna and Berlin. NENI stands for the initials of the four brothers, who started the restaurant together with their mother. You can expect that family feeling in the restaurant too. Mother Haya loves nothing more than sharing her passion around a long table full of friends, balagan style. Loosely translated: a charming chaos.

What’s on the menu?

We were allowed to sample the food during a pop-up dinner, and the list of delicious dishes is endless. Silky-smooth hummus with the best pita I’ve ever eaten: light and chewy at the same time, with a very thin greasy layer around it. Seriously, it’s unreal. Another small selection from the menu: a whole roasted eggplant with tahini; wild rice salad with grapes and cherries; sea bass kibbeh and bread pudding made with filo pastry, feta and spinach. I ate far more of the latter than was good for me, but stopping wasn’t an option.

The food is inspired by Israeli cuisine, but adapted to the cuisine of the country itself. So we were also served challah (sweet braided bread) with crème fraîche, herring and preserved lemon. A little bit of Israel, a little bit of Amsterdam. Dessert is knafeh: crispy fried angel hair filled with mozzarella and ricotta. Very sweet, but combined with the tangy frozen yoghurt, the perfect end to the evening.

What stands out?

That delicious pita and that sweet challah bread? You can simply buy them in the deli at the front of the store. They sell all their homemade bread there, as well as salads, juices, sweets and coffee during the day. In the evening, you can get quick mezze and flatbread pizza to eat there or take away.

NENI
Stadionplein 22-24
Amsterdam