Food Club - without the Original

So Heather started this food club - Here's the post: Food Club from Poblete Post

And she gave me the nod that I would get an invite to the next club meeting...so when she mentioned it was Philly Restaurant Week and she had already made reservations, I was over the moon excited! Well, she had to cancel (for very good reason) and Laura (another original) had already bowed out, so it wound up being Meghan and my dearest friend, Ally (a fellow city foodie).  We showed up at Zahav in Old City for our 7:30 reservation.

I was so giddy for this treat out for girl's night that I could hardly contain myself!  Restaurant week has the set menu (for any out of towners) $35 for 5 courses here. Wahoo! Love it. OK, clearly I miss city dining! haha.

Here's the link to their Restaurant Week Menu: http://www.zahavrestaurant.com/

We dined on the following: An amazing spread of the 'house salads' I wish that I knew what came with these, I should have taken my restaurant critic flip notepad to jot them all down, but a 2 tiered stand of 3-4 dishes contained on each layer made up this course (also accompanied by an ever delicious large bowl of hummus and fresh made pita.)  Highlights from the cold salad course were: the seemingly roasted eggplant, (I personally liked the okra, although I think I sat alone on this fav.), beet and walnut, a julienned carrot with just the right sweet and tang, tabouleh with the whole parsley leaf.

The Salatim - Salad Course

For our next course, we enjoyed: the crispy haloumi (Israeli cheese) yum with a date glaze; the chilled corn soup, which was good, but must have hit us with a dose of cardamom, so not the most natural of flavors for the night; the fried cauliflower (wow!); fried lamb (kibbe) also yum; and my personal (isolated) favorite of crispy sweetbreads...ooh so good. Meghan was brave and tried them? I think? Ally admitted they weren't so bad. :)

The main dinner course (which came out as more of a small plate, much to our delight, because we were beginning to slow down!) was compiled of the hanger steak (too rare for Meghan - and I'll admit, it was far more rare than I prefer my cow.) The branzino, which was pretty tasty; and an Israeli traditional dish, the Merguez, a lamb sausage. This course was good, but nothing spectacular. 

Finally, dessert (we were nearly stuffed!) We chose one of each. So the waiter adorned our table with: cashew baklava - incredible!;  almond semifreddo (rivaled the baklava - imho); and hte halvah mousse with chickpea praline and berries - now that I think of it - I could down a bowl of the mousse right now! Delish.

We opted out of coffee and tea, but we did try the muddled mint lemonade.

Overall, a nice little Israeli feast - we sent Ally home with leftovers.  Ahhh...how beautiful it was to get dressed up and enjoy a night out with the girls.  We missed you, Heather!

*A special thanks to my amazing husband who, along with my mother-in-law, made it all possible.* xoxo!