HaMayasdim 65, Kfar Kish, Israel 28 December 2022

Went  for breakfast with (as the great Chinese detective Charlie Chan would have said) with “honourable daughter number two” before her journey back to the Antipodes. The setting is lovely, tucked away in a small Galilean village with Mt Tavor looming in the background and the place is done up in retro style, lots of bric-a-brac etc. Plonked ourselves down and ordered the “Israeli breakfast” for two. Firstly we ordered two large coffees which created a problem at the end as the breakfast comes with a small coffee…

One has a choice of eggs and both of us went for Shakshuka poached eggs in a tomato and bell pepper sauce. It was served hot and a generous serving of three eggs each!! A tray was laid out before us with small dishes of spreads, eggplants, pesto and various white cheeses along with butter and jam (which I admit the latter we didn’t partake). A basket of various breads was more than enough to dip into the delicious Shakshuka sauce. It was more than enough for the two of us.

What let this cafe down from getting a high score was firstly that the table next to us, whose breakfasters were gone when we arrived, was piled up with their dishes and leftovers which apart from being an eyesore seemed to attract it’s fair share of flies, which was the second problem. I had to tell the waiter to clear the table. When the bill came we were charged extra for the large coffees so honourable daughter number two correctly pointed out that in fact the breakfast was supposed to come with coffees albeit small ones, perhaps he could adjust the price. This seemed too hard for him so we said okay we will pay for the two large coffees gives us a small cold coffee and orange juice to go…. The cold coffee was good, the orange juice not freshly squeezed but from a bottle. Side issues brought the score down I was prepared to consider a 6/10 but honourable daughter number two prevailed and they only get a 5/10!! (Oren Zauder)