Focaccia Bar

Focaccia was the best restaurant we found in Jerusalem, mainly because after finding it, we stuck to it for the rest of our stay. I can recommend the pizza margarita, the hamburger, and the avocado salad; I’ll provide photos of the latter two. Oh yes, and the goose. The goose gets around: it was on the pizza, the burger, and the avocado salad. All three dishes would have been fine without the goose. But adding the goose put each of them over the top. They take a goose breast, smoke it, slice it exceedingly thin, and then add it to various dishes. It might be baked on top of the sauce in the pizza oven, or fried until crisp to go over a salad or burger. For the burger version, it’s rather like having crispy bacon over your burger, except the meat it much tastier and the goose fat is far richer than bacon fat. A brilliant idea that I’ve never encountered before. I assume that goose is OK for keeping kosher or permitted if you're observing halal, but it's far superior to smoked bacon, even for those of us who aren't. Five other reasons to go there: (1) location is great, in the pedestrian eating and shopping area south of Jaffa Road; you can walk to Focaccia from the Jaffa-Center light-rail stop in under 5 minutes. (2) they have Carlsberg, Tuborg, and Stella Artois on draft, and other beers as well. (3) unlike most other restaurants in Jerusalem, Focaccia is open on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. (4) they’ve got a wonderful retracting roof: at night when it’s cool they open it up so you get a pleasant breeze; but if it’s hot ourdoors, or raining; they close it to keep you cool or dry. (5) for any readers out there from South Louisiana, I note that this is the only restaurant I encountered in the Holy Land which has bottles of Tabasco sauce! For burgers they’ll always bring out a bottle; for other dishes you can request it. I give ‘em 5 stars and 100% recommend this restaurant! TA forces reviewers to select one: lunch or dinner; I told them "dinner" but Focaccia is open for both lunch and dinner, and after I discovered them, I ate there for both.

We came with business guest on Friday night, after booking few days ahead. The restaurant is full. The noise is high. We had a table right on the main walking way, which left small place to walk behind us. The people tickle our chairs many many times. It was annoying. We asked that food will come together for 4 people. We were told by the waitress, that this is impossible. The food is ok. Not bad, but not something to remember.