Nestled near the end of Lilenblum (No 3 Lilinblum) just by Neve Tzedek is a gem of a restaurant called Casserole. The story goes that the owner, who grew up on all this fantastic Iraqi and Morrocan food, went one day to his parents and asked why they do not make the food from his childhood. He really missed it and decided to open up a restaurant, where he will make his favourite food from his yester years. So he gathered all the family recipes and opened his little place. Either that or he was telling me the stock market news, it was told to me in Hebrew and I might have missed some important bits, so I improvised. I think my story is much more interesting anyway.
The restaurant is Kosher and serves simple Iraqi and Morrocan type food. The place caters for both meat eaters and vegetarians, and true to form has a lovely waitress , with lots of........yes, you guessed it ......tattoos. In Israel you can have a masters degree from the Waiters Finishing School in Switzerland, but if you have no tattoos and visible piercings through your head, liver and nose, you will never get the any waitering job.
They have both hebrew and english menus. The food is Iraqi and on first inspection of the menu, I though,"oh there they go again, outsourcing the menu to china or using google translate !" I read a dish called muffrooms, Oh dear, I know what a mushroom is and have never seen it spelt like that EVER. Well this is not a mushroom , but an iraqi dish called muff-room. It is potato and ground meat and I understand it is quite delicious and not magic in any sense of the word. It is quite likely the most unmagically mushroom in the world. It is not even a mushroom.
The menu is simple and the restaurant is excellent value for money. Starters are NIS 9, first course plates are NIS 15 and mains are NIS 30. I had the Morroccan chicken stew with couscous and it was excellent, tasty and very filling. My friend had a vegeterian stew with couscous. On the whole , the food is excellent, brilliant value for money and a friendly, hands on owner , who has a passion for great food.
