The Palomar Restaurant

I had lunch here on my birthday this year. Having read glowing reviews from critics, I thought it was worth a try, especially as I hadn’t had Israeli food much before. It’s cool to eat somewhere that has a branch in another country
I snagged a seat at the kitchen counter where I could watch the new chefs being put through their paces. My excellent waitress helped me to choose the right amount of food
I started with 2 oysters, topped with coriander, lemon and harissa oil. Zingy and he briny oyster came through well
Next was shakshukit — a deconstructed kebab with yoghurt, tahini and 4 tops. I enjoyed this but wasn’t sure the deconstruction added much to the flavour profile
I was surprised to see pork belly on the menu — my waitress confirmed the restaurant wasn’t fully kosher! The pork belly came with tagine, ras El hanout and dried apricot and Israeli couscous. Unfortunately, the belly was a little dry
I finished off with Malabi, a rose-​scented milk pudding that the chef topped off with a birthday candle
There are so many more interesting sounding dishes on the menu that I want to go back and try

Manager could do standup comedy (probably does). Food is amazing and beautifully presented, staff is incredibly friendly, atmosphere is warm and playful. A Must.

One of the best meals I’ve had in a long while:
1) Kubaneh — soft and warm, with yummy dipping sauce.
2) Spiced Olives — served slightly warm, fall right off the pit, in a delicious marinade.
3) Fattoush salad — I’ve had a LOT of Lebanese food in my day, and Fattoush salads are a favorite. This is far and away the best I’ve ever had. Instead of baked pita chips, there were more traditional croutons. The bowl had a smear of tahini /​yogurt, and the flavor of the dressing was perfect. Everything about this salad was awesome.
4) Polenta Jerusalem style (wife) — I tasted it, and it is one of the creamiest and most flavorful polenta’s I’ve ever had.
5) Pork Belly Tajine — round cut of pork belly — fell apart at the first touch with the fork. Very flavorful.
6) Chocolate Crémeux — if you like chocolate, get this. Awesome.
7) Balevenie 14y Caribbean Cask Scotch — yummy paired with the Chocolate.
If you can get a reservation, you need to get to this place ASAP!

The food is pretty dope. I’d just been eating at a place in ny called balaboosta for Mod-​Is (modern israeli) and was gonna platz when i found out about palomar. the food was dope, the vibe was pretty dope, and the wait was not so dope but they let you leave and wait at this weird pub next door which is like totally chain pub but imagine someone spent like £2,000,000 on décor, i mean polished brassed up something dope.
only thing i fucking hated were the olives but so blahzay ab that kinda thing, just rolls right off me.

So many reviews can’t be wrong.
This place is seriously good.
Totally recommend sitting at the bar, seems the kind of place you should drop in for a bite and a glass whenever you’re in the area.
Highlights included the yemeni bread, scallop, beef tatare and the stilton cheesecake.
Go.

Best butternut squash risotto we ever had!!! This Israeli restaurant has the best food ever, wonderful chefs and Jason and Oliver were so welcoming to our party. We loved the atmosphere was so friendly and the company was great. We enjoyed our drinks, the polenta with mushrooms was also very good. Fantastic music and great atmosphere! A must-​do!

One of the most exciting dining experiences I’ve had in a loooong time!
I mean, not only are you perched up at the dining bar reveling in plate after plate of super colorful, wildly spiced and inventive dish after dish, you also get treated to spontaneous blessings by chef Tomer and his team in Hebrew during your meal!
Israeli chef Tomer isn’t introducing his guests to his creative twist on Israeli cooking, he’s serving them an amped up, adrenaline filled dose of his homeland. At Palomar Tomer works with an artillery of spices, tinctures, and glazes to transform typical dishes into true works of irreverant art. Tomer was cooking right in front of us and basically took our order into his hands, giving us spoonfulls of things to try as we waited for the next round, explaining how he made his caramels and spice blends, and transforming some of the raw items into pregnant-​friendly dishes (he poached the scallops in oil and grilled my tataki meat for me so that I could partake in the festivities — a real mensch as we say in yiddish!). Highlights included the fish falafel, beef tataki, decontructed kebab, crab-​filled kreplach in a rich broth, and the carrot cake for dessert which is made by Tomer’s pastry chef wife.
A truly exceptional meal in an exciting, fun, personality-​charged restaurant. Reserve a spot at the back at the bar where Tomer presides so that you watch the rising star in action.

Firstly, I must start by saying that have been trying to book this restaurant on several occasions since last June (2015), with no success.
It was my wife’s birthday last week and I had one more try at booking it, a month out. Thankfully I successfully made a reservation for lunch on a Friday afternoon.
I must confess that although I have looked at the website several times, I didn’t quite realise how small the restaurant is, which in some way explains the difficulty in making a booking. Dress code is pretty relaxed, which is also something that I hadn’t picked up from the website.
Having got all of that out of the way, now let me concentrate on the dining experience.
It’s not easy to describe how good the food is from the smallish menu (a good thing). Cuisine is Mediterranean/​Middle Eastern, dishes are tapas, sharing and served with style. Again it’s hard to justify the food in writing so I would just book it and go and enjoy the whole experience.
For the quality of food the prices are excellent value. The atmosphere can be quite buzzy, given the size of the restaurant and proximity of the tables to one another. Our waitress was accommodating and helpful.
Finally I am embarrassed to say that we sat next to a table of 3 rather petite young women, who shared a starter and a main between the 3 of them. My wife and I drilled our way through the menu, gorging on 5 starters, two mains and a dessert!
We left the restaurant absolutely stuffed to the gills having enjoyed some of the tastiest food I have eaten for quite a while.
Would I go again? As they seem to say nowadays… Hell yeah!

To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot of words to sum up the quality of this place. You just have to make a booking and go.
You pay for some of the best cuisine and dining in London. Its an obvious choice.
If these Unilocal reviews haven’t made up your mind then you don’t deserve The Palomar.

The food is beautiful. Reasonably priced, good portion size, fresh, different, flavoursome… I could go on. The service is prompt and to the point. The atmosphere is busy, the music a bit dodgy in my opinion but its clearly very popular overall.
I’d like to come back and sit up at the bar, it was a little cramped in the seating areas.
Liked it.

As you know, I never give a restaurant 5 stars. Palomar earns the 5^th star. Layo, the owner, has curated an amazing experience. We walked in at 5:30. We did not want to leave, but we had theater tickets.
Start with the Music, standout. Chicago Blues to R&B, funk to rock, it melds forward and backward with a DJ’s skill. Sitting at the bar infront of the cocktail production is entertainment. Two young men, astutely aware of every bit of detail that a good cocktail demands. I posted a video of our cocktails being made on my Instagram account. Fresh middle eastern food, hence the name of the restaurant for the geographic area the food is selected from. Try it all. You won’t be disappointed. As you can see from the photo’s, the food is artfully presented. I hope I can get in again!

The dishes were just so memorable! My friend is a local and I was visiting. Turned out we both had this restaurant in mind, and getting to try it together for the first time was awesome :)
Salmon or beef tartare? GET BOTH!!!
Mushroom asparagus Polenta? Maybe order 2! Or one for each person at the table! I had to use all my will power from stuffing my face into that tiny pot to get the last bit of polenta
Rose pudding: it was hard to follow the others — but the dessert held its own

Quick glance:
+ great food served on stunning crockery
+ knowledgeable staff
+ great buzz for sharing with a friend
+ mmm, cocktail
— long queue
Full review:
What a mix of fantastic food, not only prepared and cooked beautifully but served in a mix of decorative plates and containers.
The restaurant is hugely popular and has a waiting list of about 1 – 2 months if you want to book in advance to dine at one of their tables at the back. My friend and I decided to chance it one weeknight and waited about an hour for a spot to dine at the bar. It’s not so bad though; turn up early in the evening (or very late), hand over your mobile number and go shopping/​drinking nearby. When a spot frees up, the restaurant gives you a call so you can claim your position.
The bar itself is a little packed, but it’s buzzing with atmosphere. Not great for groups but the set up is perfect for catching up with a friend or for a casual date.
I was most impressed with the staff’s knowledge and friendliness, who was able — and willing — to go into details of every dish and even make hearty recommendations for first time visitors like myself. The dining experience is all about sharing: pick 4 – 6 dishes for two people and you can sample a variety of dishes. The portion sizes look small but are deceptively filling. My advice: make sure to save room for dessert; the chocolate fudge was heavenly. And give the cocktail a try!

This restaurant is truly amazing! New special everyday and everything is fresh! The staff is very well trained and friendly. The cocktails are great I would recommend the pallor one which was my favourite.
I had such a nice experience there and the place is perfect for date or going by yourself (if alone sit at the bar and you will have fun)
I can’t wait to be back

Loved it.
Went here for lunch today with a PR exec client, as I’ve heard constant chattering that it’s one of London’s hottest restaurants. Though the fun and vivacious atmosphere pertained specifically to dinner, I immediately saw the potential when I walked in.
The vibe, the slick 30’s décor, the jazz-​funk soundtrack, the open kitchen bar (where I sat): all lovely. I didn’t take one bite and I already wanted to return.
My client and I shared:
Kabaneh (‘potted’ bread with tahini and velvet tomato sauces): Airy and excellent.
Shredded Lamb and Gnocchi, the day’s special: lamb was so soft and tasty, gnocchi was delicious, but definitely needed to cut back on the salt
Salmon Tartare With aubergine 2 ways. yoghurt, pine nuts & parsley: WOW. Never did I think aubergine would upstage the taste of salmon, but the Palomar managed. Small portion but was absolutely delicious.
Polenta Jerusalem style Asparagus, mushroom ragout, parmesan & truffle oil: Like everyone on this Unilocal page (and every food critic) has said… it’s a MUST-​TRY. I could eat 3 of them. One of my favorite dishes in the last few months.
Octo-​hummous Josperised Octopus «steak» Chickpea Msabacha & cherry tomato confit: not sure if you should take my word for it, but this was the most disappointing dish for me, by far. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of hummus… but I was secretly hoping Palomar could convert me with their innovative version. Oh well :/​
For dessert:
Malabi Rose-​scented milk pudding, raspberry coulis, coconut meringue pistachio crunch, fresh raspberries & kataifi: meh… was a bit disappointed with this as well, perhaps too much coconut shavings.
The food I tried was not perfect, but the vast majority was DAMN good. I do have a bit of beef with the prices, though: some of these small plates were £12 (octo-​hummus) and wouldnt get me full if I had 3 of the same… thank God the meal was covered by the client ;) But if you’re not really concerned about budget then I’d highly recommend The Palomar!

This place is amazing. Please do NOT go so I can always get in and the buzz dies. The bar is the place to be but not a great space for waiting so be forewarned. Good staff and great service, amazing music.
My mind is exploding just thinking about the food there – everything will blow your mind.
It pains me to share this gem with the public, but need to keep my Gold Elite badge… so this is my community service for the year (if not the decade).

I absolutely love Israeli food, so was really excited to visit the Palomar which adds a modern take to fresh Middle Eastern cuisine. It looks so very lovely, and has a great vibe — although it was rather hot and sticky on this unusually warm summer London day.
Foodwise, it was nice enough but think I may have missed something here given the glowing reviews. The food just didn’t hit the spot for me. Maybe I like my Israeli food boring and traditional. We started with the beatroot with goats cheese which was amazing. Some of the daily 6 assorted mezze dips we ordered were surprisingly a bit bland — especially the marrow dip blah. I was expecting wonders from the polenta reviews on here but it was too cheesey for me
The malabi Rose-​scented milk pudding for dessert went down a storm though.
Overall I wasn’t bowled over but it was a pleasant experience and I’d definitely come back to give it another go. I’d make a point to request to sit at the bar as that seems a bit more atmospheric than being crammed in at the back.
As a footnote I might add considering the place is owned by the guys who ran the End (a night club were I spent much of my 20 somethings), I would have expected to hear something better than Blurred lines from the sound system!

One word. Polenta. You’ll be encouraged to get it and if you have even the slightly love of truffle it will delight you. Though it’s near impossible to get a reservation at a decent time at Palomar, I’d say it’s definitely worth booking ahead a few weeks in advance.
Food: I’d recommend starting with the mezze with side of special bread. If you do that two mains is more than enough food. I wasn’t a great fan of the scallops, though the Cornfed chicken was great. The oxtail stew is also nice, though the turnips add a bit of a bitter taste, depending on what you like. The bar area also appears to be super busy — in the future I may come just to nibble on the mezze with drinks.
Service: I’ve now been to the Palomar twice. The first time I went with a girlfriend and our waiter was absolutely delightful — he came over often to check on us, gave us lots of recommendations and compliments of the chef and he was spot on regarding every dish — if it weren’t for him I never would have tried to the polenta which I just can’t say enough about. The second time I went with my partner around 11PM after a West End Show (another plus is how late this place stays open and serving!) and service wasn’t as great — it seemed more of a pain for parts of the menu to be explained to us whereas the first time he came over ready for recommendations.

FOODGASM (noun): when the food is so good, you seriously think it was better than the best sex you ever had.
The Palomar is definitely orgasmic. Especially the Polenta. The Polenta alone earned it like 10 billion stars. It was by far the best polenta I’ve ever had in my life (a mixture of fluffy heaven paired with truffles, mushroom, what I am thinking is a mushroomy veloute-​y brown pasty thing, asparagus and parmesan. Served in a Mason Jar. A Wooooooooow with 6 syllables.
The bread and the «Daily 6» mezze starters were awesome too as were the 2 types of pickles they provided us with and the Fattoush (FYI it is big bits not little chopped up style swimming in herb salad but still yummy). The Steak was only ok (I had a beef with the Latka as it was super thick and stodgy) and we were so full I didn’t think we gave the deconstructed kebab a proper chance (it was quite tasty, really it was).
Word of warning– the portions are HUGE. For 2 hungry people, we shared the mezze starters, a bread, a salad, 2 meaty «mains» and a small pot of polenta. We left most of the kebab (sad face) and about ¹⁄₃ of the salad as if we ate more we would have puked. I would have be satisfied with just the starters, polenta and shared a dessert. So, I personally think if you were going down our route, the mixed starters w/​bread, polenta and then just order the hot stuff dish by dish if you want dessert. Otherwise I’d say 1 hot dish between 2 seems plenty.
It’s only in its early days yet and there were some kinks to iron out but they are pretty on top of things. I heard one of the Chefs from Machneyuda (The owners) chiding a serving staff for not knowing exactly what they were serving. At the moment, I think the original chefs from Machneyuda are in the shop for the opening as they were talking to lots of patrons, but with the quality of food served, I’m not worried that it will drop after they go home.
*Machneyuda is apparently the hippest, most delicious and amazing restaurant in Jerusalem. I won’t know, I haven’t been but this is the word on the proverbial internet street.
**Extra bonus for the fact that this is part owned by Paskin siblings, who used to own the End. I love that a pivotal part of me has also grown up from the days of Trash and transported to gastronomic paradise.

We decided that our meal here ranks among our best ever!
The food was fantastic, brilliant for veggies and meat lovers alike and bursting with flavour.
The vibe in the restaurant was so buzzy and very fun. Cocktails were good — Garden of Eden my fav.
We were going to go to Nopi but it was full and decided to try here over Honey & Co. We’re so very glad we did, as the night was just fabulous. Recommend the bar seats for the full experience.