Is a tomato worth the visit to HaSalon, celebrity chef Eyal Shani's New York eatery, at any cost?

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter



Celebrity chef Eyal Shani opened a branch of his Tel Aviv eatery HaSalon in New York City three months, ago offering his staple dishes and an Israeli party each night after 10 PM with dancing on the tabletops to loud Israeli and American pop music.

Eyal Shani at HaSalon in NYC

but his food and especially his prices are leaving New York Post's restaurant critic in a less than a festive mood.

Shani's favorite vegetable, the tomato is served with olive oil and sea salt and a bill for $24 and that is a bit much for Steve Cuozzo to swallow as he wrote in his column last week.

Tomato served at HaSalon (Photo: Liliet Rosa Reyes Oliva)

Not buying Shani's rave of the long sought-after tomato, especially grown at Underwood Greenhouse in up state New York, Cuozzo was similarly unimpressed with other dishes he found unreasonably expensive and unimpressive in taste such as an Octopus sausage with little flavor and costing $59.

HaSalon Restaurant NYC

Cuozzo's critic did give other dishes the thumbs up when he wrote: " A juicy, $79 “dinosaur” of on-the-bone short rib, steeped in olive oil and peppercorn-crusted, was my favorite beef cut this year and large enough for two. And “Asperge blanc very personal” — an obscene-looking, thick shaft of white asparagus crowned with oozy horseradish cream — isn’t for those squeamish about the male anatomy, but it’s a treat at $9."

All in all, though he concludes HaSalon might as well mean, Ha, suckers! The joke’s on us.