Last night two of my favourite people and I went to Neni for dinner. The food was so good. I will be going back for sure.
Although we had a reservation at 20:15 and there were mainly adults, I am pretty sure that this is a good place to take children as well. Just be careful with the stairs for the little ones.
Not only is the food delicious and made to share, there is an open kitchen and a relaxed buzz about the place, which are generally fun for kids.
Neni is housed in the former Citroën garage and is very spacious. Rather huge actually, so maybe not the best place for an intimate dinner à deux. High chairs are available and they can make portions smaller for children if you ask.
Neni's web site says that the cuisine is East Mediterranean but the focus seems to be on Israeli food. The easy to follow menu has a selection of plant based foods, some fish, meat and desserts. Only 3 things on the menu contained gluten so they have clearly thought about the gluten free crowd. The waitress even brought out warm, slightly toasted gluten free bread along with the regular bread. There were many vegetarian dishes and the service was very friendly.
Since the food is made to share, we chose a selection of 4 vegetable dishes, one fish and one meat dish.
I think my favourite dishes were the Brussel sprout chips with nori, salt, chili, lime and red aioli and the green beans with avocado, lemon zest, green garlic, crispy za'atar quinoa and red chili.
We also had the Tel Aviv fish taco with coriander, yoghurt, tomato salsa and pickled lemon, and the roasted sweet potatoes with crème fraîche, lambs lettuce, sesame and pumpkin seed oil.
Both of these were delicious as well. I did not try the falafel with popcorn, ginger, lime and tahini or the chicken shawarma, but my fellow diners enthusiastically dug into them and seemed very happy.
Dessert though was rather underwhelming. The malabi was a bit too sweet and runny and the chocolate cake looked rather stodgy and old. I did not try the cake but my two chocaholic friends each took one tiny bite and then left it alone. Mmm....Next time, I will give dessert one more go; perhaps this was just a "dessert did not work out because Mercury is in retrograde" type of situation.
On my way to the ladies room, I had a quick look at the Lemonman bar which is on the top floor of the restaurant. I did not have any of the drinks (which looked good), but the bar itself did not appeal to me. It reminded me a bit of a Lufthansa transit lounge. Because of the yellow accents and the view over Stadionplein but perhaps also because I needed to cross it when going to the ladies room, which seemed a bit odd to me.
Neni has a deli as well which is open from 9:00-17:00 daily. I have not been there yet but the website says they have salads, juices, sandwiches made with their own bread and pita's, sweets, coffees and free wifi. I look forward to having some lunch there soon.
Also according to their website, you can pre-order challah for Fridays and Saturdays and...they have babka-yes! I will be ordering soon and have the crew here at home taste test both of them.
Neni
Stadionplein 8
Tel: 020-747-0098
Restaurant open every day.
From 9:00-22:00 on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and until 23:00 on Wednesdays.
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, they stay open until 1 am.
The Deli is open from 9:00-17:00.
They deliver via Deliveroo and Thuisbezorgd.
