Darya: Outstanding modern silk-road cuisine

It's ambitious enough to try to make outstanding food from one single cuisine. But to combine different cuisines in the same dishes is an undertaking only the most talented chefs should take on.

But that's exactly what Chef Hillel Tavakuli manages to do at Darya (דריה).

The cuisines span the Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes spanning regions between China and Italy**, used** from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century.

Darya is located in The Hilton Tel Aviv, and while you won't be blown away by the decor, the dark lighting makes it feel cozy and luxurious. The two times we've been there we were lucky to get the same waiter who spoke English and was patient enough to answer all my curiosities about the food.

The menu is split into four parts: Appetizers, small plates, large plates, and desserts.

Let's start with the appetizers. On offer are a za'atar bread and a matzah-like cracker (the only thing on the menu they don't make in-house), eggplant tehina, turpan pickled vegetables, "wet" almonds, Syrian olives, garlic confit, and fava beans. We think its worth getting all of them just to try, but our favorites by far were the tehina, turpan pickles, garlic confit, and fava (yes, 4/6 are favorites). The garlic specifically uses a spice called Golpar which I can safely say I've never had anything like. (According to the waiter they literally go to Iran to get it)

On to the small and large plates. You can't really go wrong here, but among the notable ones are the beef sambusak (a kind of hot, spicy, meat salad) and polenta fricassee (tongue).

We've only tried a few of the main dishes, but we can say that the duck is fantastic. I never would have thought to pair duck with a miso/tamarind sauce but it works beautifully together. And of course visually, every dish was gorgeous.

Next up was dessert. Normally in kosher meat restaurants, desserts are the Achilles heel. If we're being honest, there is no real substitute for real milk and butter, as hard as soy and margarine are trying. But Darya has created what we think is the best parve dessert we've ever had.

It's called Fallude: Almond milk and Zahar water, rice noodles, rose and almond sorbet, raspberry coulis, candied roses and pistachio nougat. Wait, rice noodles in a dessert? Yes, just go for it. (It's based on a popular Persian dessert of the same name)

In summary, if we had to decide on a restaurant for the food alone, we'd pick Darya. Again, it doesn't impress for decor, but what it lacks, it makes up for in flavor.

Darya at a glance