Fresh Food with a Social Cause – Food Time Jerusalem

By Debbie Kandel on October 19, 2019 • ( 3 Comments )

Food Time Jerusalem (Mehadrin) is an Italian-style social cafe in conjunction with the Shekel Association, which works to integrate people with disabilities into the labor market. The cafe is located on Yad Harutzim on the ground floor of the Shekel vocational rehabilitation building in Talpiot. Some may remember the cafe as Harutzim, but it recently changed ownership and has a new name and menu. The new owners are Yaniv Cohen, who produces AutoOchel, the summer food truck festival in Amphi Bagai and Omri Ben Shoshan, who has worked in a number of restaurants around Jerusalem.

Customers order at the cash desk and the adults with disabilities from Shekel serve the food and clear up.

The menu includes breakfast, salads, sandwiches, toasts, pizza, pasta and desserts. It was hard to decide what to order but to start with we shared a Broccoli Quiche (NIS 26) with a small side salad. The delicious quiche was made on-site by Ariel, the in-house Israeli-French pastry chef. The pastry was crispy and flaky and the filling was rich and flavorful.

I chose a Mushroom Pizza (NIS 42) made with a sourdough crust, which was perfectly crispy on the bottom while still being slightly doughy. I can safely say that it was on a par with some of the best pizzas in Jerusalem like La Piedra and Craft Pizza.

My friend ordered the Sushi Tortilla (NIS 30), a vegan tortilla wrap filled with guacamole and roasted pepper filling, which she enjoyed as well.

We couldn’t resist ending the meal with something sweet which included a Palmier (butterfly) biscuit and Mini Croissant. Both were very tasty and it was clear that they were made by real French pastry chefs.

Overall the dishes were made with lovely fresh ingredients and the prices were very reasonable.

Food Time is a great venue for small private events, like sheva brachot, small bar mitzvah or brit milah. The main restaurant can hold 60 people and there is a roof terrace for events up to 100 people. They also provide food platters for catering office and home events.