{"id":48206,"date":"2026-08-09T19:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T19:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/48206\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T19:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T19:13:14","slug":"mariposa-caesarea-restaurant-review-kosher-dining-at-the-golf-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/48206\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariposa Caesarea restaurant review: Kosher dining at the golf club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Twain allegedly described golf as \u201ca good walk spoiled,\u201d a statement with which few members of the Caesarea Golf Club would agree. The only place in Israel where golf aficionados can indulge their sport<\/a>, the place also houses a very good restaurant, Mariposa, which we visited recently for lunch.<\/p>\n

A new chef, Raz Sela, took over the kitchen of Mariposa only four months ago. His previous experience included 10 years at Turkiz, a well-established non-kosher restaurant in Tel Aviv, but adapting to strictly kosher has not produced any problems for the young, versatile chef. On the contrary, the lunch we enjoyed recently was of a very high standard, with original dishes, creative presentation, and the pleasant ambiance of a well-run, friendly eatery.<\/p>\n

We left it to the staff to choose the dishes they wanted us to sample, and two salads arrived at our table, together with a dish of pickled vegetables (carrots, celery, cucumbers, and peppers) and fried bread slices with tartar sauce (NIS 12).<\/p>\n

The two salads were the Shmulik and the Herb. I was curious to know why any restaurant<\/a> would call a salad by the name Shmulik, and turned to Google for an explanation. It seems Shmulik was a customer who lived nearby and came almost every day to eat at the restaurant (and still does).<\/p>\n

Both salads were good. The Shmulik had arugula, grapes, peanuts and cranberries and a spicy dressing, while the Herb salad was made with rocket leaves and a variety of herbs. Both salads had the addition of vegan feta, which was practically indistinguishable from the real thing (NIS 64).<\/p>\n

\"AA dish at Mariposa. (credit: ALEX DEUTSCH)Paper-thin carpaccio, delicious ceviche<\/p>\n

Another pre-starter appeared, consisting of a paper-thin slice of carpaccio, perfect for nibbling on until the real food arrived.<\/p>\n

I chose ceviche as a first official course, and this was a winner: chopped white fish, tomatoes, cucumbers, and purple onion with a lemony, slightly spicy dressing. It was so good I couldn\u2019t stop eating it, even though the mains were still to come (NIS 80).<\/p>\n

My companion chose chicken livers with potato puree, declared it superb, and all conversation between us ended as he savored every mouthful (NIS 98).<\/p>\n

My choice for a main course was Togarashi crusted salmon, which means the fish is dipped in a special mix of Japanese spices, including chili flakes, ginger, and nori (dried seaweed). All I could determine was that it was rather sweet and was perfectly cooked. It came with potato puree, although the menu promised pea cream and leek fondue (NIS 138).<\/p>\n

My companion chose grilled sea bass with a white wine and herb sauce and the same mashed potatoes (NIS 149). He said it was a superb dish.<\/p>\n

There are many meat dishes, too, with steaks of every shape and size, but we were very happy to stick with the fish.<\/p>\n

The dessert course did not offer any great revelations. The pistachio ice cream<\/a> sported a tuile which tasted like a slab of margarine instead of being crispy. The vanilla ice cream came with cherries laboriously cut in half with pips removed and pretty edible flowers. At least I hope they were edible, because I ate them.<\/p>\n

I drank a glass of Yarden Chardonnay, which was suitably ice cold and very good (NIS 67); my companion chose a Guinness (NIS 40).<\/p>\n

On balance, it was a very good meal, and with a bit more effort in the dessert department, it could be considered even better.<\/p>\n

Mariposa
1 Rothschild Street
Caesarea
Tel: (04) 626-5000
Open: Sun.-Wed., 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.; Thurs., 12 p.m.-12.30 a.m.; Fri., 12 p.m.-3 p.m.
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Twain allegedly described golf as \u201ca good walk spoiled,\u201d a statement with which few members of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8904,18784,44,589,6287,3347],"class_list":["post-48206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-food","tag-food-review","tag-golf","tag-magazine","tag-restaurant","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}