Minna Tomei

I prefer to write positive reviews about restaurants, but sometimes there are restaurants that force you to write a negative review. MINNA TOMEI in Tel Aviv is one of them. We arrived to celebrate my son's birthday, we were 10 minutes late. The restaurant was half empty, but the hostess informed us that because we were late, the place would be reserved for us for no more than an hour and a half. Don't worry, after an hour we left alone. The waitresses' service was good. The place is dim but nice. At first, there was a good feeling about the place. And as for the food, in short, the food is not good. The menu is divided into 5 Asian countries with some of the best cuisines in the world. That's not the case in Mina. We ordered from the Vietnamese kitchen: Nams that were no more than average with mediocre sauces, there was no coriander, basil, mint and chili for a dish that was supposed to be a refreshing and aromatic light appetizer. Vietnamese egg roll which was also not more than acceptable and also had 2 mediocre sauces. Saigon beef noodles which was simply bad, we barely tasted the dish because its seasoning was simply not good, salty and bitter. A terrible dish. The birthday boy ordered Pad Kefao. This young man, who eats almost everything and usually has few complaints about food, after a few bites refused to eat the minced meat, when we tasted it we understood why, it was also dipped in a terrible saltiness of soy sauce. Really inedible. He settled for rice with an egg on top. He also ordered Miang Roll, rolled rice sheets with tofu which after 50 minutes did not arrive! We finally canceled this order. The second son, who is celiac and a picky eater, ordered Tok Buki which is a wok dish with rice cakes and beef. After a few bites he stopped eating. We tasted again a salty, tasteless dish. He received the sushi dish after 50 minutes, quite at the end of the meal and a minute before we canceled the rolled rice sheet dish. This dish was delicious and in fact the only success of the evening. In summary, 2 mediocre dishes, 3 terrible dishes and 1 good dish that arrived after 50 minutes, 1 dish that was canceled after 50 minutes, 2 young boys who left the restaurant hungry, and will probably firmly refuse to return to this restaurant. The waitress wanted to give us a free dessert on the house, but the young son, whose forte is desserts, to our amazement politely refused and asked to finish and leave. When I asked the waitress why it took so long to receive the sushi and the roll when the restaurant was quite empty, I was told that the kitchen was working hard on deliveries. I explained that the customers in the restaurant should be given priority, she apologized again and explained that they were short of workers, etc. In conclusion, Mina TOMEI in Tel Aviv, a restaurant we had heard a lot about, a restaurant that was chosen by us as a suitable place to celebrate a birthday for boys who love Asian food, a restaurant that is supposed to provide an authentic taste of Asian cuisine, is a mediocre to poor restaurant, dishes that are photographed well but taste, almost inedible. I am very disappointed. This is not the experience we expected when we booked a place at the restaurant almost a month in advance. But, in life, you don't always experience success, sometimes there are failures. MINNA TOMEI is a failure.