Kosher for Passover Lunch in Mamilla, No Kitniyot

Today my husband and I "double-dated" with a couple we've been "double-dating" with for half a century. We spent the day in Jerusalem, and besides seeing the "Plugat Hakotel" museum in Jerusalem's Old City, we had lunch out.

Passover is a complicated time to eat out, or even food shop, for those of us who are Torah observant. And it's even more complicated for Ashkenazi Jews, those whose families are ethnically European. Not only do we need regular Kosher for Passover food, we refrain from eating kitniyot, legumes. I can't complain. It's not as difficult as it used to be to find food and restaurants. That's because there are so many religious Ashkenazi Jews who come to Israel, especially Jerusalem, for Passover, and restaurant owners have realized that it pays to go to the efforts to cater to our needs.

But still, from year to year, businesses change, and I like to know in advance what options we have. So, this year I asked on all sorts of facebook pages and got nowhere. But once we were in Jerusalem, I discovered that there are more and more restaurants, not only strictly and certified Kosher for Passover, but they are also "without a doubt free of kitniyot."

We ended up having an early lunch in Fresh Kitchen in the Mamilla Mall.

Fresh Coffee & Kitchen had an extensive Passover Menu, and even though the place was packed, the wait staff seemed on top of things. There are other branches around the country.

There was such a large selection of food in Fresh Kitchen's Passover Menu that I had trouble choosing what to eat. In the end I chose the Nicoise aka Tuna Salad, and the bowl was full. It was very tasty, too.

One of our group had a sandwich, which came with a nice salad. And the other two had the Halumi Salad. There were no complaints. We finished it all. Prices were reasonable, too.

I couldn't find a phone number for them, but click here for their facebook page, which does have a message option.