APOLOGIES FOR THE PHOTO–ONLY HAD MY PHONE ON ME
Itzik Hagadol’s Israeli experience, as authentically chaotic as it may be, is at least partially lost in translation. The restaurant’s Encino outpost is Hagadol’s first in the US, the initial foreign offering from a chain that’s something like the Tel Avivian equivalent to Beirut’s Zankou Chicken. But if Zankou has earned a reputation of simplicity, Hagadol is working towards one of confusion, with uncertainty arising from both the quasi-take-out counter (complete with illuminated menus) that’s actually a server station and the menu that offers what seems like a dozen permutations of the same foundational combo.
That basic building block is Itzik Hagadol’s never-ending salads, which arrive in such volumes that the restaurant shames even the most serious spread of banchan. Contained in the basic order are plates of falafel, fried eggplant, roasted pepper paste, cole slaw, cubed beets, hard-boiled eggs, Moroccan-spiced carrots, pickles, baba ghanoush and more. Also strangely available is guacamole and big bowl of what essentially equals pico de gallo. Paired with the salads is a pizza-sized piece of airy, sesame-studded pita.
