Hatzal Banim: Caesarea's Crusader Harbor Turned Kosher Fish House

The sea bass arrives whole, charred at the spine, its skin lacquered with olive oil and crackling under a fork. Outside the picture windows the Mediterranean is going copper, sun dropping behind the breakwater the Crusaders built nine centuries ago. Inside, three tables of extended family are clinking glasses, a waiter is plating mezze for a couple by the stone wall, and Saba Jakie, who has worked this kitchen for 30 years, is turning lamb kebabs over an open flame. This is Hatzal Banim on a Thursday evening in Caesarea National Park, an hour before the harbor lights come on. Through the open door drifts the salt of the ancient port and the woodsmoke of the grill, a combination that has been the signature of this address for more than half a century.

The menu is built around two ideas: whole fish pulled from the Mediterranean and meat cooked over fire. Owner Moshe Ben Naim, who started here as a busboy and bought the restaurant 14 years later, refuses to dilute either category. The local catch list is short and serious: a pair of sea bream for 370 shekels, a pair of grouper for 390. They arrive fileted or fried crispy, dressed with little more than olive oil, lemon, and sea salt. Order the bream and you can taste the brine of the harbor below the courtyard, the flesh sweet and yielding against a crackled, salt scattered skin.