New Ramat Eliyahu Snack Spot Serves Filling Pastries for Just a Few Shekels

In the Ramat Eliyahu neighborhood near Highway 4, a newly opened eatery called Manti's is drawing attention for cheap street food. The writer, who arrived there while picking up a client’s car, first stopped at a nearby Iraqi bakery for a morning gibbeh pastry, then noticed a sign advertising dumplings and decided to try the new place.

Manti's is described as surprisingly polished for a small, recently opened spot that has been operating only for a few weeks. It has a clean counter, a pasta cooker used by restaurants, and two high tables. The reviewer says the place seems undecided about whether it is a bakery or a snack shop, but the important thing is that it already offers food that can fill you up for just a few shekels.

The menu uses the name samsa for what the writer says is essentially the same pastry as gozjigezha. He ordered a beef samsa for 15 shekels, describing it as not especially large but tasty and satisfying. A second samsa, filled with sweet potato and pumpkin, was more carefully shaped, square with folded corners and topped with pale green-white seeds.

The writer says he kept reminding himself that each pastry cost only 9 shekels, and was tempted to buy another one. In the end, he decided not to, because he would not be able to save it for later.