At Jaffa Bar in Philadelphia, the Citrus-Rich Mediterranean Bursts to Life

1. Oysters

East Coast oysters are the centerpiece of Jaffa Bar’s raw bar, showcasing their commitment to serving fresh, high-quality regional ingredients. Henshaw sources finned fish from Samuels Seafood and learned about oyster hatchery, farming, and production from Island Creek Oysters in Massachusetts. These days, Jaffa Bar procures their oysters directly from Fishtown Seafood, a new-school fish shop with multiple Philly-area locations that work with oyster purveyors up and down the Mid-Atlantic (Fishtown Seafood owner Bryan Szeliga was one of Jaffa Bar’s first diners, too).

Jaffa Bar’s oysters remain true to the classic setup — you can order individually, by the dozen, or half-dozen accompanied by housemade mignonettes and cocktail sauces. A small paper card is a fun way for guests to check off their oyster picks, too. But these aren’t typical vinegar-centric sauces, they include global flavors to be savored and cut through the mollusk’s brininess.

“The best time to eat oysters is the fall and winter,” adds Henshaw.

The schug mignonette starts as a spicy, yet fresh, Yemenite chili paste loaded with jalapeño and serrano peppers, fresh herbs like parsley and cilantro, garlic, and dried spices (coriander, cardamon, and cumin). The paste is strained to remove excess oil and mixed with minced shallots, rice wine vinegar, and white wine vinegar for added punch and sweetness.

“It’s a little bit savory, a lot spicy, floral, and bright,” explains Henshaw, who notes schug recipes vary across Middle Eastern home cooks.

The passion fruit mignonette offers a punchy, bright tropical version with passion fruit juice, minced cucumber, white distilled vinegar for more intensity, and of course rice wine vinegar and minced shallots. Henshaw loves passionfruit’s versatility, applying it to both sweet and savory dishes.

Henshaw’s cocktail sauce is inspired by the popular tehina ketchup, a creation of CookNSolo’s fast-casual restaurant Goldie, which later became a fixture at Laser Wolf and served alongside perfectly crispy fries. It has Heinz, harissa, lemon juice, horseradish, and amba (an Iraqi pickled mango sauce).

“I wish I could put amba on everything I eat,” says Henshaw. We suggest you do the same.

Crispy Tuna

Perhaps the dish Henshaw is most excited about is this cooked tuna. It detours from the rest of Jaffa Bar’s Middle Eastern roots, instead leaning into earthy and smoky Latin American flavors.

Big-eye tuna is cut into thick chunks and then salted and rubbed with various chiles: harissa, guajillo, and ancho chiles. Each piece of tuna is then wrapped in brik dough (a single-layer filo dough pastry) and seared on the plancha for a few minutes. The result is a crispy outer layer and still-firm ruby red tuna plated cut side up like a medium-rare steak. On the side is a salad of esme: smashed pomegranate seeds, pomegranate molasses, red onion, seedless jalapenos, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and harissa. That salad gets tossed with diced avocado — a classic tuna pairing — for added creamy texture and balance.

“We always wanted [this dish] to be a showstopper, a photogenic dish,” adds Henshaw.

Yellowtail Pastrami

For diners lamenting the disappearance of Jewish delis around Philly, take comfort in this lighter, seafood version of a classic pastrami sandwich. Henshaw opts for Hiramasa yellowtail for its medium size and firm texture, making it ideal for crudos as it holds up better to strong flavors than tuna, salmon, or mackerel.

This dish is a two-day process. First, the fish is cured overnight with kosher salt and granulated sugar and then rolled in a pastrami spice. It remains in the dry spice brine for another eight hours or so. The pastrami spice is a custom touch from longtime Israeli chef-friend, Lior Lev Sercarz of New York’s La Boîte à Biscuits, who created specialty spice recipes for signature Laser Wolf kebabs.

“The difference was incredible,” says Henshaw of Sercarz’s work.

Sercarz’s pastrami spice blend includes black pepper, coriander, allspice, smoked paprikas, mustard seed, garlic powder, and onion powder. The fish is sliced into loins and goes out with finishing salt and olive oil, served alongside grilled and pickled sliced Persian cucumbers (which are smaller, firmer, and have fewer seeds).

Fluke Ceviche

This next cold plate is similar in simplicity and presentation but features two applications of schug spices. First, local fluke arrives whole, gets broken down, and is cured overnight with tons of spices: salt, MSG, ground dried ginger, turmeric, coriander, cardamom, white and black pepper. The second part is the aguachile broth blended (then strained) with the same schug spices plus garlic, parsley, cilantro, and wax peppers — they’re long, thin, medium-heat peppers similar to pickled banana peppers.

“[You get this] lightly spicy, kind of savory slash bitter [profile] from the cucumber and then brightness and floral from the cardamom and coriander,” says Henshaw. He wanted to double down on the schug’s intense flavors without the dish becoming overwhelmingly spicy.

The plate is a sea of light green with various textures. The fluke gets diced and mixed with more schug spice blend, Persian cucumbers, minced shallots, a hefty squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and a little olive oil. The broth is poured over and fried shallots make for a crunchy topping. You can also taste the green aguachile in the Green Eyed Lady cocktail, a take on the classic spicy margarita.

Fried Chicken Thighs

“We were talking about fried chicken, and then somehow matzah ball soup came up: ‘Is there any way to make fried chicken taste similar to matzah ball soup?’” Henshaw wondered.

That was the idea behind one of Jaffa Bar’s best-selling entrees. Bone-in thighs are first cured overnight with salt. A brine is made from pickled chiles imported from Israel called shipka peppers. Henshaw describes the brine as “sour, acidic, a little salty, a little sweet.” The breading, which is a blend of cornstarch and crushed matzah meal, is a tribute to classic Jewish deli staples and a great substitute for panko breadcrumbs, says Henshaw.

“The matzah is more coarse — it makes for an awesome crunch and keeps the chicken juicy and hot as you’re eating it, too,” adds Henshaw.

The chicken thighs are coated in cornstarch, dredged in the brine, and then coated in cornstarch again for an extra crunchy crust. Two large thighs are plated with coleslaw and “honey mustard” with the pickled mango amba, a little bit of mayonnaise, some honey, some citric acid, and then more of that shipka pepper juice.

Bonus: Don’t sleep on the drinks.

CookNSolo’s Steven McAllister manages the wine program, offering a glimpse into the Middle East’s rich regional variety, including Galia wines by Zahav. Sean Byrne heads up the extensive cocktail list which includes spirits rarely seen on Philly menus like Angostura rum in the Airmail. Must-order drinks include the Green Eyed Lady with aguachile from the fluke ceviche dish, alongside enticing zero-proof concoctions like the Black Lime Tonic and a non-alcoholic version of a Junglebird.

Jaffa Bar is open daily from 5 to 10 p.m. The bar and raw bar are open Sundays through Thursdays from 5 to 11 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to midnight. 

Alisha Miranda is a food and travel journalist and #LatinxIndustryNight cultural producer based in Philadelphia. Follow her at @alishainthebiz. Follow Resy, too.