Barood is a great choice for a Friday night or Saturday afternoon meal, when few West Jerusalem restaurants are open. Late on Friday and Saturday nights, it’s also a pleasant, low-key bar for drinks and meeting people (the bar offers a vast range of a drinks). There’s occasional live music, and in good weather, tables are set up in the vine-covered Jerusalem Courtyard. As for the food, it’s quite different from what you’ll get at most other Israeli restaurants, featuring a daily changing menu of home-style choices, such as pork spareribs with a rosemary barbecue sauce, Balkan/Sephardic leek stew with meat and plums, or plates of crispy fried calamari.