Were Back! Ella and Orna's - Restaurant Review - Tel Aviv

Last night we went to Ella and Ornas, 33 Shenkin St, Tel Aviv. I had read a few reviews about the place, some claiming it was exquisite and others sub par. But I liked the location and I'm always keeping my eye out for a good 'home cooked style' Italian restaurant....as we lack an abundance of Italians in this country. Anyways, the atmosphere was great and the service was even better! We also noticed that hardly any of the customers were speaking Hebrew - mostly French or English. Lior and I usually tend to speak Henglish (Hebrew/English). Sometimes the tourist percentage can be indicative of finding a gem and other times it can mean that its some average place that has mention in TripAdvisor.com. So lets get down to it - we ordered a bottle of wine which the waiter recommended - and let us try it and another one which he thought was worthwhile before choosing the 2008 Bravdo which was fantastic, smooth and just right. He also recommended the Osso Bucco with puree as the main and said it was enough for both of us. I usually enjoy a good OB - because its tender and saucy and I cant deny that I love scooping the tasty marrow out of the bone. This time, it was tender but simply lacking something. Lior stated that it just wasn't rich enough, and i concurred, and there was no bone with marrow in it. Before that we ordered a few Meze's: Roquefort and fig jam on brioche - sounds amazing I know - but it was just OK, nice but wouldn't do it again. Second Meze: Mozzarella balls with risotto and spicy red pepper sauce - I'm a sucker for risotto and cheese of all forms - again kind of a bummer - nothing special and I really should have used my spidie sense to know that the combination was off. 'On the house' we received mini sweet potato fritters with a chive and yogurt sauce which ended up being the tastiest out of all three. Towards the end of our bottle we wanted to split a cigarette, and in my most polite and charming Henglish I asked our waiter if there was any chance he had a cigarette (in Hebrew: "is there a situation that you have a cigarette?") and he kindly brought us one. Oh, Almost forgot, we ordered the classic Home Made Cheese Cake with a graham cracker bottom and a slight lemony twist which was simply delicious. I'm a huge cheese cake fan, have eaten many a cheese cakes in my day and they definitely got it right this time. Soooo - I really enjoyed my self and maybe would go back for a bottle of kick ass wine and cheese cake!