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Courtesy Hotel Montefiore
Hotel Montefiore
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Some of the biggest names in Israeli cuisine share what's hot (and what's not) in the Mediterranean city.
With influences from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Tel Aviv is one of the world's foremost culinary melting pots. From sophisticated Israeli cuisine to old town street markets and food stands, here's what's trending in the city today, according to the culinary tastemakers who live there.
GOING LOCAL
As a city literally and figuratively in its growth stages—think building cranes on every block and new boutique properties like the design-focused Brown Hotel, Tel Aviv is finally looking less to influences abroad and taking local culinary origins to heart. “The food culture is hedonistic: we easily embrace little escapes from daily life,” says Tomer Agay, the chef at the trendy Santa Katarina. Agay is not alone in his assessment. Ohad Solomon, chef at the much-beloved American bistro Coffee Bar agreed, noting: “We’re seeing a healthier food consuming culture with more compassion here in Tel Aviv.”
BYE BYE, BIG ENTREES
Sharing is not only kind, but in Tel Aviv, it has become a trend. “With a new focus on seasonal food, the menus are ever-changing,” says Moran Yanai, the chef at Hotel Montefiore’s restaurant, which boasts a new small plate menu. Dinings, at the newly opened Norman Tel Aviv, offers highbrow Japanese to the city with their Izakaya-style tapas—dishes like deep-fried tofu, sea bass carpaccio with truffle salsa and ponzu jelly, and dry-aged beef with garlic, butter, and soy.
Courtesy Dinings
Dinings
TO MARKET, TO MARKET
In the not-so-distant past, markets may have mainly been for tourists, but the city’s foodies are now crowding to shop and nibble anywhere from the ancient (old town Carmel) to the new, like the yet-to-be-named market currently under construction at the intersection of trendy Rothschild and Allenby streets. “The city’s food markets contain generations-old traditions: from Persian, to Greek, to Turkish even to Bulgarian,” says Omer Miller, the chef at Shulchan restaurant, a modern Israeli food outpost. The markets, says Miller, in turn inspire tiny twists on tradition: "I’ll do an Iraqi Kubeh (meatball) that’s filled with fish instead of meat.” For the whole shebang, Pomegranate Tours specializes in delicious jaunts through the city’s markets.
Courtesy Moonshine
Moonshine
COCKTAIL HOUR
Tel Aviv has many factors to thank for its rediscovery of cocktails. “Tel Aviv's cocktail scene is fueled by the restaurant industry; late night hours, plus a young, hip clientele,” says Rima Olvera, whose Oasis restaurant changes its food and cocktail menu every day to incorporate fresh ingredients. Behind a steel garage door and through a restaurant you'll find Moonshine, which has 1920s decor and serves up its namesake (with herbs) in a golden chalice. The watering hole La Otra offers Mexican and Caribbean classics plus some fresh updates, like Tommy’s Smoky Margarita, which brings mezcal and tequila together with lime and agave syrup. But Bellboy Bar, with its apothecary-style craft bourbon cocktail, truly has the city’s attention for the season.
www.cntraveler.com
But while it's the latest wave of cuisine development that has taken dining in Israel to a whole new plane, it's worth remembering that the country's first luxury restaurant is still going strong at 85 years of age. When the King David Hotel opened in 1930, the pinnacle of Jerusalem's gastronomic culture was its exclusive "La Regence" restaurant and, for many in 2015, it remains number one in Jerusalem.
Born in Jerusalem, 35-year-old Chef David Biton has been the executive chef of La Regence for eight years, and concentrates on using local ingredients prepared in an unusual and creative fashion that combines a uniquely "farm-to-table" concept with the rules of kashrut (kosher), a prerequisite at all major Israeli hotels.