Tel Aviv Food (Restaurants, Markets and Street Food)
Israel has outposts of Etrogman in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. If you do a food tour in either market this will be a stop. (We saw tour guides there every day.) Etrogman employees are happy to give you a taste of any and all of the drinks, which we did before settling on the warm ones. (It’s February!) We started nearly every morning with a cup of his Royal Drink: a vegan hot beverage with a base of chai-like tea, plus chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne, cardamom and a touch of ghat (a stimulant apparently banned in the US). We also loved the other warm drink, Rambam’s Drink, which has a coconut milk base, dates, and cardamom. It is very rich. Located in both Tel Aviv (Carmel Market, right at the top of the market) and Jerusalem (Machaneh Yehudah, HaEgoz St).
Founder Uzi-Eli is of Yemeni heritage and designed everything at Etrogman for health, with guidance from the medieval texts of Maimonides, one of the greatest Jewish scholars. Some of the offerings seem familiar, like acai bowls and green smoothies; this is “health food” in the US too. But the combinations here are unique, and the acai and other bowls are chock full of fruits. There is a menu with suggested fixings, but basically, you can pick anything and everything to top your bowl.
Lunch at Hummus Abu Hassan (they don’t have a website)- many guidebooks and online blogs mention this place at 1 HaDolfin St (original location). There is another owned by the same people at Shivtei Israel St 14, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. English is spoken. We were able to walk in a little before noon – apparently, there are usually lines. It’s a small place and you share tables with other groups or individuals. There isn’t a menu as all they serve is several kinds of hummus with fixings (pita, onions, hot sauce, etc). When we walked in, we mentioned it was our first time, so the waiter brought us a big bowl with 3 kinds of hummus – one creamy, one chunky and one topped with full (beans), all of it drizzled with olive oil. There’s a reason every guide says this is the best hummus; it’s tangy, lemony and fresh. We saw some other bowls of hummus with hard-boiled egg, which is apparently a very popular way of eating it in Israel. Use the onion slices as scoops for your hummus. It’s delicious!
one bowl was enough for the two of us.
Dinner at M25 – we chose this restaurant for the arayes, which is lamb kabobs fried inside pita, and something every meat eater should seek out in Israel. These were amazing. (We went to the one in Carmel Market [30 HaCarmel Street]; there is a second M25 in Ramat Aviv in North Tel Aviv) M25 is a chophouse restaurant – lots of meat but unlike an American steakhouse or BBQ joint, also served with a lot of vegetables or tomatoes. We also ordered two other dishes which were equally outstanding. The smoked shawarma served over tomatoes was delicious – the shawarma was shredded and just slightly smoky. This was not like typical shawarma; it was more like shredded brisket. The other dish was fried lamb – strips of marbled lamb cooked like bacon and served with two spicy sauces, one slightly sweet and the other citrus chili. It came on a bed of flat-leaf parsley, basil and mint drizzled with lemon juice. Lamb bacon is really as good as it sounds. That dish also came with a plate of hummus and tomatoes with pita. Other tables around us ordered cuts of meat you can specifically select from butcher’s cases near the entrance of the restaurant, all washed down with copious amounts of red wine. I didn’t think we would have room for dessert but after they described the three choices, we had to try two of them. The first was a vegan malabi, made with coconut cream, and also covered in rose petals in addition to the rose water. It was nicely tangy and not too sweet. Often malabi is just too sickly sweet for me but not this one. The second dessert was described as baked oatmeal, which as it turned out was ‘crack’ pie. It’s like the oatmeal topping on a fruit crumble but served as a slice of pie. Just the right amount of sweetness and served with unsweetened whipped cream. The waitress also comped us the third dessert (we had previously declined because it had a lot of dairy); it was a good chocolate mousse covered in meringue bits.
Arayes: meat pies are a must order
fried lamb bacon
menu for the day (Arayes is at the top, cut off)
Malawbi: non-dairy fabulous version of this dessert you’ll find all over Israel, but M25 did it the best
storefront sign, Carmel Market location
Sarona market: This large indoor market has various food stalls and mostly food vendors around the sides. The day we were there, several vendors were setting up lunch in the center: bourekas, Korean, Arabic kefta and stuffed grape leaves. Some of the recommended markets include Halvah Kingdom, where the seller will patiently let you try every single type of halvah. They are so good, you are going to want to buy at least one and this travels well and keeps fresh for awhile.
In the park adjacent to the market there are free tours of German Colony, including some underground tunnels. We highly recommend this tour! It was a good history lesson, with interesting buildings, and the right price.
Halvah Kingdom: many locations but this one is in Serona Market.
Borekas: you’ll see lots of them sold everywhere. It is lightly filled with cheese, sliced in half, and a hardboiled egg added.
Historic German Colony building that is part of the free tour near Serona Market. This building housed the olive press.
Sabich Tchernikovsky has gotten plenty of press, so there will be a long line but the food is great. The owner came out to apologize to his next-door neighbor (another open-air restaurant) as the line snaked along in front of the neighbor. This is apparently the place Anthony Bourdain went when he wanted sabich (the owner told us stories while he prepared our sabich). We had one with traditional tahini and one with bulgarit cheese (basically Bulgarian feta). The pitas were stuffed with a yummy grilled eggplant, 3 kinds of cabbage, amba (sauce made from unripe mango), hard-boiled egg, onion, cilantro. The grilled eggplant had a meaty texture and flavor. They speak enough English here to help you build the sandwich you want.
Menu for Sabich Tchernikovsky
Sabich Tchernikovsky storefront sign
fixings being added
Other places we ate:
Yaffo-Tel Aviv, Chaim Cohen’s restaurant. This is in the business district area of Tel Aviv, where Google and other big name companies are. This was a lovely, upscale restaurant and very pleasant for lunch. They pay attention to food flavor pairings and quality of ingredients, and service was very friendly.
Hummus: while we specifically called out Hummus Abu Hassan above, we ate a lot of hummus at a lot of places, and it was always good. Usually, it was a hole in the wall in the middle of the Jerusalem Old City, or in Tel Aviv whatever Google Maps said was the closest hummus place when we got hungry. Hummus is a healthy and cheap option for any meal of the day. A plate usually costs between $6-$10 and that fed 2 of us every time.
The Old Man and the Sea – lots of guidebooks talk about this restaurant and frankly, the seafood/fish was meh. The 14 side dishes they bring out before the mains–at no charge–are the best part! The ambiance is hectic and loud. We were here on a Saturday night; it seemed the place for extended families to meet for a birthday or special night out. Lemonade and fried dough balls for dessert also come with every meal. I don’t think we’ll be going back.
Ewa Safi Moroccan. It was ok. Salads were the best. Bastilla was too sweet. Meat in main dishes had a bit too much fat, but generous portions. We eat a lot of Moroccan food so we are hard to please.
Places we’re going to try next time:
Cafexoho.com–central Tel Aviv brunch
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