Manta Ray

Type: Seafood Restaurant
English Menu: Yes
Average price: 120 NIS
Address: Alma beach, Tel Aviv promenade
Tel. number: 03-5174773

You might have heard of Manta Ray from the Tel Avivians as either the best fish restaurant in town or as the restaurant 'where Madonna went to eat when she was here'. Nevertheless, the food here is very good. And so is the view; you look out to the sea and you are literally just one step away from the beach.

Although we like fish restaurants like Rauf et Atina in Jaffa, Manta Ray is of a different league. Manta Ray serves the fish gourmet style and you can tell by the flavor. We took a sea locus (Golliath Groupe) which was absolutely great, and a fish kebab, which disappointed us a bit (sorry but no pics for that).

People like this place so much because of its variety of mezes (18 NIS each), ranging from vegi dishes to fish salads. We tried the Tzatziki (Greek cucumber and yogurt salad) and the Mullet Ceviche - both were yum.

There's another reason to go to Manta Ray: their breakfast! Don't worry, it's not that you have to eat fish in the morning (although we did). Manta Ray's breakfast is enormously popular, to the extent that you have to make reservations way beforehand. Once you get there, you have a variety of breakfast meals on Manta Ray's menu: shakshuka, salads, French toast, pancakes and so on. We got the breakfast for two: 2 eggs (scrambled, omelet or sunny side up), chopped Israeli salad, unlimited bread, buns, scones and muffins, jam and cheese spreads and two freshly squeezed orange juice. We also added the Mullet Ceviche, which had a very special soury taste. It was more kind of a lunch than breakfast for us, we were so stuffed!

How to get there

You can either take bus no. 25 and go down on Charles Clore park, or just bike all the way south on the promenade (while the endless sea lies on your right). The restaurant is in a cement hut.

* Recommendation: Do some tummy rubbing afterwards on the beach next to it.