Cafe Batia

Type: Restaurant, Jewish East-European
English Menu: Yes
Average price: 50-60 NIS
Address: 95 Hashmonaim st.

Although name makes you think it's a coffee house, Cafe Batia is actually a restaurant serving typical homemade East European Jewish food - Knedelach, Chulent, Gefiltefish and chopped chicken liver (spread), the kind of food you eat on holidays, quite similiar to Keton. Cafe Batia is one of the oldest Jewish restaurants in Tel Aviv and its history can be traced by the pictures on the walls, telling the story of Tel Aviv. The atmosphere is a bit rustic but the people working there are very friendly. 

Our recommendation - the goose leg. It's so good! Well in the pic it might not look that appetizing, but once you've tried the meat with the sweet-savoury-orange sauce, you will crave for more. You get two side dishes of your choice with the every main dish: buckwheat, rice, stewed vegetables and etc. If you want to eat something lighter, try the knedelach soup. It's chicken broth with 2 freshly made matze balls, usually eaten with Passover.

Elimelech

Type: Restaurant, Jewish East European
English Menu: No (Yiddish)
Average price: 50 NIS (main dish)
Address: 35 Wolfson st.

Among the famous Jewish East European restaurants in Tel Aviv - mainly Keton and Cafe Batia - Elimelech is one of the special ones, and certainly worth the longer tour to south Tel Aviv.

The uniqueness of this place is in its special style of cooking, which feels more local and less "mainstream", so to speak. We ordered the Brust, which is beef slices marinaded for 3 weeks before cooked in oven. Extremely good! The other dish we ordered was the beef and chicken balls (you can combine as your like) which also had good taste.

All dish are served with side dishes, which high quality and taste surprised us very much, and are one of the reasons we will come again to this place. 

How to get there

Wolfson st. is next to Florentin neighborhood. To get to Florentin neighborhood from the center you can take bus 25, and then go down at the first stop of HaAliya st. Go straight and the next street on your right is Wolfson st. The restaurant is couple of meters ahead.

Click here to see walking direction on the map.


* Tip: Take a look and snoop around at the great spices market on Levinsky st. 

Little Prague

Type: Restaurant, East European food
English Menu: Yes
Average price: 50-60 NIS
Address: 56 Allenby st.

In the middle of Allenby st, there's a restaurant that looks sketchy from the outside, but a step inside reveals a rare East European niche in Tel Aviv - this is Little Prague.

Devoted to the Czech tradition, they serve Czech beers and traditional Czech style food, which for the ordinary person would sound like the work of a primitive chef, such as fried Camembert with breadcrumbs and meat cooked with pickled cabbage and cream, or pork filled with hard boiled egg.
Eating at Little Prague for the first time, we took the chicken breast with "old Prague" sauce (kind of tomatos mix) topped with smoked cheese and a slice of peach. We also tried the beef goulash. We were happy to discover that the peculiar combination of ingredients works great. The juicy meat and the flavors really tastes like a home-cooked meal.

How to get there
The place is near the intersection of King George and Allenby. Go a bit towards south and you're there.

Keton

Type: Restaurant, Jewish East European

English menu: Yes
Average price: 50 NIS
Address: 145 Dizengoff st.

Keton is an East-European Jewish food restaurant that started business in the 40's and kept on being busy all these years until now. It's well known for the poets, writers actors and other old Tel Aviv celebrities who used to eat in this place in the past, and some still do today. And yeah, also known for the good food.

In Keton almost everything tastes yummy. You can have a great lunch or dinner by ordering a main dish that comes with two side dishes, or you can start with one of the appetizing starters or soups. The roasted beef is great and also the chicken/fish schnitzel. For dessert you can take a Kigel (some say Kugel) which is a sweet version of a noodles pie which was made by Jews in Europe for Sabbath.

How to get there
It's on Dizengoff st., on the block that's between Gordon and Ben Gurion st.

Click here to view location of Keton on the map