Carmella Banachala

Type: Bistro Restaurant 
English Menu: Yes
Average price: 80-100 NIS
Address: 14 Rambam st.
Tel. number: 03-5161417

Carmela banachala is located next to the bustling Carmel market and you can tell it by the market inspired ingredients in their dishes. This semi-poshy bistro/ restaurant gives your palate a special tour through France, Eastern-Europe until the Middle-East with their well-prepared dishes.

We ate a menu-set, which contained some vegetable appetizers, side dishes, fish and meat dishes. Unfortunately, not all of the dishes were equally delightful. The simple, fresh parsley, coriander salad and the roasted eggplant salad were Mediterranean-ly good:

The carpaccio was a bit disappointing, lacking the delicate flavor and was actually a bit bland. The warm chickpeas salad, as ordinary this dish might sound, was surprisingly delicious and made a good local impression on the taste buds.

The fried sardines and steamed white fish fillet with creamy mashed potatoes also didn't impress us that much, but we really liked the pictures :-) :

The grilled spring chicken fillet was quite tasty, but it just didn't have the "wow-factor". Our favorite was the three small pieces of perfectly cooked beef sirloin in the most amazing red wine sauce:

The meal was topped off with a combination dessert of: creme brulee, "krembo", brownie, and a mousse:

How to get there
Walk on Nachalat Binyamin St. till you hit Rambam st., the second street on your right. Turn right and go 20 meters till you see the extraordinary of the place.

Click here to view walking directions to Carmella Banachala on the map.

Gedera 26

Type: Mediterranean Fusion 
English Menu: No Yes (updated by comment - thanks!)
Average price: 40-60 NIS
Address: 26 Gedera st.
Tel. number: 03-5100164

Gedera 26 restaurant is exactly the type of restaurants which we like to see in Tel Aviv. Combination of great meat and seafood and pungent cold salads, all which taste amazingly good and made from fresh ingredients (and its location next to the Carmel market helps a lot with the latter).

It's hard to define Gedera's cuisine explicitly: it varies from the Arabic cuisine to European style cooking. Some dishes even remind us of home-cooked food, and some resemble high quality French bistro-food. Eating at Gedera is a culinary experience.

The salads were fresh and delicious.We ate the wheat salad with cranberries (highly recommended); Mujaddara (rice with lentils) with yogurt (OK) and roasted fennel (surprisingly taste!). Salads come in a small or large portions (10/20 NIS).

For the main dish, we took the cold roast beef, which was finely spiced, giving it a great taste and texture (pricing is 30 NIS per 100gr). We also took the Chraime (46 NIS) - a dish which is inspired by the Jewish immigrants from Libya. This is a fish dish which is cooked with spicy tomato sauce and vegetables and tasted like more! (and don't forget to dip the bread in the sauce.) Thumbs up for using good quality fish.

For our sweet tooth, we took the malabi. We must say that although we already ate the best malabi in town, we were still surprised by the malabi of Gedera. Its uniqueness is by being less "hardcore" than the rest, or in other words, not  super-sweet. Instead, it's served with fruits (14 NIS).

How to get there

Restaurant Gedera 26 is located right next to the Allenby-King George intersection, where Nachalat Binyamin starts. Click on the map below to see walking directions from the crossroad. 

Click here to view Gedera 26 location on the map

* Detail: Gedera has three types of menus: fixed lunch menu,  evening menu (changing; more seafood dishes) and Fridays menu. 

Abraxas North

Type: Chef Restaurant 
English Menu: No (Menu is reprinted twice a day)
Average price: 180 NIS pp. (for 3 course dinner)
Address: 40 Lilenblum st.
Tel. number: 0546-786560

Abraxas North is one of the best restaurants in Tel Aviv, if not the best of them. It's not pretentious at all, as some will criticize, referring to the eccentric character of the Chef, Eyal Shani. The food is ridiculously good. It's not a budget dinner, so crack your piggy bank for it. We think that in this case we should just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Mangold leaves with Parmesan and cherry tomatoes salad:

Grouper stew and entrecote:

Pizza with homemade creme fraiche and creme patissiere with guava:

How to get there
Abraxas North is located in Lilenblum st., which is intersected with Allenby st. To reach the area, you can take bus 5 and go down at the last stop of Rothschild Blvd., then walk 10 min (see the map below). Or, walk on Allenby towards south and then turn right to Lilenblum st., the turn after Rotschild Blvd.

Click here to view Abraxas North's location and walking direction

Giraffe

Type: Asian-Fusion restaurant

English Menu: Yes

Average price: 50-60 NIS

Address: 49 Iben Gvirol st.; 21 Ha'Arbaa st. (Officers' club)

Tel. number: 03-6916294, 03-6851155

Giraffe was one of the first Asian noodle bar restaurants in Tel Aviv and its popularity hasn't changed since then. Combining the Asian flavors such as Japanese, Thai and Chinese on their menu, Giraffe is attracting a big crowd.

There's a lot to choose from on Giraffe's menu and can be time consuming... Among the appetizers, we liked the tofu salad with vegetables and peanut sauce. The shrimps egg roll had a very weird smell, so it's definitely not one of our favorites. Giraffe also has several types of sushi, but Giraffe is not the place for it. We rather eat sushi at a better sushi restaurant, like Sakura and Japanika.

Our favorite main dishes are the "Spicy Philippine noodles" and the "Lemon chicken". The Philippines dish is prepared with coconut milk mixed with a red curry paste and pieces of chicken. It's a little bit spicy for sensitive taste buds. The Lemon chicken is great! Slices of crispy chicken, served with fried white rice and a tangy-savoury lemon sauce.

Moadon HaKtzinim (Officers' Club) is a chic branch of Giraffe. The menu is a little bit different, but based on the same idea.

How to get there

To reach the Ibn Gvirol branch: if you're coming from Dizengoff, take left when you hit Ibn Gvirol st.

To reach the Officers' Club: Ha'Arba'a street is next the Cinemateque, on Carlebach st. You can reach Carlebach by going to the beginning of Ibn Gvirol (go south), where it connects to Yehuda Halevi st.

Abdu Hadayag

Type: Fish restaurant
English Menu: No
Average price: 70-80 NIS
Address: 37 Yefet st., Jaffa
Tel. number: 03-5182595

It seems almost impossible that among dozens fish restaurants in Jaffa you will still be able to find uniqueness and difference. Well, Abdu Hadayag ("Abdu the Fisherman") is one of them, as it stands out with their fresh home made mezes appetizers and good quality fresh fish. Actually, before Abdu established the restaurant, he was a fishmonger for restaurants, so let's say he knows good fish.

Like at other fish restaurants in Jaffa, the mezes are included in a main dish set - fish, seafood or chicken (yes, we know...., but some people want to eat chicken at a fish place!) - and can be refilled all the time. If you don't order a main dish, you pay 30 NIS for the mezes.

We took a Barramundi and Sea Bream (each 80 NIS), fried and grilled, as the waitress recommended. Both were great choices, but the Barramundi was tastier.

You can also choose just fried or grilled (although the latter is less recommended). The salads as we noted above were extremely tasty and fresh, we also liked the grilled pita with zaatar which came with it.

Some people will like Abdu Hadayag more than other fish restaurants in Jaffa (although others like Rauf et Atina aren't less good). It's totally air conditioned, cleaner and more friendly. It's recommended to make reservations during lunch time and always make reservations for the evenings (weekends especially).

How to get there

Take bus 25 and go down at Jerusalem Blvd. ("Shderot Yerushalayim") at "Yehuda Hayamit" station. Walk back couple of meters and take left to Yehuda Hayamit. Go straight and take right on Yefet st., keep on going straight, it will be on your right.

Click here to view location and walking directions from bus no. 25 station. 

Rauf et Atina

Type: Fish restaurant
English Menu: Yes

Average price: 75 NIS (Fish and salads)
Address: 81 Kedem st., Jaffa
Tel. number: 03-6818793

One reason to go to Jaffa's to eat is for their fish restaurants. We were looking for a good one and we fell in love with this Jaffa look-and-feel fish restaurant (and the local presence also hints that).

The traditional way in these fish restaurants is to order the fish and with it you'll get plenty of yummy mezes - such as: humus, tehina, fries, eggplant salad, pickled salad, cucumber salad, carrot salad, olives and pickles, parsley salad, tabbouleh salad, spicy tomato salsa etc. You'll also get some bread and pita and everything can be refilled all the time. Watch out though, do not fill your stomach before the fish is served! (a common mistake of beginners).

The fish (a whole fish, not a fillet) can be grilled or deep fried (grilled is a better choice). We took a sea bream and a European Seabass, and enjoyed the latter more. By the way, you can easily share a fish dish with two persons, but one person will have to pay 30NIS for the salads. This is still very much worth it.

In Kedem st. you have some other famous fish restaurants, including the nearby Hazaken ve hayam (the Old Man and the Sea). Although it's quite popular and offers more salads then Rauf et Atina, we think is less in quality and less tasty. If you are a looking for another fish restaurant (which is also not that far into the margins of Jaffa) try Abdu Hadayag.

How to get there

We are sorry to say that we didn't find any convenient way to reach this street with public transportation. A taxi from Tel Aviv center should be about 40-45 NIS.

Click here to view location on the map (for driving instructions, use the map's 'directions' feature).

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.

Thai House

Type: Thai restaurant, Asian foodEnglish Menu: Yes
Average price: 65-70 NIS
Address: 8 Bograshov st. (corner of Ben Yehuda st.)

Thai House is one of the fewest places in Tel Aviv which serves good Thai food. The romantically dimmed atmosphere and the friendly waitresses make it a great place to go on a date or just an evening of enjoying good food.

You can start off with some spicy or sour-savoury appetizers, like the calamari salad or the papaya salad we tried. These appetizers make your taste buds get a buzz for the main courses.

The main courses differ from green or red curries with coconut juice to filling soups like the Tom Yam with shrimps, which is absolutely fabulous! If you don't know what to choose or which dishes go together well, the waitresses are more than willing to help you choose the best combination.

The green curry with chicken and eggplants wasn't what you would expect it to be - it is sweet and has a milky taste, and the eggplants itself had a distinctive sweet flavor. But it's worth the try, only because it has the authentic Thai flavors in it.

Unfortunately, Asian desserts aren't that special. But we do recommend to try the tapioca with coconut milk. Ask for the banana and mango instead of the canned pineapples, it's refreshingly good.

How to get there
Go all the way west on Bograshov (towards the beach). It's on the corner with Ben Yehuda st.

* Detail: there's an indoor smokers' section in the restaurant on the right of the entrance.

Sakura

Sakura has closed down after 8 years of business. Truly, the ups and downs in the recent years must have to do with it. Anyway, Sakura will still be operating in Jerusalem, where it started.

For other sushi places, you can try Japanika.

Goocha

Type: Restaurant, Seafood
English menu: Yes
Average price: 70 NIS
Address: 1) 171 Dizengoff st., 14 Iben Gvirol (Goocha Diner)
Tel. number: 1) 03-5222886 2) 03-6911603

Goocha is a modern chic seafood restaurant that is worth a visit if you're looking for palatable seafood with appetizing side dishes. Goocha has mainly a typical Israeli seafood menu, but its sauces and cooking are quite different and unique. For example, you can have seafood mix topped with coconut milk, curry and coriander sauce, or shrimps cooked with ginger and honey.

Besides seafood they also have pastas, delicious gnocchi, entrecote, hamburger and chicken. Don't miss out on the yummy appetizers, of which the green papaya salad is highly recommended. The only flaw of the place is that the desserts are a bit too simple. The tarte tatin is one of the better ones.

The Dizengoff branch has a terras where it's nice to sit outside in the summer and watch the passing dogs and owners on the boulevard in front. There's also a terrace at the Iben Gvirol branch, but it doesn't have the nice touch and feel of the Dizengoff branch. Sunday to Thursday, 12:00-16:00, you can have a business meal that offers one appetizer and soft drink for 10 NIS (with a main dish).

How to get there

Go north on Dizengoff until you hit the intersection with Ben Gurion and you are there.

For the branch on Iben Gvirol you go on Dizengoff (when the Dizengoff square is on your back) until you reach Iben Gvirol, then cross the road and take right.

Walking directions on the map, from Dizengoff Center:
171 Dizengoff branch
14 Iben Gvirol branch