Panini Lilush

Type: Italian, Cafe-Restaurant
English Menu: Yes
Average price: 40-50 NIS
Address: 73 Frishman st.

A cute small cafe restaurant located next to Rabin Square with a great variation of food, ranging from quality sandwiches to poshy risotto. Young Tel Avivians, with and without kids come here to have their Saturday brunch.

Panini is an Italian bread with fillings such as smoked goose breast (fantastic!), salmon or pastrami. Except for panini, they also serve salads and hot dishes, such squash soup, lentil soup, lasagna, pasta. The chicken soup with the Matza balls are very recommended. Less than that but still good is the peas soup.

An excellent dish is the seafood risotto with lychee and smoked goose breast, which although sounds off, is very special and highly recommended (see picture on the right). We haven't tried the pasta, but they are quite popular at Panini Lilush. The meat lasagna looks great, but the flavor is quite disappointing. It doesn't have the original meat lasagna flavor, instead they experimented with spices such cumin and cinnamon.

Also worth trying are the blintzes appetizers. These rolled pancakes with salmon, cream cheese filling or eggplant and cream cheese are served with a green salad and a thickly induced balsamic vinegar dressing that completes the meal with the zingyness.
The only dessert we tried was the chocolate souflet, which was a bit disappointing and tasted a bit like supermarket.

How to get there
Go from Rabin square on Frishman towards the sea. Located just next to the Masarik square (the northern end of King George st.)