The Hottest Restaurants in Tel Aviv Right Now

After overtaking Pronto as Tel Aviv’s best (and most expensive) restaurant, this stylized culinary powerhouse has remained the go-to place for far out Far East food in the Middle East. Taizu is the brainchild of Yuval Ben Neriah’s travels in Southeast Asia and is well worth the splurge. More a conceptual journey than your average gourmet dinner, Taizu’s menu is divided into the five elements. Together they form a gastronomical gradient, with diners progressing from the lighter “water” dishes—like the amazing shrimp-based har gow dumplings—to the heavier grilled “wood” or “fire” dishes—like the Japanese roasted short ribs—to must-haves “metal” dishes like butter chicken.Address and Phone Number:

Halutzim is a solid restaurant offering great food in a classy but not stuffy atmosphere. In a city overrun by thematic restaurants, Halutzim is a rarity. With a small space just off of Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Market, it’s easy to miss this gem, but when the market closes, one of the most romantic places in the city emerges from in between discarded boxes of pistachios and olives. Straddling the world of Italian and French kitchens with a dash of local flavors from the market, it offers a diverse menu of comme il faut pastas and other classics. The polenta is delicious and one of the richest Tel Aviv has seen.

Located in the trendy farmer’s market in Tel Aviv’s port, Kitchen Market offers both a view and taste of the city’s beautiful coast. More light and fresh in orientation than its gourmet-minded sister Mashya (also on this list), Kitchen Market still bears the trademark of chef Yossi Shitrit.While Mashya offers new interpretations on classic North African food, Kitchen Market is even more local, offering organic vegetables from farms across Israel and fresh seafood from the Mediterranean.

Based in Jaffa’s Flea Market, one of the hottest neighborhoods in Tel Aviv today, Asia is at the epicenter of Jaffa’s rebirth as a hip urban center. Asia—which, as its name indicates, serves Asian food—is the brainchild of two graduates of Catit—formerly one of city’s best restaurants. But while Catit was famous for its exquisitely small dishes, Asia offers more food, with healthy portions of steaming dumplings and far east soups.

A small gem established by a number of local chefs a few years ago, this local eatery has successfully matured into a staple of the local culinary scene. Built around a large stone tabun oven and located on the western side of the hip Big Synagogue compound just off Allenby St., the Santa, as it is called by locals, is quintessentially Tel Aviv.Though contemporary in orientation, it draws inspiration from the region as well, using it to infuse everything from pizza to oxtail with a local scent. It also has one of the best desserts in town—basbousa (traditional Arabic semolina cake) with homemade ice cream.

More a high-end café than a restaurant, Lorentz And Mintz is well worth a visit. Located on the main road to Jaffa, in the long forgotten “German Colony” on the southern edge of Neve Tzedek, Lorentz And Mintz is an attempt to breathe new life into the Tel Aviv of yesteryear with the help of contemporary Israeli cuisine. Situated in a breathtaking German “Templar” house, it is as much an architectural and historical landmark as it is a culinary one. Its name is a reference to Cafe Lorentz—a legendary eatery founded in 1902 by German missionaries and noted in Nobel laureate Shmuel Yosef Agnon’s film Only Yesterday—its brunch is said to be the best in the city.

One of the hottest names in Tel Aviv cuisine of the past years is Omer Miller. Miller’s instagram has become somewhat of a mecca for online foodies looking to salivate, but the food is as tasty as it is photogenic. Following the success of his Hadar Ochel (Cafeteria) restaurant, known for its stylish yet local dishes which mix Mediterranean materials with European techniques, Miller has set his sights on something more simple: the hamburger. Susu and Sons sits at the fountainhead of Rothschild, literally located at the end of Tel Aviv’s famous boulevard. The hottest grill in Tel Aviv right now, this stall is poised to becoming the city’s biggest guilty pleasure.

At the cheaper end of the spectrum is Fifi’s Asian food, a hole-in-the-wall just off Levinsky Market. The new kid on the block, its owner, Fifi, has managed to bring the best of Asian street food to Tel Aviv without the heavy prices Tel Avivians have grown accustomed to.

This Berlinesque spot has built up so much hype that you should expect a line (especially because of its small size) but turnover is high and it’s worth it. Try the Chinese Worker’s Dish with a shot of sake, and don’t forget to wait for the Indian halva that comes with the bill. It’s addictive and can be bought at the Levinsky Market.