Great special food in Israel...where?

[josephnl]

Some very close friends of mine will be spending the month of March in Israel to celebrate a special occasion. They are foodies, and I would like to host them for one or more really special dinners. They will be staying in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Eilat. What are Israel's most special restaurants...cost is not important; wonderful food and terrific ambiance are? It needn't be fancy, but it should be very nice! Thanks for your help.

[MarkC]

Tel Aviv is my bailiwick. Toto is probably our number one go-to restaurant for a nice dinner. Coffee Bar and Herbert Samuel are also contenders, although Herbert Samuel is a crushed, noisy place, so if you're looking for a quiet ambience, that's probably not the place.

Traklin on a quiet part of Nahalat Binyamin is also a favorite, with a nice, intimate ambience. Neve Tzedik is a beautifully renovated, must-see district in Tel Aviv - some good picks there are Dallal and Asif, also Bellini in the Suzanne Dallal center for Italian. Basta is a wine bar on the Nachalat Binyamin pedestrian mall, near the Carmel Market which is a lot of fun, though expensive. The Carmel market is Tel Aviv's main fruit and vegetable market, and fun to walk through.

You must also take them to the new port in Tel Aviv - a beautifully laid out area. There is a boqueria-style indoor food market there which is a joy. On Friday's it is augmented by a lively outdoor farmer's market as well, but then it's very crowded. I forget the name of the main, sit-down restaurant there, but they serve delicious, small dishes and you can eat outside and look out over the sea. On a nice day this is absolutely glorious. I don't know if they're open for dinner though, I doubt it. If you go on friday and don't want to wait for a table, there is a food stall where they make only one thing - a herring sandwich on a crusty baquette with butter and a number of other condiments, which is a kind of culinary revelation. At the wine store across from it you can buy a glass of wine and take it along with your sandwich to a bench outside next to the sea. You need to leave a driver's license as a deposit for the glass, which you return afterwards. If you do go on friday, the earlier you get there the better.

The newly-renovated train station (tachana) on the beach near Jaffa has a smaller, organic market on Fridays, and there are a number of restaurants there as well, which I haven't eaten at. This is also a beautiful area to see, and you can combine it with a walk to Neve Tzedik, which is adjacent.

In Jaffa there are the popular Arab seafood restaurants on the beach, like Old Man and the Sea, where you can have a gut-busting feast for not too much and watch the sun go down. For more beach dining, Manta Ray is good, and the best is Rocca in Herzliya, on the bluffs above the sea - more high end, and best for lunch to enjoy the views.

Two very high end places I haven't been to are Pushkin and Shakuf. The latter is Israel's answer to molecular gastronomy - the chef worked at Noma in Copenhagen. And then, of course, the most fancy, expensive place is probably Catit, in Neve Tzedik.

That's it for my stream-of-consciousness recommendations. I'm sure others will have many more.

[thegraberhood]

I can give a few Jerusalem recommendations--Mahana Yehuda is an incredible fresh-from-the-market restaurant located a few blocks from the actual market. It is very fun ambience--you are sitting surrounded in speciality products that line the shelves. They have a great 6 course tasting menu that includes seafood, meat, fish (and dessert) for around 200 NIS per person (roughly). I'd also recommend the restaurant on the roof of the Mamilla Hotel. Usually I wouldn't recommend a hotel restaurant, but this place had a very unique menu (it's a kosher meat/fish restaurant), and lovely ambience including direct views of the Old City walls.