It started with the strangest international flight I’d ever been on: a two hour interrogation and full baggage search in Portugal before boarding a military-esque, extreme utilitarian plane, complete with narrow, thread-bare seats without so much as a recline or headrest, no service (no food or drink, screens, pillows or blankets), and more than one heated argument above my head in Hebrew between passengers and crew. Little sleep ensued. Then came a 6am scramble through the airport, crook neck and all (less security on this side, thank goodness), only to dive into an taxi that clearly was a rally car driver in another life (I quickly realised this was the norm – not one car was unscathed). This is Tel Aviv.

Though sleep was now the first thing on my mind, I had priorities: and first was my 9am Delicious Israel tour. Let’s just say my tour guide had a masters on hummus and Israeli nationalism – it was hands down the best food tour I’ve ever done. We began with bowls of creamy hummus topped with liberal olive oil, parsley, ful (a dark, rich fava bean puree) and paprika, scooped up with hot falafel, freshly baked pita and sharp onion wedges (yes you read that right), and my new favourite-  masabacha. Same ingredients as hummus, but deconstructed – all cooked together rather than blitzed – for a lumpy, broken chickpea texture. The next six hours were a blur of food: malabi, a creamy milk pudding topped with pomegranate raspberry syrup and sweet coconut peanut crumble; boureka, crispy and flaky and filled with spinach and cheese; lamb shawarma straight from the spit; market-stall flatbread, spread with tahini sauce, parsley-heavy tabouli, chilli, za’tar and grilled eggplant then folded like an envelope and placed straight into my hot hands. More and more – but I can’t give up all their secrets. Suffice to say I ate, and ate, and ate – and learnt so much more about Tel Aviv and Israeli food, culture and history than I ever would have on my own. 

It’s a sun-drenched, golden-hued city, dry and sand baked. There’s palm trees and the Mediterranean, the odd skyscraper but mainly crumbled bauhaus buildings – one renovated and glowing for every abandoned and windowless version. We walked and ate. Buttery, dense dark chocolate babka, or a white chocolate halva iteration in the morning. Soft and charred whole roast cauliflower served up in a paper bag, smoky grilled eggplant on a bed of creamy tahini sauce with spicy grated tomato for lunch. Market smoothie stands piled high with the biggest pomegranates I’ve ever seen, frequented by both machine-gun toting IDF teens and head-scarfed orthodox women. Restaurants are crowded and lively – expect to do shots with the bartenders – and Israelis eat LATE (we felt like nanna’s rocking up at 730pm). Though the streets are empty on Saturday mornings with Shabbat, the waterfront was packed with joggers and cyclists getting in their weekend exercise pre-coffee – not unlike home. There was no real modern retailing – no mega strip of Zara, Topshop and Nike – but if Tel Aviv was a culture shock, then Jerusalem was that on steroids. 

More about that in another blog post, but below are some of my favourite coffee stops, bakeries, markets, bars and restaurants in Tel Aviv. I loved it. (I have also included a few from Jerusalem down the bottom, but as we only spent a day and half there, I was much less thorough in exploring!)

Cafes & Bakeries

• Nahat Cafe: hands down the best coffee we tried, and a great spot to sit on the sidewalk and people watch. Make sure to order one of their house-made croissants with a pot of salted pistachio butter on the side.
• Dallal Bakery: tucked away in Neve Tzedek, Dallal does a gorgeous, brioche-like babka – one dark chocolate, the other halva- and great coffee. Sit outside in the sun along the marble bar. Also try their poppy-seed tart.
• Lehahim Bakery: you might have already heard of the legendary Bread’s Bakery in NYC – this is the original. It’s a confluence of Israeli, Jewish and Danish sweets: the chocolate babka, rich and buttery with croissant dough, is the best I’ve tried, and we also loved the almond-crusted croissants and dark chocolate rugelach. I’d recommend the larger cafe located in HaHashmonaim St.  
• Cafelix: Cafelix has three or so locations in Tel Aviv, all of which serve up great coffee and sweets. 
• Cafe Levinsky 41: a tiny hold-in-the-wall in Florentine, Levinsky are masters of fermentation: kombucha, kefir and all manner of jars of various fruits, syrups and spices. Order a kombucha and watch as they individually flavour-profile each drink and adorn your glass with herbs and flowers. 
• Little Prince Bookshop and cafe: perfect for free-lance work or brunch, the walls are lined with books and there’s plenty of seating. An impressive food menu too – try their cherry tomato shakshuka. 
• Bucke cafe: one that I was recommended and didn’t quite manage to get to. Go for brunch and order the breakfast tray, filled with dollops of labneh, hummus, eggs, roast vegetables and various salads. 
• Uzi-Eli: a little health food store near Carmel market, this is the place for your smoothies, acai bowls and refreshing juice stops. You can also find them in Jerusalem in the Mahane Yehuda market. 

Restaurants and Cheap Eats

• North Abraxus: you may have heard of the casual Israeli eatery Miznon, which has been steadily taking over the world (Tel Aviv, Vienna, Paris, Melbourne, NYC) one whole roast cauliflower at a time. This is Eyal Shani’s slightly more upscale version, where you can book a table rather than standing at a bar and there are no pitas in sight. Pile in for the torch whole roast, blackened sweet potato ‘that you eat with your hands’, served with creme fraiche and smoked salt, the “white lines of aubergine lined up on tahini”, and so much more. It’s a new menu every day. Call to book. 
• Miznon, if you haven’t been already, for said whole roast cauliflower and pita (pita on the bone, and the falafel pita, are my favourites). 
• Port Sa’id: this the more lively, bar version of North Abraxus. We went to both. Definitely worth it. Try the arab cabbage cake, slow cooked and melting in butter. It’s opposite a synagogue with outdoor seating sprawling out over the steps, and is the ideal place for a lazy sunny lunch with friends. 
• HaBasta: a little place tucked in off a side street of the Carmel Market with a handwritten daily changing menu. Sit outside on the street with eclectic red checked tableclothes, and book if you can. A bit pricy, but probably worth it if market-to-table, local ingredients, wines and interesting flavour combinations are your thing. 
• Hummus Abu Hassan: the OG hummus joint in Jaffa since 1966. Pro tip: the original spot is tiny and you might have trouble getting in at peak hour if there’s more than two of you, but they’ve opened a bigger place about 1km away where you can sit outside in the shade and be dished up plates of hummus, masabacha, falafel and warm pita. 
• Falafel Hakosem and Falafel Gabai: the best falafel I tried in Tel Aviv. Grab a shakshuka and bowl of chopped tomato cucumber salad to go with it.  
• Sabich: maybe the ultimate Israeli fusion food, some of the best street-side sabich can be found opposite the Carmel Market: think fresh pita piled up with grilled eggplant, hard-hard-boiled egg, golden potato. all freshened up with herbs and greens and dolled up with tahini sauce. Filling, delicious AND cheap. 

Markets

• Carmel market: an absolute must walk through in Tel Aviv, but try to avoid Friday afternoon (and it is closed on Saturdays), when it becomes frantic with everyone loading up on shopping for Shabbat meals. Stop for a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice or smoothie, buy spices like za’atar to take home, and feast on all the colours, smells and sounds around you. This is another place included on the Delicious Israel tour- so much to learn here!
• Levinsky market: more of a street with open front stores than a market as such, this is the place for your dried herbs, fruit, pulses and spices. Stop at Cafe Levinsky for a floral kombucha, snack on some dates and buy a bunch of different halva flavours (my favourite was the pistachio). 

Jerusalem favourites

• Mahane Yehuda Market: even bigger and better than the markets in Tel Aviv. Stop by in the morning to watch the bakeries churn out hundreds of pita, the fishmongers and spice-sellers hawk their wares, and the piles of produce and sweets around every corner. Grab a coffee from the Cafelix Roasters and a smoothie from Uzi-Eli while you people-watch. 
• Machneyuda: be warned – it’s extremely loud, in a club-y kind of way. It’s also one of the most renowned restaurants in Israel, by the same chefs that own the Palomar and the Barbary in London. If you like those, you’ll like this. If you like the sound of modern, innovative Israeli food, you’ll like this. Must book online –  and book on the early side if you’re noise-averse. 
• Azura: a more traditional market restaurant. In Ottolenghi’s words, “it tells the story of Jewish immigrants and how their food has manifested itself since grandma’s time”. That famous eggplant dish stuffed with ground beef and pinenuts from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook? Inspired by the very dish at Azura. 
• Lina Hummus & Falafel (old Jerusalem): if you are doing a day tour of Jerusalem (which I would highly recommend, we loved ours and learnt SO much) then head here for lunch, deep in the Arab quarter. Bowls of creamy hummus topped with chickpeas, pinenuts and herbs, crisp falafel and vibrant Jerusalem chopped salad. 
• Kadosh Cafe Patisserie: second to the market, a great spot for a pastry or breakfast before starting your day exploring the old city. 

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