Jerusalem, Israel — Food and Dining
Restaurants in Jerusalem, Israel
Restaurants
Gastronomic
Cavalier
Offering a combination of modern and traditional French food with the ingredients and flavors of the Mediterranean, this charming restaurant in the heart of the city center offers a high level of service and extensive wine list.
Rehov Ben Sira 1
Tel: (02) 624 2945.
Price: $$$$
La Rotisserie
This surprising gourmet restaurant is hidden away by the Old City wall, attached to a pilgrims' guest house. Enjoy classic French cuisine, accompanied by fine French wines, under the vaulted ceilings of this 100-year-old building. Dinner only.
Paratroopers Road (outside New Gate of the Old City)
Tel: (02) 627 9111.
Price: $$$
Primavera
Excellent wines and top-quality Italian cooking are on offer at Primavera, the gastronomic fish and dairy restaurant of Sheraton Plaza Hotel in the city center. Dishes are imaginative, using highest quality Israeli ingredients, and the setting is attractive with pale woods and flowers.
47 King George
Tel: (02) 629 8691.
Price: $$$$
Business
Ima
An Israeli-Oriental restaurant with a touch of Jewish-Kurdish cooking, Ima is located in a charmingly renovated house taking up several rooms and including a terrace. Private parking is available for guests. There is a separate business lunch menu that is good value.
189 Agrippas Street
Tel: (02) 624 6860.
Price: $$$
La Guta
In a lively, youthful pedestrianized street at the heart of the city, this French gourmet kosher restaurant, with stone arches and elegantly laid tables, is rather different from its rowdy neighbors - especially in the evenings. It is open from lunchtime onwards for excellent southern French cooking, including good-value set business lunches.
18 Rivlin St.
Tel: (02) 623-2322
Price: $$$
Shonka
Serving a range of French-Mediterranean-Italian dishes and with a good wine list, Shonka is a popular city-center restaurant and reservations are advised. The dishes are simple and the décor modern making it an ideal place for business dining - the business lunch menu is particularly good value.
1 HaSoreg Street
Tel: (02) 625 7033.
Price: $$$
Trendy
Arcadia
The intimate interior, divided by stone arches and subdued lighting, offers the perfect setting for contemporary dishes combining local ingredients with French style. Arcadia deserves its reputation as one of Israel's best and most exciting restaurants; it is understandably popular with both visitors and locals.
Rehov Agrippas 10
Tel: (02) 624 9138.
Price: $$$$
Darna
This popular strictly-kosher city center restaurant offers an extensive menu of North African and middle-eastern food in a Moroccan-inspired setting. It has recently been extended to encompass a restored wine cellar with low ceilings and arches. The atmosphere is completed with the plush cushions scattered around the tables for leisurely reclining.
3 Horkanus Street
Tel: (02) 624 5406.
Website: www.darna.co.il
Price: $$$$
Restobar
Crowded, stylish and pricey, with wooden floors, bare stone walls and an attractive bar at its center, this is a place to either sit with a drink or enjoy tasty, imaginative cooking (including set business lunch on weekdays) at either indoor or outdoor tables. A wide range of dishes include fresh salads, generous steak in wine and shallot sauce, spicy cajun chicken, fresh pasta, and a selection of fish and seafood dishes including salmon in champagne and saffron sauce. It's located where the city center meets the upscale Rehavia neighborhood.
1 Ben Maimon Street
Tel: (02) 566 5126.
Website: http://restobar.rest-e.co.il
Price: $$$
Budget
3 Arches
This smart and attractive yet unpretentious restaurant attached to the landmark YMCA hotel (across the road from the King David Hotel) specializes in above-average international meat dishes at very reasonable prices.
26 King David St.
Tel: (02) 569 2692
Price: $
Maoz Falafel
This tiny, historic falafel stand has been a city-center favorite since it opened in 1967. Like the many that have opened since, it has a small interior with seating space around the service counter. Staff fill your pita bread with falafel, chopped salads, hummus and tahina sauce, which you can then supplement at will from a tempting array of salads and sauces spread out on the counter.
19 King George Street
Price: $
Te'enim
This all-day restaurant serves a wide selection of vegetarian and vegan dishes in a charming old stone building in the Yemin Moshe district behind the gardens of the King David Hotel. Spread over three floors with a view over the Old City, the best seats are in the arches of the windows but these must be reserved.
12 Emile Botta Street
Tel: (02) 625 1967.
Price: $
Personal Recommendations
The Armenian Tavern
An atmospheric restaurant in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. It is located in the basement of an ancient Crusader church and has a tiled interior, solid wooden tables, a huge chandelier and a fountain in the corner. The food is served in wooden or painted ceramic bowls. On Fridays, local Armenians come to the restaurant with home-cooked food which they share with visitors.
Armenian Patriarchate Road
Tel: (02) 627 3854.
Price: $$
Nightlife
Despite the lack of licensing laws, Jerusalem has never been known for its wild nightlife and if you're looking to dance the night away your best bet would be to follow the example of many Jerusalemites and take a sherut the 60km (37 miles) to Tel Aviv. The nightclubs that do exist in Jerusalem tend to be located in the Talpiot area. East Jerusalem is particularly empty after dark. There's a big overlap between bars, clubs and live music venues - several of the most popular places are all three at once.
The legal drinking age is 18-years. Up-to-date listings for club nights can be found in the Friday supplement of the Jerusalem Post (website: www.jpost.com).
Bars: Most of the city's best or most popular bars are located in the city center (west Jerusalem). Tzoof Bar, 15 Hebron Road, with its arched entrances, brick walls and floor and ambient lighting, summons up the Old City, and serves a mix of drinks including cocktails. It sometimes has stand-up comedy and live jazz. Dublin, 4 Shammai St, is a crowded warehouse-style bar with DJs playing loud and upbeat dance music till late. The city's liveliest area is Nahalat Shiv'ah, between Jaffa Street and King George V Street; its pedestrianized lanes are a focal point for bars, cafes, pubs and restaurants.
Clubs: Most clubs are located in the Zion Square/Nahalat Shivah area of the city center, and the Talpiot district. At Underground, 1 Yoel Salomon (Nahalat Shivah), there have been drinks and dancing as long as anyone can remember. With two rooms of music (one rock and one dance) it attracts Israelis and travelers alike. Bar 17, formerly Haoman 17, at 17 Haoman Street (website: www.17jerusalem.com), long considered among the best clubs in the city, is still going strong, attracting international DJs and boasting two dancefloors where you can groove the night away to a mixture of house and techno.
Live Music: For world-class classical music performances, opera, and rock concerts, it's worth traveling an hour to Tel Aviv. However, Jerusalem offers a wide selection of small, occasional music venues, including cafes, bookshops, theaters and arts centers. More than 150 orchestral performances and other concerts are put on each year at the city's principal performance venue, The Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts, 20 Marcus Street (website: www.jerusalem-theater.co.il), in the charming Yemin Moshe quarter.
The Alpert Music Center, near the Old Train Station in the city center's pleasant Abu Tor neighborhood (website: http://music-center.jerusalem.muni.il) hosts a big band, an orchestra and an Arab-Jewish choir. The community arts center Barbur, 6 Shirizli Street (website: www.barbur.org), stages unusual musical performances. For live rock or blues nightly, in a packed bar setting, go downstairs at Mike's Place, 37 Jaffa Street (website: www.mikesplacebars.com), which is open into the small hours.
Yellow Submarine, 13 HaRechavim Street (website: www.yellowsubmarine.org.il), is a popular nightlife and performance venue and bar in the Talpiot area, with a wide range of live music, from hardcore to salsa to jazz.
