As a restaurant critic, I have no choice but to visit and write reviews about literally hundreds of restaurants annually. Some of those restaurants are excellent, some good, others ordinary and some, frankly, are out-and-out bad. Despite many disappointments, I dine so well so often that I have few complaints. Rather than bore my readers to tears with tales of all of the bad meals I have to eat, each of the restaurants described on these pages is one to which I would gladly return for my own pleasure. Thus, within their categories, these restaurants range in quality from the very good to the exquisite. One should not, of course, expect to find the same level of cuisine or service at a fine French or Italian restaurant in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem as they would in a simple pizza parlor, a beach-front tavernna or a country-style Mediterranean or Arabic eatery tucked away in the foothills of the Galilee. Readers should also be aware that at the nation's very best restaurants, chefs enjoy nothing more than making frequent changes to their menus. Thus, if some of the dishes I have listed here are no longer on the menu, rejoice and go on to try their latest offerings.

For convenience sake, restaurants are listed alphabetically in either the city or general area in which they may be found and rather than utilizing on a system of stars, numerical ratings, and other coded symbols, I have chosen to rely on descriptive text to share my feelings about each restaurant.

To read about the criterion used in selecting restaurants for listing, click here.

The Star System

To see the capsule descriptions of each of the recommended restaurants, click on the city or region that most interests you:

Tel Aviv - Jaffa - Herzliya and the Coastal Area
Haifa and the North - Jerusalem - Eilat and the South

Those who wish to share their feedback (positive or negative) on their dining experiences or on these pages may post a message on the Forum or contact me directly by email at: drogov@cheerful.com.

Feedback, suggestions and disagreements will be equally welcome from diners, chefs and restaurateurs.

© Daniel Rogov