Vegan friendly restaurants in Israel

Hi everyone,

It seems like Israel is evolving into a paradise for vegans. It was Gary Yourofsky that visited Israel in 2012 and the famous video that had such huge impact on so many Israelis. In the last couple of months we witness the opening of more and more vegan restaurants and in addition the old restaurants as well as cafe networks are having special vegan dishes.

I had the fortune of spending a two week vacation in Israel and I used a beautiful web site http://www.vegan-friendly.co.il/ which turned out to be very informative and helpful for Israelis but the problem is that it's all in Hebrew. This site lists restaurants that were found to be vegan friendly, that is, they do know what vegans are looking for, they do have special dishes that are marked as vegan and you can trust them not to fool you with some non vegan food. Some of these restaurants are totally vegan, some are vegetarian/vegan and some are serving animal based food but also vegan dishes.

Just for sports - I ranked the restaurants, sorted the list and I present them from the best to the worst.

Budha Burgers

Without doubt - this is the best vegan restaurant. It's totally vegan and many of the food carry the name of some animal based foods. For example roast beef. But don't worry - everything is plant based. 

We visited the one in Eilat - it's located in Hemelicha St. - bad location. It wasn't so busy so I don't know if they can survive as a business but what can I say - the food was great.

We also ate in the Tel-Aviv branch @ 21 Yehuda Halevi St. - again very yummy - you can see here the Halva based shake, her goulash and my forgot-what-it-was patties. What you don't see is the Tiramisu desert - well I knew that in order to make my special lady happy I should order something sweet - OK don't look at me this way - I don't eat this stuff, I only helped her a bit till she allowed me to finish what's left...

Market

Located in 31 King George St. Tel-Aviv. It's not a vegan restaurant but sure is vegan friendly. We sat at the counter and could watch how they prepare the dishes. I ate there one of the best soups ever, I think it was tomato soup and also the other dishes were very good. 

Here's the soup - 

And here's the salad - 

Green Shack

Located in 6  Yedidya Frenkel St. Tel-Aviv - Florentin. All the names of the dishes here are american meat products: hamburger, stake, etc, etc. The guy knows how to imitate meat using plant based products, he prepares his own marinades and the result is quite tasty. My special lady was delighted and said it was her best vegan meal ever. Well - I don't think so, it was good, yes but the dishes were small and we needed to ask for more and more dishes just to avoid hunger, but anyway - it's always a good feeling to come to a restaurant and to know that everything is vegan.

The Streets

Located in 114 Ibn-Gabirol street. It's a young, a modern and a very busy restaurant that is vegan-friendly. I wasn't that hungry so I settled for the following dish with broccoli,quinoa, cauliflower, carrots and patties :

Shneor

Located in 20 Pinsker St. Tel-Aviv. Run by perhaps 5 waitresses and 2 men in the kitchen - too many employees in my opinion... Food is good, there are special vegan dishes that are marked... very nice.

And this - 

Xoho

Located in 18 Mapu St. The owner speaks english and seems like some of the customers are either speaking english or Israeli nerds or both. Good music, positive atmosphere and good food.

and the dishes

Dan Panorama

I visited all 3 of them - the one in Israel, the one in Jerusalem and the one in Eilat and I had very good time eating nutritarial vegan breakfast and dinner in those places. They have a very rich buffet with many vegetable plates. I was piling a mountain of vegetables, topping them with nuts and seeds that I brought from home or that they serve and voilla - a great, nutritious vegan feast where the salad is the main dish. They don't serve  beans so instead I was eating humus and fool. I was also pouring tahini over the salad as a dressing and for the fruit I was eating sliced oranges. I didn't need to eat any of their prepared foods - pancakes, cakes, omlates, chicken breast and all that - this is food for the normal people. In Tel-Aviv I was even given a very yummy dish with cooked vegies and nuts - clearly it was prepared by a chef! It was very yummy, a bit oily but very nutritious.

Here's what I ate in Dan Panorama Jerusalem for breakfast:

And here's another dish that I built on the next morning -

And then on the next morning - more or less same deal

And dinner that day -

And the morning after - see that mountain?

This recommendation applies to any respected hotel - you don't have to even ask for a vegan dish - all you need is right there and at abudant quantities.

Aroma cafe

This is an Israeli network of cafes and they have distinguished dishes for vegan. the dishes are huge by any standard. I took the roots based veggies and it was very yummy. The only problem is again - the bread - their sandwiches and the bread that comes with the salad are called 'whole wheat' but they are not - they are brownish yes - but they are not whole wheat bread. I ate some, avoided some but I mean what can you expect?

Zacaim

Located in 98 Alenbi St. Tel-Aviv. This is one restaurant 'with character' - all the chairs and tables are old, nothing matches in the mess. The music is Indian or Pakistan which I really love and the food is totally vegan but I ate humus, fool, with lots of oil - not the salad type of a meal.

Humus Abu Hasan

Located in Hadolphin St. Jafa. It's not a vegan restaurant, not vegan friendly but the employees are friendly and the humus is good and the fool is great. Yes it's oily but I think every once in a while one should enjoy such good and simple restaurant.

Cafeteria in Yad-Vashem

Here they have two cafeterias - a dairy  and a non dairyone. The non dairy had plenty of vegetables, most of them cooked so I formed a mountain of these vegies, added my nuts&seeds and it was yummy.

Druz and arab restaurant in Tiebrius

At noon we were eating in local restaurants were the salad is only a supplement but they always have so many vegetables to choose from so here too was the same drill - a mountain of salad topped with humus, tahini and nuts that I brought from home.

Cafeteria in Bet-Shean

This one was problematic - there was only pita with falafel or pita with meat. I had to ask for pita with salad and of course the amount and quality of the salad was poor and the pita - that's a big sin - it's not a whole wheat pita - it's made of what I call 'instant carbs' that I want to usually avoid, but I was hungry so I settled for this lousy 'dish'.

Yakimono Eilat

It's a Japanese restaurant in Eilat Promenade, Full of air, expensive and dishes are so small that if you continue eating them for one month then you become a small Japanese. I still beat myself - why oh why did I chose this restaurant. Yes they do have plant only dishes - here - 

Aviel.

Bar Kyama - More than a vegan restaurant

Hi everyone,

It seems like Donna and I are having a mutual new hobby - vegan restaurants... It's good to find something in common with your kids. I wish I had the same level of mutual interests with Yariv and Ohad. Yariv, my 23 yo eldest is into computers with lots of hacking related experience - he's so much like me and still we don't program anything together, and Ohad, the cute 17 yo little one is now into becoming healthy and muscular - sort of what I was looking for when I was in my twenties and actually am still into till today.... I will reconnect with them too. It shall become my goal after I am done with some 'burning' issues that I have to take care of.

OK - back to Bar-Kyama - located in 22 Hamashbir St Tel-Aviv which means it's in the middle of Florentine neighborhood, it's the old Tel-Aviv coming to life with lots of young people, businesses, bars, restaurants, night life - very very nice.

I visited this place maybe 5 times in the past. They used to allow you to eat whatever you want and then you would decide how much you want to pay. It seems like this didn't work and now they have a menu with reasonable prices.

It's a house. There are at least two floors. The first floor is a cozy place with tables, sofas, cushions. You sit down and get served by a waitress. The top floor is for lectures - mainly dealing with animals rights. 

I ate what they call 'green veggies' - which for me is a normal salad with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers where the probably sprinkle some oil and nuts. It's an OK salad, nothing special. My salad at home is way beyond this one with lots of greens and a yummy sauce. I will write about that some day. I mean this is a vegan restaurant - surely they know how make a fabulous salad - it is their business.

Then I ate these tortillas filled with tomatoes, some greens and I think sweet potato. While talking to the waiter she offered me products with plain potato - the one that I avoid because of high glycemic index. You see these people are in the business of proving tasty and cheap food - they are in the business of animal rights but they don't know too much about health. Anyway they arrange the plates real nice so I took a picture.

And Donna ate full rice with pumpkins I think, sprinkled with small black beans - quite sweet and very tasty. Good for your beta carotene intake, beautiful skin and such.

And then I paid with bitcoins... Bar Kyama has been accepting bitcoin for several months now and yes I prefer to pay to businesses that accept bitcoins.

Well Donna thinks she will bring Omer over here. I don't think it's a good idea to bring someone who can't appreciate vegan food to such places. 

At the top floor there was a 2 hour lecture presented by Yossi Wolfson about the chickens meat industry in Israel. I was shocked to find out that each year 250,000,000 chickens are murdered just to make the "normal" population happy. The arab farm with chickens running freely around is a rare sight. Chickens are now optimized and grown for meats or optimized for the egg industry. They are grown in horrible conditions, in darkness, starving, cramped together, dying, choking and then slaughtered without mercy. I think perhaps you want to watch the following video for the 1/25 chance of getting two movie tickets - it's only 4 minutes long but I will never forget what I saw there.

Watch this 4 minutes video for the 1/25 chance of winning two tickets to a movie. (Let me know if it worked for you - I wasn't lucky)

It's amazing now isn't it? People think that meat is so good and not only they are wrong, wrong, wrong - they eat it, they make animals die in pain and finally they too die in pain. The good news is that 13,500,000 out of 150,000,000 were saved in 2013. The Israelis, so it seems, lowered their consumption rate. More and more people are aware of what they eat, how healthy it is, etc - places like 'cafe cafe' are having a vegetarian cuisine and tons of high tech people are hoarding in line in front of 'gute food' restaurant. It's good, very good!

Anyway - Bar Kyama is a special place, and it's more than just a cozy and a yummy vegan restaurant. Please make sure you visit my other restaurants reviews.

Aviel.

Budha Burgers - a yummy vegan restaurant

Hi folks,

Yesterday I had a festive lunch with my beautiful daughter Donna at Budha Burgers. It's a vegan bar. We were celebrating me shedding 30Kgs in less than 3 months... They make the best burger in town made of beans, they also make lots of tofu products, quinoa, and of course shakes & smoothies.

And Donna? my daughter? Well you surely know Donna by now, she's the one who lost her phone from my other blog.... She's a 20 year old charming girl, and she's vegetarian and she really wants to go all vegan.

So here you can see us smiling to the camera.

According to my nutritarian vegan diet the salad is the main dish. So they have this bar with ~20 types of vegetables and you build your own salad. I took the big plate. It's too small for my standards!!! Now regarding the vegetables - There was an avocado, carrots, hummus, lettuce, chickpeas, tomatoes, and more. Well these are not exactly what I call Greens - right? Cause if they sell the real green - Spinach, Chard, Kale, etc then no body is going to buy. They are a business and after many years in the business they know how big should be the plate and what do salad eaters want to eat. They are not catering for the extreme vegans - nutritarians who need and crave real green. Normally I don't just eat Avocado, and I try to limit the amount of hummus I consume and I eat less starches and that means I don't eat carrots every day. But since I was in a festive mood and I was hungry then I ate that, and it was yummy. 

There were ~6 types of very yummy sauces to choose from. I eat nut based sauces at home. I asked!! - they don't sell it. Well again - I can understand them. It's expensive. These people are making a living selling vegan food and they can't afford expensive nuts & seeds. Still I would prefer that they tell me - you want the ceasers sauce? ok that's additional 4 Shekels. And that's fine with me. 

When I say that these people are making a living I mean that I am sure that Arie, the owner, didn't open this in order to make tons of money, he is pursuing a goal in his life. Money & health is second in his priorities. His first priority is to save the poor animals. It's not about the money.

My daughter asked him about this '269' all over the place. He explained that this is the number that was branded on a calf living in Israel that was going to be slaughtered. People feel pity for small cute animals like their cat, their parrot or their dog but they forget about big animals like cows who are being murdered for food. It's easy for people to forget. I think the brain cannot process and comprehend numbers. We just don't get it when we are told that 6,000,000 Jews were murdered in the holocaust and we don't understand it when they tell us that 150,000,000,000 animals are murdered every year because people want to eat them (look at this amazing counter), but I was crying buckets when I was following the extinction of the Weiss family in the movie holocaust. Same goes here for this one poor anonymous calf. So I encourage you to take a look at their web site: http://269life.com. btw, 2/Oct is the world farm animal day - a year ago they branded 269 on their skin in Rabin Square.

Now back to our lunch. As a nutritarian I top my salad with up to 1 cup of cooked beans. So instead I ordered their famous Budha Burger which I hope is made of beans. I usually don't eat bread but since I was in a festive mood - I ate the burger buns too :)

And I drank green a green smoothie, which were in my opinion very tasty but not as dense as the ones I prepare at home. Again - it's all about the money. They are catering for young vegetarians living nearby in rented apartments, with shaved heads and one day beards - they can't afford to pay too much. It's not for well heeled customers like myself.

My daughter ordered a puree and she was of course disappointed but then she ate her salad and mine and enjoyed it immensely and also enjoyed the seitan burger (was it? Donna?)

I was eating at Budha Burgers for years, since they were a small place in Dizingof street. The owner, Arie, is a very good looking vegan. After a long break when I saw him yesterday - wow - he still hasn't lost his hair, still good looking, few more character lines, healthy, still crazy after all these years.

We surely be back!!

Meanwhile you can check up my other restaurants reviews,

Aviel.

Gute Food

Thursday I had lunch with ex colleagues,

I was pleasantly surprised to find out this lovely Gute Good restaurant in the middle of Herzliya's high tech zone. This restaurant combines fast & healthy, and perhaps I should add - delicious.

It's easy to spot the place. If you arrive at ~13:00 you will see people standing in a long line starting outside of the store. But you are not going to wait in line more than 7 minutes - they are FAST.

And at the front of the restaurant there's a sticker saying it's vegan-friendly.co.il!! Yay. I felt right at home.

There are several meals to choose from, here's their menu:

1. Beef meat balls (low fat) in tomato sauce + organic red rice + green salad in oranges syrup + walnuts. "very nutricious, full of protein, iron and fibers that will show the cholesterol the way out" 
2. Organic lentils balls with full tachini + full kuskus + tanzia made of organic fruits + organic quinoa salad. "balanced, full of fibers that will only do good to the stomach"
3. 1/4 of a chicken + cooked organic humus and pearl barley + three vegetables. "loaded with vitamin B, calming and good for your brain".
4. Green salad & quinoa: 1/2 organic eggs, fool, walnuts, black lentils, tuna, mix of seeds, smoked salmon filet, chicken breast. In addition organic bread and seasoning of your choice (tachini, hot, seasoning herbs, 
5. Sinaya (meat pie with tahini) with azuki and organic burgol, chopped Israeli salad. "lots of protein and iron, vitamin B and fibers.
6. Chicken breast with olive oil and lemon, mashed potatoe and sweet cabbage. "low colesterol, high in lycopen - that keeps you young"
7. Organic tofu cooked in the oven with ginger and soy + organic red rice and soup of the day. "low fat, nutricious, full of minerals that are good for your bones.

I choose this one here - 

Organic lentils balls with full tachini + full kuskus + tanzia made of organic fruits + organic quinoa salad. "balanced, full of fibers that will only do good to the stomach"

After 3 minutes we got our plates and since the restaurant was full - we sat outside.

Here's my plate: the main plate with the kuskus with the potatoes, the carrot and the humus, in addition there were two lentil pies, at the left plate the quinoa salad and on the right oil and tachini.

What can I say - it was A B S O L U T E LY   D E L I C I O U S !!!

But I am on a diet so I couldn't finish the whole plate right?

so I left the oil cause their food has enough oil already, I did use half of the tachini though cause it's super healthy, I didn't touch the carrots cause of the high glycemic values, of course I didn't drink the water cause it gets in the way of digestion.

But I did enjoy the two lentil balls, some of the kuskus, the humus and the quinoa salad. It was fantastic. It was quite fat and it was sweet maybe because of the fruits and the sweet potatoe.

Now under the plate you can find some more details on these guys:

so from here we can learn a few things:

• Their chef is Nelly and she has her own web site  nelly-kitchen.co.il where she gives some free recepies - wow looks delicious.
• They don't have a microwave
• Their dishes are divided as follows: 50% veggies, 1/6 protein, 1/3 carbs.
• No Monosodium Glutamate and other patents of the food industry.
• No milk products.
• They don't sell coke.

You get the point,

My understanding is that yes this *is* healthy food but it's not low in calories because they do use oil - this is how they make the stuff so yummy. I am not sure if calorie restriction advocate will be able to enjoy this place.

Overall though, this restaurant is most recommended, it proves that if you made delicious food that is both healthy and yummy and if your restaurant looks young and inviting then you are gonna have tons of high tech nerds filling your restaurant, standing in line, etc.

Aviel.