Earlier this year, I joined a vegan food tour along with four other awesome vegan influencers! Head over to the video below to see me munch on awesome vegan food in and around Tel Aviv!
So back in February this year, I was lucky enough to be invited to an all-expense paid vegan food tour around Tel Aviv — the vegan capital of the world. I got to experience the place’s rich and wonderful vegan culinary scene long with four beautiful ladies — @anettvelsberg, @rainbownourishments, @thehungrywarrior, and @therawberry. I believe I stuffed myself with over a month’s worth of calories, but I’m not complaining because the food was absolutely, definitely awesome!
If you want to see which food we binged on, simply head over to the video above (WARNING: don’t watch when you’re hungry!).
That being said, here is a list of my top 10 vegan eats — restaurants you might want to visit in case you end up visiting Tel Aviv in the future. These are not in any particular order – hope you get to try all of them.
416 (Four One Six)
Address: Rehov HaAarba 16, Tel Aviv
A modern-casual vegan restaurant and a cocktail bar in one! This New York-style restaurant serves 100% vegan food and drinks, and is apparently one of the most well-known vegan go-to restaurants in Tel Aviv. This place had the best meat alternatives that I even went back a second time to try their famous vegan steak! I’m VERY skeptical about vegan steaks so I was so shocked at how much it tasted like… steak. This is definitely an indulgent restaurant with lots of delicious vegan cocktails and yummy vegan comfort food, so be prepared to stuff your face.
2. Luna Bistro (Nazareth)
Address: Big Fashion Nazareth, Nazareth 14847
Luna Bistro is an Arabic restaurant, conveniently located inside a shopping mall in Nazareth, and what makes this place really popular with both the locals and tourists alike is the atmosphere (apart from the delicious food, of course!). As you can see in the photos, they have an amazing variety of so many different dishes that we enjoyed (these photos are only the starters, believe it or not…).
Luna (the owner) was super lovely and we had all kinds of vegan dishes (I’m not sure what the vegan selection is generally, but they made us so much food) such as falafel, hummus, babaganoush, and so much more that I cannot name. I just remember walking out happily stuffed!
3. Zakaim
Address: Simtat Belt Hashoeva 20 Alenbi 98, Tel Aviv
This humble restaurant serves authentic Israeli cuisine with a Moroccan Twist (vegan, of course!). I read that they only use fresh ingredients of nuts, herbs, fruits, and seasonal vegetables! We had so much endless amounts flavourful food – crispy potatoes with delicious dipping sauces, bread on top of bread, vegan caprese salad with vegan cheese and so much more. The atmosphere was also great – small, quaint and moody. Highly recommend!
4. Sabich (without the Egg!)
Sabich is an Iraqi-Jewish classic breakfast sandwich which is pita stuffed with all sorts of savoury fillings — fried eggplant, hummus, tahini sauce, and amba — some sort of a mango pickle that’s similar to the Indian chutney. Traditionally, this recipe also has eggs, but because we’re vegan, we had to omit the eggs!
Sabich is a very popular street food, so there are multiple places you can have sabich all over the city. Make sure you ask for no eggs to make it vegan!
5. Abu Hassan (Hummus)
Address: 1 Ha’ Dolfin Street Jaffa, Tel Aviv 68130
For everyone who’s visiting Tel Aviv, Abu Hassan is considered the best place to visit if you love hummus (I hope you love hummus…)! In fact, the only items on its menu are hummus (different kinds!), pita, onions, and drinks! The hummus is ridiculously creamy, delicious and everything you could ask for. A must-visit, though they say the queues are crazy most of the time. You’ll just have to wait patiently and it’ll be worth it – believe me!
6. Opa (Fine Dining)
Address: Rehov HaKhalutzim 8, Tel Aviv
If it’s vegan fine dining you’re after, then Opa is the place to go. The portions are rather small (it’s fine dining, after all), but the flavours are unique and one-of-a-kind! Opa is known for the creativity and thoughtfulness the chefs put into the food preparation, and true enough, the food presentation is just too beautiful that you’ll be worried you’d ruin it (I quickly did though, as you can see in the video,because I’m all about tasting more than anything else, haha!). Atmosphere is great and the dishes are incredibly unique. It’s the perfect place to go if you are looking for a fancy and special experience.
7. Green Roll
Address: Montifiori 30, Tel Aviv
You guys know how much I love vegan sushi, and I cannot tell you how in love I am with Green Roll! Any time there is a vegan sushi place, I will be there. In fact, I decided to stop by two times after the tour (Green Roll wasn’t part of the tour, but I visited after the food tour was over. See the video for context) because I enjoyed it so much (and I’m obsessed with sushi). I recommend trying out a few different special rolls – the presentation is absolutely beautiful and of course, the food was super yummy.
8. Anastasia
Address: Anastiasia Cafe 54, Frishman, Tel Aviv 6439518
Anastasia is actually one of the first vegan cafes located in the city. I ended up visiting after my food tour was over and I was very glad I did. We tried the vegan cheese platter which was delicious (the best vegan cheese platter as stated by my friend Henya in the video!) and some of their special cocktails. We also tried the artichoke sandwiches, and boy were these huge! Food was great and I went back for a second time to try the Vegan Shakshuka (this was the BEST! I have dreams of this) and a vegan quiche (also amazing). Definitely worth a visit.
9. Meshek Barzilay
Address: Rehov Ahad HaAm 6 Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv 6514206
On Friday (which is considered basically a weekend), we had some free time of our own, so we explored and stumbled upon this hip looking vegan restaurant with lots of plants and a cool atmosphere.. It turns out it’s quite a popular place! They had a large variety of different types of dishes (we honestly were so hungry, we don’t really even remember what we ordered! We do remember things tasting good though!). I was also able to try out the vegan tiramisu, which was definitely worth a try!
10. Green Cat
Address: The Green Cat 7, Lavontin, Tel Aviv 6511106
And last (but not the least) is the Green Cat, which is a vegan pizza restaurant in Tel Aviv. The Vibe Israel people were kind enough to order some takeout pizza for us to eat while in our hotel rooms on one of the evenings (we had a long day of exploring, so they knew we were tired). Apparently, the pizzas from this place are freshly made and topped with vegan cheese, which is huge plus for me! If you’re craving some vegan pizza, do give this place a visit. You can have it to go and eat it on your bed in your hotel room, like I did, if you are feeling extra lazy.
