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Lifestyle I Food

More and more fine dining hotel restaurants are opening their doors inside Israeli boutique hotels across the country, attracting guests that may or may not be staying at the hotel itself, to the delight of all. Here are 5 of our favorite / By Sharon Ben-David 5 top new hotel restaurants to try out this season

Photo: Asaf Karela

Shila, Tel Aviv I Gymnasia Hotel Creative haute cuisine Ever since it first opened its doors twenty years ago, Shila has kept on aiming higher and higher. Chef Sharon Cohen has taken this small gastro-bar in Tel Aviv’s old north and turned it into a culinary hotspot. His dedication to excellence has succeeded in creating a menu that impressively merges haute cuisine with influences of the South-East-Asian, European, and Mediterranean tables, basing itself on the highest quality fish and seafood. The restaurant’s recent move to the new Isrotel Gymnasia Hotel has been an opportunity for Cohen to enter a brand-new luxurious space that matches the elegance of the dishes on offer: fish tartar wrapped in avocado and iron-rich salad, raw fish, pasta with chunks of marbled meat, and more. Relished in the confines of this superbly designed

Photo: Ben Yuster

Rova Alef, Tel Aviv I Elkonin Hotel An intercity culinary experience

This new little gem of a restaurant, helmed by chef Eviatar Malka, lies in the heart of the picturesque neighborhood of Neve Tzedek, inside the beautiful Elkonin luxury hotel. The restaurant’s name pays homage to Malka’s hometown of Ashdod, and through it, to the flavors and food of his childhood. The menu, kosher and seasonal, is fish and vegetable-based, celebrating the “mammas” of Ashdod, who taught him all the secrets of the kitchen. Pea masbaha with Yemenite pita, seabass-filled kubbeh with lemon hamusta sauce, trout merguez sausage with tahini stuffed inside a soft pillowy bun – these are but a few of Malka’s delicious offerings that succeed in taking traditional recipes into the realm of fine dining, all served aside classic cocktails with a twist, in an elegant, urban atmosphere. @rova.alef

space, each bite is a knock-out experience of culinary delight. shila-rest.co.il

34 ATMOSPHERE MAY 2025