Tel Aviv's Top Restaurant
Finding a place where you can enjoy a great dinner in Tel Aviv became an even tougher task ever since Golden Apple, Tel Aviv's top French restaurant closed a month ago. The other three top tier chefs - Haim Cohen from Keren, Ofer Gal and Jonathan Roshfeld are all attempting to push a Haute-Israeli cuisine (which uses French technique, but less expensive products) and as much as I appreciate that, I still prefer prawns and goose liver to veal shanks and squid.

The only restaurant which remains stable, serving dishes which are generally superb, is Mul-Yam. This is a fish and sea-food only restaurant which was chosen as Gault-Millau restaurant of the year last year. It is located in a rather small space in the old Tel Aviv sea port and a non suspecting person may mistake it for a simple oyster bar (not that we have any oyster bars in Tel Aviv). But make no mistake, the menu (and even more so, the "specials" menu) presents you with some memorable dishes such as red mullet on black pasta with olives, grouper served on smoked eggplant puree, brandied cream of crabs and tiger shrimps with Jerusalem artichoke and lobster stock. They also have lobsters, but these are hardly the best thing to order there.

The wine menu presents a good choice of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Italian wines as well as some German rieslings and various local and new world selections. Prices are rather high (we have a ~100% import tax on wine), but after you'll have seen the wine lists in other establishments, you will appreciate it.

Service is attentive and knowledgeable.    [20 Dec 1999 18:24:19]

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Recommended Dishes: red mullet on black pasta, grouper on smoked eggplants

     ­Orik   orik at orik dot co dot il

The Best
I live in New York City and eat in the best restaurants in the world, and Mul-Yam can compete with all of them.

Great creative dishes, always fresh seafood, good service and they make you feel at home. The staff is warm, personable, and make you feel right at home -- they never forget to thank you for your business.

This is the only restaurant that I eat at in Tel Aviv - it might be pricy but it's worth every penny. Don't miss it!    [04 Feb 2001 12:07:15]

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Recommended Dishes: the fish of the day

     ­ami wilenski   ami at wilenski dot com