Spice Up Your Friday – Levinsky Market

Mark yourselves a 2-hour time window at some Friday morning. Then you can stroll to one of the liveliest streets in Tel Aviv at that time – Levinsky Street. Levinsky Market, stretched along the street (from Ha’alia down west), is hectic and not so tourist oriented, but definitely should not be overlooked. The street is filled with shops selling spices, delicatessen, cheese and oriental food and would be a great place to add some touch-ups to your recipes.

As the market is becoming trendier lately, few places to eat are popping out here and there, throughout the market. At two different opportunities we have managed to visit two of the places that set out two very different experiences while supplying their own variation of the market.

Cafe Kaimak

Café Kaimak, located at the Nachlat Binyamin corner, is literally part of the market. As it is fully opened to the market, right between the vendors, you can hear all the trouble happening outside while sitting in the unpretentious setting. The prices are welcoming as well as the service and the food is pretty nice as well. On the late Friday morning, when we sat along with Adi for a late breakfast, we had a very decent Shakshuka (27 NIS) and a “Red Toast” that included Gauda cheese, tomatoes and a great red peppers paste (36 NIS).

Shakshuka (Cafe Kaimak)

Red Toast

Café Kaimak:

Food: Breakfast
Price: Cheap
Location: Levinsky Market

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale:

3 Forks

Devochka

Devochka (“Girl” in Russian), located a bit off the market at the crossing HaChalutzim Street, is offering a far more relaxed atmosphere. You can pick one of a variety of sandwiches, made at the spot with some market goods displayed at the counter. Though there is (very) little place to sit inside, try to grab a sandwich and sit at the stools outside and catch some relaxing Friday noon sun (good luck finding that available spot). While meeting with Samuel and Keren for a lunch there, right before the vendors closed their shops, we had some great Corned Beef Sandwich and Cheese Sandwich (24 NIS each) along with a well-suitable-for-Friday-noon Coffee.

Devochka Counter

Corned Beef Sandwich

Devochka:

Food: Sandwiches
Price: Cheap-Medium
Location: Off Levinsky Market

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale:

3.5 Forks

Coffee & Afternoon Sun (Devochka)

Just Be Happy – Methuselah

Lately we had two opportunities to visit Florentin and in both of these opportunities we chose to visit Methuselah – a small wine bar in the middle of the chic neighborhood.

"Just Be Happy" - Methuselah's Menu

Methuselah is actually a wine store by day that becomes a calm-atmosphere good-music wine bar at night. It has a large selection of wines and some beers. The food dishes seem to be small but qualitative.

We took the Gewurztraminer, Inbar’s favorite. Shahar took Chillan Malbec wine which was fruity and light. At the one time we took a small plate of cheese that had about 5 different types of cheese and was a nice escort to the wines. The other time we ordered Beef Carpaccio that was very good but had just a little too much of olive oil and a bit too little beef.

Metushelah seems like a good option for a date or just for a quite night out.

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale:

3 Forks

Summary:

Food:  Wine bar with side dishes
Price:  Medium-Expensive
Location: Florentin

Contact details: Methuselah
Address:  16 Ariel Hakosta St., Tel Aviv | Phone: 057-9443544|
Opening Hours:  Sunday- Thursday – 10:30-01:00 | Friday 09:00-01:00 | Saturdays 18:30-01:00
http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=9865 (No English menu)

Our Friend – Yedidia

Just moments before the week has started we set for a drink with our friends Adi and Tomer. We decided to go to a bar in Florentin neighborhood, which lately seems to have wide selections for the nightlife enthusiasts. It was a cold and rainy night and the small neighborhood bar fitted our needs.

Shahar & Tomer took half liters of a seasonal Samuel Adams – a fruity version of the usual Samuel Adams.  Adi took her usual – Weihenstephan beer and Inbar took a glass of Gewurztraminer wine.

The Bar

Not as our usual, we did not focus on the food, that much. We took the 3 mini beef burgers and 3 mini lamb burgers – which were quite usual burgers deep fried in oil. In addition, Tomer and Adi took the Mexican Chorizo – a sausage made of beef with peppers and was served with homemade mustered.

We all agreed that the food was OK, the booze was good and the place was warm and nice. We will be back.

The check please (4 people)

Mini beef burgers – 36 NIS
Mini lamb burgers – 39 NIS
Mexican Chorizo – 26 NIS
Seasoned Samuel Adams – 2 X 28 NIS
Gewurztraminer (glass) – 28 NIS
Weihenstephan – 28 NIS

Total: 213

Summary:

Food:  Bar
Price:  Medium
Location: Florentin

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale

3 Forks

Contact details: Yedidia
Address:  4 Yedidia Frenkel Street, Tel Aviv | Phone: 057-9443946|
Opening Hours:  19:00-Late (Fridays from 21:00)
http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=11424 (no English version)

The winter has arrived… to the Cordovero

July 2012 Update: The place has closed its doors.

Just to prove that we didn’t lie to you when we said we love tapas, we decided to go the day after to Spanish-wanna be place – The Cordovero. Don’t worry, we will write about other options in Tel Aviv except tapas, and you don’t need to read again the background information about the Israeli tapas places.

Cordovero is a neighborhood bar that focuses on cava and good food. It started as a small place in Florentin neighborhood that wrote its daily dishes on board, and today it’s a small-medium bar that serves a good (sometimes a little commercial) food. Try going there on a Friday afternoon (The best time of the week to spend time in Tel Aviv in our opinion).

The reason we decided to go there, a day after our visit in Winberg (another tapas bar) is that we heard that they are trying their upcoming winter menu. They served a dish for 19 NIS & 3 dishes for 49 NIS. By the time we got there the place was full and some of the dishes already ran out. We order 3 dishes of what was left – Shrimp Ceviche, Mushroom Risotto & Pumpkin Gnocchi. The ceviche was so small that is hard for us to judge, we think it was only OK. The risotto was an improvement in the meter of the size of the dish and was tasty. Luckily, the last dish, the gnocchi, was also the best. It was a gnocchi made of pumpkin, with Brie cheese & smoked eggplant. We enjoyed it very much. We must say that we understand the rather small size of dishes since it was a tasting deal for 49 NIS which is not expensive.

After the 3 dishes, we felt that we are still hungry so we order the Meat Paella. It was a nice dish and was much bigger. The meat itself was not that tasty but the rice together with the other ingredients was good. We have chosen to escort the dinner with glasses of Cava semi-Saco.

To sum up, the Cordovero is a small neighborhood bar for Friday afternoon or while visiting Floertin.

Summary:

Food: Spanish/Mediterranean tapas bar
Price: Medium
Service: OK
Getting there: by car (parking can be hard on nights/weekends), taxi is also an option.

The check (2 people):

3 Tasting courses – 49 NIS
Meat Paella – 53 NIS
3 Cava glasses – 66 NIS

All in all: 168 NIS

The Cizer-Kobrinsky Scale:

3.5 Forks

Contact details: Cordovero

Address: Cordovero & Stern, Tel Aviv
Opening: Sunday to Saturday: 18:00 – late. Happy hours 18:00-20:00
077-4060771
http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=9912