Considering how much a meal at a good restaurant costs these days, casual spots offer real value for money - places that don’t pretend to be fancy or stiff, yet still serve great food made from quality ingredients in a laid-back vibe. The accessible (sort of), sane (relatively) and tasty (that, yes) answer to the cost of living
Last update: 7.11.25
In an era when every restaurant outing requires a mortgage or at least a loan, the city’s casual restaurants offer a sensible, more accessible solution that’s hardly less elevated thanfine dining. Okay, maybe a tiny bit less—but that’s the point. These are places that don’t try to be luxurious or buttoned-up: no suited service or menus fluent in culinarese, but you will find great food, good ingredients, a relaxed atmosphere, and very fair value for money.
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1. Avri
With an off-Nahalat Binyamin location and a commendable attempt to think outside the box, Avri may dodge definitions like all the new places, but it genuinely tries to be different. The dishes are original – not yet another copy of what we’ve already seen in endless variations – and even if sometimes they need a bit more fine-tuning, you’ll find creative, intriguing food at fair prices (relatively. Everything’s relative around here).
Ahuzat Bayit 5, Tel Aviv
2. Ouzeria
The combo of excellent Mediterranean food with a loose, loud vibe has made Ouzeria, for over a decade, a unique phenomenon—a market restaurant that’s exactly what you imagine a market restaurant should be, plus a smart integration of nearby Balkan food traditions. Next Door, chef Avivit Priel hosts chefs who’ve found themselves without a kitchen to cook in—a lovely project supporting colleagues from the north and beyond.
Matalon 44, Tel Aviv
3. Batshon
Despite inevitable price hikes, a meal at Batshon is still one of the best deals in town: raw, grilled, and fried fish and seafood with minimal posing, surrounded only by what’s justified and fitting – and wine priced like in a shop. We need more places like this, that make guests feel seen – along with their depleted bank accounts.
Carlebach 29, Tel Aviv
4. Beina
After dusting itself off – literally – from the Iranian missile strike (only minor damage, thanks for asking), this Tel Aviv bar-restaurant can finally celebrate its second birthday. Chef Narkis Alfi, who racked up serious experience with local kitchen giants like Eyal Shani, Moshik Roth, and Meir Adoni, keeps a personal, precise, drama-free voice and serves sophisticated yet approachable dishes – creative without shouting and above all, very tasty.
Tchernichovsky 4, Tel Aviv
5. Beit Kandinof
An ancient space where every corner holds a surprise, rotating art, and an adjacent community garden deepen Beit Kandinof’s grip on its surroundings. High-level execution offsets the occasional lack of originality on the menu, but when the kitchen dares – the food soars and reflects the diversity that makes up Israeli cuisine.
HaTzorfim 14, Jaffa
6. Brasserie Rothschild 48
The winning formula from Heichal HaTachana gets refined on Rothschild without losing the identity and professionalism that define the R2M group. Well-made food faithful to the brasserie institution doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel – just to ensure plenty of tasty options. The wine burger and Caesar salad were and remain mythic and worth the return trip, and if you’ve happened into a hefty inheritance – the adjacent chef’s spot, closed since the war broke out, has reopened in an improved version.
Rothschild 48, Tel Aviv
7. Brix
Most days of the week Brix is a wine bar at regular prices, but when Roshfeld steps into the kitchen it becomes a chef’s restaurant. The veteran chef cooks whatever he feels like from dream ingredients, and smart bartenders pour the wine to complete the experience. If the prices on Roshfeld days weren’t so high this would probably be the perfect restaurant – but perfection is a fiction anyway, and the bouillabaisse is worth its weight in gold.
Givon Square 10, Tel Aviv
8-9. Django // Trigger Meat & Wine
Meat man Sagi Trigger’s restaurants are built on unfussy plates that leave center stage to excellent beef at prices you can actually handle, given the quality and the general cost of living here. At the casual Django and the slightly more formal Trigger, you can put your chips on juicy meat and a slick of butcher’s butter – and rake in the winnings.
Hillel HaZaken 12, Tel Aviv | Montefiore 21, Tel Aviv
10. Ha’achim
Beyond moving mountains at the start of the war and sincerely supporting residents of the Gaza-border communities, brothers Assaf and Yotam Doctor make local, original, complex food. Ha’achim is the lighter version of Ivy and Dok – a restaurant-deli-café-bar that’s fun to sit in at any hour of the day. The legendary Saturday brunch has already peeked out a few times, and maybe when the war ends they’ll finally bring it back. Then we’ll know sanity still has a shot here.
Ibn Gabirol 36, Tel Aviv
11. HaKatan
Levinsky Market is the only thing separating HaKatan from our fine dining list. Beyond the meticulous prep of every component and fermenting anything that moves, chef Ido Kablan gets his hands on superb local produce and turns it into delicacies. There’s nothing better than showing up in flip-flops, knocking back a few bites and a glass of wine, and feeling like we hacked the system.
Levinsky 46, Tel Aviv
12. The Thai on Har Sinai
For years it’s been posted in the city’s hottest compound, serving an authentic, unapologetic take on Thai cuisine. There’s a lot of choice, a lot of seats, a lot of cocktails, a lot of atmosphere, and a lot of heat – and now also a new bar, Mulam, colorful and sexy. The Thai on Har Sinai ranks high for us at the top of Asian food in the city, and by all signs it’s here to stay.
Har Sinai Alley 1, Tel Aviv
13. Chavat Tzuk
Excellent locally raised meat, huge-flavor vegetables from farms, and what chef Assaf Shner does with them in the kitchen form the backbone of this wonderful restaurant, which for more than 15 years hasn’t made a fuss about being truly farm-to-table. You’ll find superb, aged cuts and the famous Dirty Burger, in an unfancy atmosphere with an uncompromising focus on ingredients. Fun.
Moshe Perlok 5, Tel Aviv
14. Hanan Margilan
As a restaurant with a humble look and homey vibe that’s absolute consensus – maybe the last one in the country—Hanan Margilan is a portal to another, Bukharan world, with food where every bite sends you elsewhere. And the dushpara – oh, the dushpara. An authentic experience in a plastic world.
Mesilat Yesharim 15, Tel Aviv
15-16. Taverna Romana // Capra Mio
Chef Benzi Arbel, who won us over with Capra Mio’s high-quality simplicity, serves excellent food at Calabria with almost unbeatable VFM. With not a single dish over 80 shekels (and much less in the early evening), he juggles between excellent house-made pasta and cheesy, sleazy comfort food in a vibe that reflects Tel Aviv at its best. As far as we’re concerned – open a few more of these, and maybe you won’t have to book a month ahead.
Capra Mio, King George 105, Tel Aviv | Taverna Romana, Kaplan 8, Tel Aviv
17. Lunel
The Yemeni-European brasserie creaked a bit at first, and the war didn’t make life easier, but since chef Yinon Elal returned to the kitchen, the place has found its footing and slipped into a steady mode – plenty of goodwill and talent backed by tons of charm and romance. Take a bite of kubaneh, add a spoon of celery jam, and you’ll get what we mean.
Abarbanel 72, Tel Aviv
18. Lampur
When Itay Haimovich and Keren Sharon, owners of the beloved, now-closed Hanoi, teamed up with Eyal Shani/Shachar Segal’s “Good Guys” group, it was clearly the start of a beautiful friendship – ours, and the crispiest pork belly in the Middle East. The Good Guys have since detached from the restaurant, but the belly is still there. At happy hour (Sun-Thu 16:00-19:00) you can snag a three-for-100 deal that’s perfect for post-work grazing.
King George 30, Tel Aviv
19. Noama
Amid the restaurants and bars flooding Nahalat Binyamin, Noama shines where it really counts – on the plate. Recently, chef Moshiko Avraham (ARIA) took over the kitchen, and surprises are to be expected.
Nahalat Binyamin 59, Tel Aviv
20. Studio Gursha
The city’s first pan-African chef restaurant delivers on the promises seeded in pop-ups and reality TV. Chef Elazar Tamno gives the homey Ethiopian cooking he grew up on a personal, original, modern, and thrilling spin – starting with unflinching ingredients and flavors and running all the way through desserts and cocktails. His artworks, which adorn the walls, double down on authenticity, expand the experience, and spark curiosity for what’s next. Run.
Salame 13, Tel Aviv
21. Chacoli
Once you calm down from the Dolphinarium’s transformation from a pile of rubble into a manicured park, you can lean back and let Txakoli work its magic. Chef Yarden Shai rules over an open kitchen sending out, one after another, sparkling-fresh fish and seafood treated gently, on a journey that winds between Madrid and Tel Aviv. With a glass of Chacoli in hand and the sea in front of you, you can forget the world for a bit – and then sneak off for an air-conditioned siesta.
Herbert Samuel 3, Tel Aviv
