Top in Israel
Plan a trip
Israel Food & Drink Cafes

The 10 Best Cafes in Israel (2026)

Updated August 2026 · 10 picks

The best cafes in Israel are Tel Aviv's specialty roasters — Cafelix, Nahat and Anonymous — for the coffee itself, and Jerusalem's institutions, Tmol Shilshom and Kadosh, for the room and the pastry. Café culture is central to daily life here, and the standard sit-down order is not a coffee to go but a table for an hour. Ten, below.

1. Cafelix — Multiple, incl. Levinsky & Carmel, Tel Aviv

One of the city's pioneering specialty roasters — seriously good coffee across several locations.

₪₪ Mid-range

Cafelix is one of Tel Aviv's leading specialty coffee names, a homegrown roaster with several small locations around the city, including in the atmospheric Levinsky and Carmel market areas. It helped drive the city's specialty-coffee wave, and it remains a reliable benchmark for a properly pulled espresso or pour-over.

The focus is squarely on the coffee — house-roasted beans, skilled baristas, and a compact menu that lets the quality speak. The market-area branches are small and characterful, the kind of spot you grab an excellent flat white and either perch briefly or take away as you explore.

Great for coffee lovers who want the real specialty experience rather than a big café scene. Seek out one of the market-adjacent branches to combine it with a market wander.

Good to know: Catch one of the market-area branches to pair top-tier coffee with a Levinsky or Carmel Market walk.

Google Maps Website

2. Nahat Coffee Roasters — City centre, Tel Aviv

A specialty roaster beloved by the city's coffee obsessives for precise, single-origin brews.

₪₪ Mid-range

Nahat is a specialty roaster with a devoted following among Tel Aviv's coffee purists. It's a coffee-first operation — the emphasis is on carefully sourced and roasted beans, precise brewing, and baristas who genuinely know their craft, rather than on being a sprawling café hangout.

Expect excellent espresso and thoughtful filter coffee that showcases single-origin beans, served in a compact, unfussy setting. It's the kind of place where you can talk to the barista about what you're drinking and walk away having learned something.

Ideal for the serious coffee drinker after a standout cup. It's more about the quality in the cup than about lingering for hours, so it suits a focused coffee stop.

Good to know: Ask the barista what single-origin they're pouring — this is a place to drink coffee attentively, not just grab it.

Google Maps Website

3. Tmol Shilshom — Yoel Moshe Salomon Street, Nachalat Shiva, Jerusalem

A bookshop café in a nineteenth-century courtyard — Jerusalem's literary institution.

₪₪ Mid-range

Tmol Shilshom hides down a stone courtyard off Yoel Moshe Salomon Street in Nachalat Shiva, and it has been the city's literary café since 1994 — walls of books, a warm dim room, and a long history of readings by Israeli writers including Amos Oz and David Grossman.

The name comes from an Agnon novel, and the place takes its literary identity seriously without being precious about it. The food is a proper dairy menu rather than a token one.

Finding it the first time is part of the experience; the entrance is easy to walk past.

Good to know: It is down a courtyard off the street and genuinely hard to spot — look for the sign rather than a shopfront.

Google Maps Website

4. Kadosh — Shlomtzion HaMalka Street, city centre, Jerusalem

A 1967 patisserie run by the same family — the best pastry in Jerusalem.

₪₪ Mid-range

Kadosh opened on Shlomtzion HaMalka Street in 1967, founded by Meir Kadosh and now run by his son Itzik and Itzik's wife Keren, and it is the city's benchmark for patisserie.

Everything is made in house — the bread, the pasta, the pastries — and the dairy menu covers fresh pasta, fish, quiches, salads and sandwiches alongside the baking. The queue out of the door most mornings is for the pastries.

It is kosher and closed on Shabbat. Central, small, and busy at peak times.

Good to know: Go for the pastries first and the meal second — the baking is what has kept this place famous for nearly sixty years.

Google Maps Website

5. Cafe Levinsky 41 — Levinsky Market, Tel Aviv

A tiny, magical hole-in-the-wall famous for house-made gazoz — fermented fruit-and-herb sodas.

₪₪ Mid-range

Cafe Levinsky 41 is unlike anywhere else in the city: a minuscule storefront in the Levinsky spice market, run by Benny Briga, celebrated for its 'gazoz' — elaborate, house-made sodas built from fermented fruits, herbs, flowers and syrups, mixed to order into something between a drink and a work of art. There's barely room to stand, and that's part of the charm.

You tell the maker your mood or preferences and they compose a bespoke, layered soda in front of you, all local botanicals and seasonal ferments. It's a genuinely distinctive Tel Aviv experience that's become quietly famous well beyond Israel, and it captures the Levinsky market's spice-and-flavour character perfectly.

Go for the gazoz rather than a standard coffee, embrace the tiny scale, and combine it with a wander through the Levinsky spice shops and food stalls around it.

Good to know: Order a gazoz, not a coffee — describe what flavours you like and let them compose one for you.

Google Maps

6. Cafe Yehoshua, Jerusalem — Ben Maimon Boulevard, Rehavia, Jerusalem

The Rehavia neighbourhood café where the city actually sits.

₪₪ Mid-range

Cafe Yehoshua sits on Ben Maimon Boulevard in Rehavia, and it is the classic Jerusalem neighbourhood café — a shaded terrace on a tree-lined street, a solid all-day menu, and a regular clientele who treat it as an extension of their living rooms.

There is nothing gimmicky about it. It does breakfast, coffee, salads and a proper lunch well, from morning until late, and the outdoor tables under the trees are among the pleasantest in the city.

Rehavia is a fifteen-minute walk from the centre and worth the detour to see how Jerusalem lives away from the Old City.

Good to know: Sit outside under the trees on Ben Maimon — that is the whole point of this one.

Google Maps Website

7. Cafe Xoho — City centre, near Gordon, Tel Aviv

A cosy, welcoming all-day café known for brunch, healthy plates and a laptop-friendly vibe.

₪₪ Mid-range

Cafe Xoho is a warm, inviting all-day café that's become a favourite with locals, expats and visitors alike for its relaxed atmosphere, wholesome food and genuinely friendly service. It strikes a lovely balance between a specialty coffee stop and a comfortable place to settle in with a laptop or a book.

The menu leans healthy and satisfying — good breakfasts, brunch plates, salads, baked goods and vegetarian-friendly options — alongside solid coffee. The vibe is unpretentious and community-minded, the sort of café where you feel welcome to stay a while.

It's a great pick for a leisurely breakfast, a work session, or a soft landing when you want somewhere comfortable and easygoing. Weekend brunch is popular, so go earlier if you want a relaxed table.

Good to know: One of the more laptop-friendly, linger-welcome cafés — good for a slow breakfast or a work session.

Google Maps Website

8. Machane Yehuda market cafes — Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem

Not one café but a dozen — the best coffee cluster in the city, in the market lanes.

₪ Budget

The Machane Yehuda market has filled with small coffee counters and cafés over the last fifteen years, tucked between the produce stalls and the spice merchants, and collectively they are the best place to drink coffee in Jerusalem.

They range from standing counters serving a fast, excellent espresso to small rooms where you can sit through the afternoon, and the market's transformation means the same lanes turn into bars after the stalls shut.

Weekday mornings are for coffee and shopping; Thursday and Friday are chaos in the best sense.

Good to know: Come mid-morning on a weekday for coffee, or after dark when the shutters come down and the bars open.

Google Maps Website

9. Anonymous Coffee — City centre, Tel Aviv

A specialty roaster-café for purists chasing a standout single cup.

₪₪ Mid-range

Anonymous Coffee is a specialty-focused café and roaster that appeals to the city's coffee enthusiasts, with an emphasis on quality beans, skilled preparation and a genuine passion for the craft. It's a coffee-lover's café rather than a sprawling hangout.

Expect well-sourced beans, expertly pulled espresso and considered filter coffee, served by people who care about getting it right. The setting is understated, keeping the attention on the cup and making it a rewarding stop for anyone who takes their coffee seriously.

Best for a focused, high-quality coffee break rather than a long lounge. Chat to the barista about the beans, and enjoy a cup made with real attention.

Good to know: Another purist's pick — worth a detour if a genuinely excellent single cup is what you're after.

Google Maps

10. Mae Cafe — Neve Tzedek / city centre, Tel Aviv

A stylish all-day café-restaurant that's a Tel Aviv brunch and people-watching staple.

₪₪ Mid-range

Mae is a polished, popular all-day café-restaurant that captures the classic Tel Aviv café experience: sitting out, ordering a big breakfast or a coffee, and watching the city go by. It's a dependable, stylish spot that works from morning coffee through lunch and into the evening.

The food is a cut above standard café fare — generous breakfasts, good salads and all-day dishes — and the coffee is solid, all served in an attractive, buzzy setting. It's the kind of place that suits both a quick hafuch and a long, sociable brunch.

A safe, satisfying choice for weekend brunch or a relaxed daytime meal. Expect it to be busy at peak brunch hours, so arrive early or embrace the buzz.

Good to know: A classic sit-out-and-people-watch café — great for a long weekend brunch if you go early.

Google Maps

Frequently asked questions

Which city has the best coffee in Israel?

Tel Aviv, for specialty coffee specifically — the city has a dense cluster of roasters working with single-origin beans and taking extraction seriously. Jerusalem's strength is the café as a room to sit in rather than the coffee in the cup, and Haifa's German Colony is the best pavement-café strip in the north.

What is an Israeli coffee order?

Hafuch (literally 'upside down') is the default — an espresso-based milk coffee closest to a flat white or small cappuccino. Cafe botz is 'mud coffee', ground coffee steeped in the cup, and is what you get on a hike. Ask for 'filter' or 'V60' in a specialty place; ask for 'nes' anywhere and you will get instant.

How much does coffee cost in Israel?

Around ₪13–₪18 for a hafuch, and ₪16–₪24 in a specialty roaster. A full Israeli breakfast at a café is roughly ₪60–₪95. Coffee is not cheap here by regional standards, and the price buys you the table for as long as you want it, which is the trade.

Do cafes in Israel open on Shabbat?

In Tel Aviv and Haifa, yes, and Saturday morning is the busiest café hour of the week. In Jerusalem the great majority close from Friday afternoon to Saturday night. Cafés in East Jerusalem, the Old City and a handful of the secular west-side places are the exceptions.

Can you work from cafes in Israel?

It is close to a national pastime, particularly in Tel Aviv, where a laptop on a café table for three hours is entirely normal and the wifi is free almost everywhere. Some of the busiest brunch places discourage it at the weekend, and a few post a sign about it, but midweek nobody minds.

Are Israeli cafes kosher?

Many are, particularly in Jerusalem, where kosher-dairy is the default for a café. In Tel Aviv it is roughly the reverse. Certificates are displayed at the door, and 'kosher dairy' on a café means no meat on the menu rather than any restriction on the coffee.

Related lists

Israel · US Tax Accountants

The 8 Best US Tax Accountants in Israel (2026)

Read the list Israel · Tours

The 9 Best Tours in Israel (2026)

Read the list Israel · Synagogues

The 10 Best Synagogues in Israel (2026)

Read the list Israel · Souvenirs

The 9 Best Places to Buy Souvenirs in Israel (2026)

Read the list Israel · Shopping Markets

The 10 Best Markets in Israel (2026)

Read the list

More in Israel · More Cafes across Israel · All Food & Drink