The 10 Best Restaurants in Jaffa & the Jaffa Port (2026)

Updated October 2026 · 10 picks

The best restaurants in Jaffa are The Old Man and the Sea at the port for its endless mezze, Abu Hassan for the best hummus in Israel, Kalamata for a cliff-top seafood table, Puaa in the flea market and Haj Kahil by the Clock Tower. BlackOut at the Nalaga'at Center serves dinner in total darkness. Ten, below.

1. The Old Man and the Sea — Jaffa Port

Twenty-odd mezze dishes arrive before you have ordered — the most generous meal in Tel Aviv.

₪₪₪ Upmarket

The Old Man and the Sea is a Jaffa Port institution, and its reputation rests on one spectacular piece of theatre: you sit down and the table fills with twenty or more small dishes — salads, dips, pickles, fried cauliflower, aubergine, bread — before you have ordered anything at all. They are refilled as they empty.

The main courses are grilled fish and meat, simply done and secondary to the mezze, which is where the value is. A table of four can eat extremely well here without ordering much beyond the bread and a couple of fish.

It is big, loud and busy with families and groups, with a terrace looking out over the harbour. It is not refined and does not try to be.

Good to know: Order half of what you think you need. The mezze alone will feed you, and it keeps coming.

Google Maps

2. Abu Hassan (Ali Caravan) — Dolphin Street, Ajami

The best hummus in Israel, and arguably anywhere — served until it runs out.

₪ Budget

Abu Hassan on Dolphin Street, which everyone outside Jaffa calls Ali Caravan, is the single most agreed-upon piece of food in the country. The hummus is warm, loose, heavily tahini-forward and almost soupy — nothing like the stiff supermarket version — and it is served with raw onion, pickles and bread.

Order masabacha, the version with whole chickpeas and a slick of oil and cumin, or the mix of hummus, masabacha and fava. There is no other menu to speak of and there is no reason to want one.

It opens in the morning and closes when the pots are empty, often by the early afternoon. The queue is part of the experience and moves faster than it looks.

Good to know: Go before 13:00, order the mix, and take cash. It closes when the hummus is gone, not at a set hour.

Google Maps

3. Kalamata — Old Jaffa, above the sea

Greek-leaning seafood on a cliff-top terrace — the best sea view in Jaffa.

₪₪₪ Upmarket

Kalamata sits on the Old Jaffa cliff with the Mediterranean directly below it, and the position is the first thing to say about it: a terrace facing open sea, with the Tel Aviv skyline curving away to the north.

The cooking is Greek and Mediterranean, built around fish and seafood — grilled whole fish, octopus, fried small fish, mezze with ouzo — which is the right food for the setting.

It is a sunset restaurant above all. Book the terrace, arrive before the light goes, and plan to stay.

Good to know: Terrace table, ninety minutes before sunset, and start with the octopus and an ouzo.

Google Maps

4. Puaa — Rabbi Yochanan Street, flea market

The flea market's living room — everything you are sitting on is for sale.

₪₪ Mid-range

Puaa is in the middle of the Jaffa flea market, and its conceit is that the restaurant is furnished from the market around it: mismatched Formica tables, old chairs, lamps and crockery, all of it genuinely for sale. The effect is a cross between a cafe and a junk shop, and it works.

The food is Israeli comfort cooking — shakshuka, big salads, stuffed vegetables, pasta, a very good breakfast — done well and priced reasonably for the location.

It opens early and runs late, which makes it the flea market's most useful address: breakfast on a Friday morning while the market sets up, or a late dinner once the alleys have filled with drinkers.

Good to know: Friday morning breakfast here, before the flea market gets busy, is one of the best hours in Tel Aviv.

Google Maps

5. BlackOut at the Nalaga'at Centre — Second Aliya Pier, Jaffa Port

A chef's dinner eaten in complete darkness, served by blind and visually impaired waiters.

₪₪₪ Upmarket

The Nalaga'at Centre at the Jaffa Port is a non-profit arts and culture centre built around deaf, blind and deaf-blind people working alongside the public, and BlackOut is its restaurant: the only one in Israel where the meal is served in total darkness.

You eat a chef's menu in a room with no light at all, guided to your table and served by waiters who are blind or visually impaired. The effect is not a gimmick — within ten minutes the hierarchy of the room has reversed, your hosts are entirely competent and you are not, and the food tastes different because it is all you have.

Book well ahead, and take the theatre or one of the centre's other programmes the same evening if you can. It is the most memorable meal in Tel Aviv and among the least expected.

Good to know: Book ahead and leave your phone in the car. Any light at all undoes the whole thing for everyone in the room.

Google Maps Website

6. The Container — Warehouse 2, Jaffa Port

A port warehouse that is a restaurant by day and one of Tel Aviv's better live-music rooms by night.

₪₪₪ Upmarket

The Container occupies one of the Jaffa Port warehouses and has the best double life of anything on this list: a relaxed all-day restaurant and bar with the harbour outside, which turns into a live music venue after dark.

The food is bistro-ish and Mediterranean — fish, pasta, salads, good breakfasts — and the room, all exposed warehouse structure and mismatched furniture, is a genuinely pleasant place to sit for three hours.

Check what is on before you book. A night when something good is playing is a different and much better evening than a night when nothing is.

Good to know: Look up the gig listing before choosing a night. The music is the reason to pick this over the port's other warehouses.

Google Maps

7. Haj Kahil — By the Clock Tower, central Jaffa

Palestinian grill and mezze near the Clock Tower, and the veal shawarma it is known for.

₪₪₪ Upmarket

Haj Kahil is in the heart of Jaffa by the Clock Tower, and it is the area's best-known Palestinian restaurant: a long parade of mezze followed by charcoal-grilled meat, in a big room built for families and large tables.

The dish it is most praised for is the veal shawarma, which is a different proposition from the street-corner version — carved from the spit, generously spiced, served with the mezze rather than in a pita.

Go hungry and go with people. The mezze alone runs to a dozen plates and the point of the place is the scale of it.

Good to know: The veal shawarma is the order. Let the mezze come and do not fill up on the bread before the meat arrives.

Google Maps

8. Dr Shakshuka — Beit Eshel Street, flea market

Libyan-Tripolitan cooking in a stone courtyard — and the shakshuka the place is named for.

₪₪ Mid-range

Dr Shakshuka sits in a vaulted stone building near the flea market and serves Libyan-Tripolitan Jewish food, a cuisine that barely appears elsewhere in Israel's restaurants: mafroum, couscous, chraime, grilled meats, and of course shakshuka.

It is a tourist landmark and makes no secret of it, with copper pots on the walls and a courtyard full of visitors. The cooking has nonetheless stayed honest, and the Tripolitan dishes are the reason to come rather than the eggs.

Lunch is better than dinner here, and the courtyard tables are better than the room.

Good to know: Order mafroum or couscous rather than the shakshuka. The North African dishes are what the kitchen is actually good at.

Google Maps

9. Alena at The Jaffa — The Jaffa hotel, Louis Pasteur Street

Jaffa's luxury table, in the courtyard of a converted 19th-century hospital and convent.

₪₪₪₪ Splurge

The Jaffa hotel occupies a restored 19th-century French hospital and convent complex, and Alena is its restaurant — set in the courtyard between the old stone wings, under the trees, which is one of the most beautiful places to eat in the Tel Aviv area.

The cooking is Mediterranean at the hotel-fine-dining level, with the prices to match, and it is the obvious choice in Jaffa for an occasion rather than an evening out.

The surrounding building is worth arriving early for: the preserved chapel and the public rooms are genuinely remarkable and you can walk through them.

Good to know: Arrive twenty minutes early and walk through the restored chapel and lobby. It is as good as the meal.

Google Maps

10. Yaffa Knafeh — Central Jaffa

Hot knafeh, cut to order, for the price of a coffee — Jaffa's best cheap pleasure.

₪ Budget

Knafeh — shredded pastry over melting cheese, soaked in syrup and scattered with pistachio — is the great sweet of this coast, and Jaffa is where to eat it. Yaffa Knafeh does it from a counter, cut from the tray and served hot.

It costs a few shekels, it takes two minutes, and it is the correct end to a meal at any of the restaurants on this list, or the correct thing to eat on the walk back along the promenade.

The rule with knafeh is the same everywhere: hot or not at all.

Good to know: Only eat it hot off the tray. Ask for extra pistachio and eat it standing up.

Google Maps

Frequently asked questions

Where is the best hummus in Jaffa?

Abu Hassan on Dolphin Street, also known as Ali Caravan, and it is not a close contest — it is widely held to be the best hummus in Israel. It serves hummus, masabacha and fava beans and nothing much else, from mid-morning until the pots are empty, which is usually early afternoon. Go before 13:00, bring cash, and expect a queue that moves quickly.

Is Jaffa Port itself worth eating at?

Yes, for the setting. The restored port is a working harbour with fishing boats, a warehouse complex of restaurants and bars, and tables on the water — which no other part of Tel Aviv offers. The food is good rather than exceptional and you are paying partly for the view, but on a warm evening with the boats moving it is worth it.

Is Jaffa kosher?

Mostly not. Jaffa is a mixed Jewish and Arab city and the great majority of its restaurants are not kosher — which also means almost everything here is open on Shabbat, including Saturday lunch, when much of Jerusalem is shut. A handful of places hold certification; if it matters, check individually rather than by neighbourhood.

What is the Jaffa flea market, and where do you eat in it?

Shuk HaPishpeshim is the lane network around Olei Zion and Yehuda Margoza, half antiques and half bars, and it is the liveliest eating area in Jaffa after dark. Puaa is the best-known of its restaurants — the furniture is for sale as well as to sit on — and the surrounding alleys fill with drinkers from about nine. It is quiet on Sunday and busiest Thursday to Saturday.

How do you get to Jaffa from central Tel Aviv?

Walk the promenade: it is about forty minutes from the centre along the sea to the port, and it is one of the best walks in the country. Otherwise a ten-minute taxi, the bike lane the whole way, or buses down Yefet. Parking in Old Jaffa and around the flea market is genuinely difficult, so do not drive if you can avoid it.

Is Jaffa safe to walk around in the evening?

Yes — the port, Old Jaffa, the flea market and the promenade are busy with residents and visitors well into the night, and the area is ordinary to walk. As anywhere, the quieter industrial streets inland are less busy after dark. Conditions in mixed cities can shift, so it is worth a glance at the day's news before a late evening out.

1. The Old Man and the Sea — Jaffa Port

2. Abu Hassan (Ali Caravan) — Dolphin Street, Ajami

3. Kalamata — Old Jaffa, above the sea

4. Puaa — Rabbi Yochanan Street, flea market

5. BlackOut at the Nalaga'at Centre — Second Aliya Pier, Jaffa Port

6. The Container — Warehouse 2, Jaffa Port

7. Haj Kahil — By the Clock Tower, central Jaffa

8. Dr Shakshuka — Beit Eshel Street, flea market

9. Alena at The Jaffa — The Jaffa hotel, Louis Pasteur Street

10. Yaffa Knafeh — Central Jaffa

Frequently asked questions

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