Goocha Dizengoff — Restaurant in Tel-Aviv

I ended up at this restaurant two nights in a row without reservations either night (arriving at 5:30 pm the first night and 7 pm the second night). I had delicious meals both nights. The first evening I had the yamburger made up of 100% finely chopped shrimp mixed with some cheese and other ingredients to keep the patty together. I highly recommend this unique type of burger! It comes with fries (as it says on the English menu) which are not all that great - if there’s another option, see about taking that. The second evening I had the seafood red curry with beef fillet and it was outstanding! The waitress said it was a little spicy and I didn’t find it to be spicy (but I’m from Texas and can eat a bit of spice). It comes with white rice so you can always add rice if it’s too spicy for you (I added the white rice to gather up all that delicious sauce). We also shared the baked chocolate mousse dessert with vanilla ice cream. Yum! I also ordered hot nana (mint) tea which, if you haven’t experienced in Israel, comes out with fresh mint leaves!

Service was a mixture of good and bad depending on the server (I had different ones throughout each night). They have a manager who walks around and checks on the tables. Before we sat down on my second night there, we were told we needed to be out by 8:30. We were finished by then and were ready to pay but no one ever came by with the bill. I saw the people come for their table and I saw the long line of people waiting for tables so I finally flagged down the manager down and told her we could pay and leave. She told us they shuffled things around and we could stay for 15 more minutes. That was really nice of her (since it was already past 8:30). We got a move on given the long line of people waiting - time for others to enjoy this...

I ate here my first night in Tel Aviv and was charmed -- the wait staff was lovely and welcoming to a foreigner and the food was delicious. I made it a point to go back the next week and was delighted the waitress remembered me and what drink I wanted. Dinner was tasty as the previous occasion. I then ordered an after dinner drink and shortly later this thug comes up and asks if I have gotten the bill, we need the table. I clearly had drink to finish. I was polite, but told him I'm going to finish my whiskey. Then the same thug came over again saying they need the table. Of course, I'm going to drag this out because they were off the charts rude. Then the thug's thuggish boss came over and said there is someone waiting on the table and more or less told me to piss off.

I could not believe the affrontery. If they had told me when I sat down hey we need the table by X time -- OK, that would have been fine. They did not. If they had said, sorry would it be possible for you to finish the drink at the bar, I would have been fine with that as well (in that case they really should throw in something, but anyway it did not happen).

Needless to say I did not go back and I urge you not to support these ill-mannered and...

This could have easily been a 5-star rating. The food in Goocha have always been excellent and remains excellent to this day.

However, bad service can spoil the best food.

We were almost done eating but wanted a bit more. There was a list of additional dishes written on a board. One of them was a calamari and chips conus for an attractive price of 35 ILS. We asked for it, but the waiter said that this is only a takeaway dish. We asked if we could have it anyway. No. We asked if there is a sitting down equivalent. Yes, there is, for 55 ILS. We are happy to pay the extra. “Wait, the sitting down one had no chips. I’ll call the manager.” Comes the manager. No, we can’t have a 35 ILS takeaway dish of Calamari & chips and sit down to eat it, even if we pay 55. We can’t have it for any amount in the world.

This was like a battle that this manager had to win. No way would a takeaway only dish be eaten on a table. Suddenly, we were no longer customers. We were the enemy.

Having gone through this whole thing I looked carefully at all the waiters. They all seemed down and a bit a bit gloomy. I suspect today’s manager treats them equally well.

Goocha deserves...