Opa — Restaurant in Tel-Aviv

We didn’t expect much and also were quite skeptical about this place, but after thinking for some time weather we should go or not, curiosity took over 😅 From the outside this place is really easy to miss as it’s just a door in a white wall, interior is very chill and nothing fancy, bar area and few tables, ambient light and chill music. You can have table for 2 hours on a weekdays and 1,5h on Friday, we booked it in advance.

They asked us for any food allergies/preferences before we started our 10 course dinner. Dishes were coming very fast, one after another and waiter (several of them) briefly explains you what you about to eat. First dish was raspberries with smoked blueberries in some asparagus green sauce - very fresh and cool combination. And from this one - every dish was super unique and very delicious. This experience makes you think of what are you eating, combination of textures and flavors and even temperature contrasts was simply great. It’s incredible how much you can do with just one type of vegetable - tomato dish was my personal favorite 👌🏼👌🏼 That’s definitely not a place to go for lunch if you are hungry - but for an exceptional culinarily experience and for fermented foods lovers to get some joy from flavors carnaval - just come with open mind and you will have a great time. Btw both of us (me and my husband) didn’t feel hungry after we left.

Also I must say that all the dishes and ceramics they were served on were...

We scheduled a couples dinner at Opa as part of our visit from NYC to Israel and as a couple who visits the amazing "Dirt Candy" every once in a while, we felt obligated to try Opa as well.

Going straight to the point - that dinner was an amazing one of a kind experience throughout.

Opa is run by one of Israels top chefs, Shirel Berger, and specials on vegan food and serves a tasting menu thats built out of 11 courses.

Talking about the food as part of this review is almost irrelevant, as the menu constantly changes - I can only say there was nothing that was served to us that was less than magnificent.

As avid foodies, we love surprises and are extremely appreciative of innovation and new ideas. Opa left us speechless in those terms, as part of the restaurants "thing" is only telling you what you eat after you've already eaten, allowing you to try and guess what was that amazing thing that you just had (we were definitely fooled a few times)

The drinks we got, Opas Gin Tonic and a local raspberries liqueur acted as great companions to food.

To sum, if amazing food is something you're interested in and your look for a great night out in TLV, Opa is for sure an amazing...

The food was amazing, HOWEVER: The service is not great. We were sitted at the bar, right infront of the kitchen. I get the concept of an open kitchen, which is usually cool, but in a small space such as this you can hear every little noise which the cooks make and due to the limited area, the noise level was bearly unbearable. At some point the hand blender was so noisy we literally could not hear each other. That incident repeated itself a few more times and when I asked the waiter about it they replied that “this is an open kitchen. It’s the sound of cooking”. Again, i get that idea but it makes no sense the noises are so loud it overcomes the conversation. Moving on, another waiter felt it was completely okay to arrange the guests cutlery so close to my plate that the forks they were polishing literally touched my food. Not cool. We recieved free bread for this incident. When I noted one the mugs they were using was broken, the response i got was “it’s ok, it’s handmade, that’s the vibe, it’s cool”. Right. Other than that, the food is really fantastic but...