Zakaim was definitely our favourite meal in Tel Aviv, and is an entirely vegan restaurant with a certain homey charm that can satisfy anyone. The funky décor, incredibly kind people and awesmazing food combined, made my entire family so happy, and feel right at home. The tableware, including their mismatched glasses, reminded me of Farmhouse Tavern. Zakaim’s seating is also mismatched, so, you can enjoy sitting on anything from a wooden dining chair to a lounger, and my favourite part of the decor came from the fact that they have all their ingredients, including TONS of fresh produce, on display! Their doorstop was even a crate of fresh oranges when we were there! Clearly their focus is on fresh ingredients!
The open kitchen at Zakaim is fun to watch, and they will answer questions about your food while they make it. Like with any open kitchen, there is the advantage of knowing much more about what’s going into your food.
Zakaim is owned by a family, and you’ll see pictures of Harel and I, below, he took such time to talk to us, and I know he was also busy doing restauranteur stuff. The team working at this great restaurant seemed to really be enjoying each other’s company, and were sitting around a table working with produce, having what seemed to be animated conversation (although, I don’t understand Hebrew to know what they were talking about).
We decided that if this restaurant was in Toronto, we would be there VERY often. I hope that if you go to Tel Aviv, you will take a trip to Allenby 98 (their address) and enjoy a delicious and very hearty plant-based meal. You will leave very happy. Oh – and make sure you have their special chocolate mousse dessert – it’s soy and nut-free and delicious.
My thoughts about the food are as captions with pictures that I took (mostly) and posted below. I hope you enjoy. You should also check out their Pinterest board with great pictures of their dishes. I did take a picture of the menu in English, and if you blow it up, you should be able to read it, since on their website, it’s only in Hebrew.
Where is your favourite vegan restaurant outside of Toronto? Please let me know!
A different spoon for each person in my family!
A very happy sister. Vegan, soy-free, nut-free, chocolate mousse dessert! #awesmazing!
What an incredible menu! So many #awesmazing choices! We had a lot of them and shared all, but would have loved to try them all! Another reason to go back! Looking at these pictures while putting this post together has made me very nostalgic for the food we were so fortunate to enjoy in Israel!
Their decor is eclectic, interesting and fun. These walls above our table were adorned with pot lids!
An open kitchen with colourful mosaics and fresh produce everywhere!
A very cool way to display the garlic that they kept reaching for to use in dishes!
Sitting around their table with glasses of water! All of their decor and table settings are mismatched and salvaged from elsewhere – it works well and makes for a beautiful space!
My dad and brother loved watching our food being prepared in the open kitchen!
House-baked challah! Yum!
In-house made sourdough bread! Ready to be torn into big chunks and served on a piece of parchment or napkin!
An open kitchen is an amazing thing, because you can watch your food being prepared and smile at the people making it!
They have an amazingly colourful shelf at the front with all sorts of yummy goodies that are used in their meals! Everything is open for guests to see!
The decor at Zakaim is very original!
Their menu is creative, they describe everything so well and their servers answered every one of our questions without hesitation. It’s amazing when restaurants know about all of their ingredients and are proud of them!
Really cool logo on one of the walls. (hebrew letters for Zakaim and it’s read right to left, instead of left to right!)
#awesmazing Soup! This was my sister’s favourite dish. On the menu they describe it as “98% Burned Tomatoes Soup with Basmati Rice, and the rice is garlic, hot peppers and salsa”.
Hand-Torn Potato Chips with housemade ketchup! We all decided that these were the absolute best “french fries” we have ever had!
Incredible Olive Oil from Yama village, and a drop of 30 year old Black Persian vinegar! Dipped the bread in and enjoyed the super flavours! Unreal!
Their papardelle was amazing – and contrary to what you might think, there was no pasta involved, just plants – broad beans and roots on eggplant tahini.
Sashimi! Avocado, Sweet Potato, Jalapeño, Shallot, and Lemon. Each piece was just one big bite of perfect flavour to texture ratio! This was a special, and our server made sure to tell us to enjoy in one bite, even though it was messy. I mopped up the olive and avocado oils left on the plate with their fresh baked bread. Heaven!
This was called “Really Tasty Eggplant” and it was. Eggplant sitting on a burned tomato (I think they mean roasted!), smothered in creamy tahini and garnished with a good amount of grilled green chilies! One of my mother’s absolute favourites!
This was called the “Happy Plate”. Our server cautioned us about the spice because we were 3 kids, but we assured him that we love spicy. This small plate included big flavours! Three different kinds of scoopable sauces, 3 hour Matbucha and a whole grilled green chili!
We all loved the multitude of colours and flavours! It was a really happy family meal!
As you can see, we didn’t like it very much! ha! Such a great meal! I wish there was something like this in Toronto, it would be busy!!
I know it’s bizarre to share a bathroom picture in a food review, but I had to, because this was a very interesting experience! To flush, pull the tie out of the suitcase!
Dried Persian Lemon from the owner! He was so nice! I have to figure out how we are going to use it at home. Suggestions?
Portobello and Oyster mushrooms ready to be used! There were bowls of fresh ingredients everywhere!
With one of the owners, Harel Zakaim, who gave me a dried persian lemon! He was so kind and explained that the dried Persian lemon was a symbol of where he comes from and wanted to share.
Crafty sign puts a cool shadow on the wall outside their vegan restaurant in Tel Aviv!
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