MyTLVadventure: The Ultimate Tel Aviv Restaurant Guide...so far!

This evening I was invited for dinner at Suzanna's by my cousin Bella and her husband Silviu, and one of those amazing things that I so love happened: I ran into Joel and Ilene-Jo from Vancouver, who were also dining there (I only saw them because I had complained about a less than desirable table we had been given, so there).

With Ilene-Jo and Joel, at Suzanna

Talking about restaurants, something really cool has been happening, that makes me feel I have attained one of my goals for the trip, which is "living like a local" for these three months.

There is an expression my long-gone mentor taught me to determine when there is a trend, and it goes something like "Once is coincidence; twice is happenstance; three times is enemy action." In other words, look for the rule of three's to know is something is real.

About 10 days ago, a friend who lives outside Tel Aviv called me as I was walking with Jennifer to the beach and told me she and her family were visiting a certain area of Tel Aviv and wanted to know which restaurants I would recommend there. I was flattered and proceeded to list a few places I knew and had enjoyed plus a few I had heard good things about.

Then, about a week ago, a friend who used to live in Israel but who lives overseas now told me that, as he planned a family reunion in Israel, he had read my blog post about spending a day in the Judean Hills and it had reminded him of the great restaurant I had described, Rama's Kitchen, plus had learned about the wineries in the area and decided to organize the family reunion there. Naturally, I was enormously flattered by that comment.

And then today, a third person, my cousin Bella with whom we had made plans to go for dinner, asked me which restaurant I would recommend for us to go. I was thrilled to be asked.

Well, while this most certainly is the opposite of "enemy action,” the rule of three's applies and I want to thank you for the gift. You have certainly helped me attain the goal I have had all along in my little mind, where I have been role-playing "what would it be like to actually live here." So now I know: I would eat out. An awful lot.

So, for the record, I am listing below the main restaurants I have patronized and would recommend, with a few photos farther below (I am not smart enough to intersperse photos with text on this blog).

I am blessed to have gone to these places mostly with Rafi and/or with Jennifer and/or with other people I like (such as relatives, business associates, friends, and business associates who have become friends).

Alone, I have not eaten out much. When I have gone, I tended to go to small, casual places where I can take out my iPad and either try to translate the menu word-by-word (laughing hard at the clearly inaccurate translations due not to Google Translate, but most likely to my poor Hebrew typing) or to blog, and where no one would care how long or short I took staying there.

Also, and just because I am lazy and it is late in the evening, I have used TripAdvisor.com as mnemonic device and so most of the links below, in random order, are from that website (they contain the address and phone numbers of the restaurants). Unless otherwise stated, all restaurants are in Tel Aviv.

So, drum roll please...