CLOSED: This restaurant has shut down.
Vashti is a recently opened restaurant in Tel Aviv, close to the Jaffa Clock Tower, an area that has seen a renaissance in the last five years. The kitchen is in the hands of Merav Davidson, one of Tel Aviv’s youngest chefs, a woman who began cooking at the popular Machneyuda restaurant in Jerusalem.
The food can be described as Mediterranean, with an emphasis on the freshest ingredients. The dishes are simple and savoury.
On the night I dined there, I tried two starters: fresh sardines with a hint of sour cream served with little toasts on the side, and carpaccio of corvina with tuna and passionfruit. For the main dishes, I had the lamb kebabs with tarragon, raw and pickled vegetable salad, and sour cream; and the fish “hrayme” (a Moroccan dish of white fish fillet in a spicy tomato-based sauce). The dessert was absolutely divine: a moist semolina cake on pistachio sauce, with whipped cream flavoured with cardamom.
The restaurant is located in a narrow, long space with very high ceilings and pretty Moorish tiles on the floor. The walls are adorned with beautiful works of art. If you sit at the bar, you get a view of the open kitchen, too.
I would definitely come back to Vashti. The food is very good and reasonably priced, the decor is informal and contemporary. After dinner you can take a stroll along the walls of Jaffa, enjoying the fresh breezes of the Mediterranean.
Vashti
8 Ha’Aliya Hashniya (The Clock Square)
Jaffa
Tel Aviv
077 460 3420
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