In Neve Tzedek, one of the most vibrant neighborhoods of TLV, is Meshek Barzilay. The restaurant offers an organic, mostly vegan, menu. It operates around the clock and offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have a rotating seasonal specials menu and in addition host cooking workshops.

To be honest, when it comes to eating out, vegan restaurants are not really my first choice. This is partially due to the fact that I eat mostly vegan\vegetarian at home. Despite that, I had a chance to try some of Meshek Barzilay’s dishes at dinner a few months ago, and ever since I’ve waited for an opportunity to get back here for the full experience.

We visited on a Saturday morning (closer to lunch time), when their breakfast menu is served alongside their regular menu. We went all in, and ordered the Royal Couple Brunch (180₪ \ $50) which includes their bread-basked, 5 tapas, frittata\shakshuka, calzone, 2 cocktails\shakes,2 hot drink and truffles. Sounds like a lot of food? Indeed it was! This meal allows you to have a taste of most of the dishes offered for breakfast, which is always something I prefer over one big dish.

First arrived the shakes. I ordered the Hugging Shake loaded with bananas, pecans, date honey, cinnamon and almond milk. Definitely my kind of shake – flavorful and not too sweet. We also got the Energy Shake, with bananas, goji berries, dates, swiss chard, lettuce, coconut oil, mint leaves and cashews.

Our favorites were the Calzone filled with spinach, tofu and cashew nut cream, the Cauliflower Salad which surprised us with its sweet notes and the flavorful Israeli Salad. The Eggplant Punjabi is a nice take on an Israeli breakfast staple – the eggplant salad. Here it’s reinforced with pickled lemon and small Mung bean pitta bread.

Their home made Vegan Cheese Platter took me by a complete surprise – it was so good! Both the flavor and the texture were superb, and didn’t feel in any way inferior to non-vegan cheese. The Sourdough Bread was accompanied by a vegan butter, tahini and strawberry jam. Good stuff. Oh and there was also a very interesting dish of Black Bean Pâté served with amazing garlic and onion confit and crackers.

In our opinion, the Frittata was the weakest link. It is made with pea and chickpea flours. Unfortunately it was dull, bland, heavy and very dry.

We finished our meal with coffee based on healthier alternatives to milk – almond and oatmeal. For our sweet spot we got incredible Truffles accompanied by candied orange peel.

I love the atmosphere at Meshek Barzaily. It’s casual and laid back. Even though the place was packed full of couples, families and tourists, the service was attentive and the drinks and food arrived to the table at a good pace.

Meshek Barzilay pays proper respect to vegan food: Tasty, healthy and fun. Having that said, the food is definitely on the expensive side, and there’s room for improvement with some dishes. It’s a great place for entertaining your vegan friends while keeping everyone happy and full.

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