Dr Shakshuka

After our last visit , a few months before COVID, quality of food, specially salads , goes down. Very disappointing to see one of the favorite and iconic restaurants in Jaffa almost empty…for reason.

Tourist Trap (.) Not in a good way. From the moment you walk in, as you are welcomed by branded t-shirts with Dr. Shakshuka's face, full wall frescoes of the proprietor seasoning (salt bae style) pans of shakshuka, and a life sized cut out of the "chef" himself, you know this is not a good idea. We sat and attempted to escape but the waiter said the shakshuka was only 49 shekels. Tempted by the price we stayed. We ordered 2 bottles of water to quench our thirst (sorry no tap) and our total for 2 ended up at 135 shekels. Service: We went at around 8:45 am, note Tel Aviv is a late city, so we were the only ones there. The wait staff was, what it was, nothing special. Food: I gave 3 stars for the food, which is nothing I couldn't make at home in 20 minutes.

First, the food here was decent and the room with the pans hanging from the ceiling is really cool. Unfortunately, those are the only nice things I can say about this place. The staff is just awful. No smiles whatsoever. Rude AF. They try to rip you off right away, bringing stuff you didn’t order so they can charge you for it. Never again.

Food was okay, not extraordinary, but satisfying. The waiter told us that the price for "business lunch" will be 87 NIS per person. We were fine with the price as it seemed to be a good value for so much food (we were served 15 items - salads, hummus, tahini, meat, shakshouka and lot of bread, quite good lemonade). Anyway 87 NIS * 2 persons gives 174 NIS, our waiter even wrote the price down for us. He seemed quite stressed the whole time, he was pressing us to make a quick decision - we thought it's because the place was busy (around a half of the tables in the outside area was taken). I also didn't like that the waiter was smoking a cigarette just a few meters away from our table. When it came to the payment time, the waiter didn't not came with a terminal for card payments, he insisted that it will be faster and more comfortable if he'll go inside alone and charge the card himself. But... He came with a receipt for 190 NIS. I have no idea for what that additional fee was taken as it hasn't been explained. Because of this we decided to not tip them, so this lunch was a bit cheaper than planned anyway.

We walked in and got seated right away within minutes they brought out some salads to start off with and within 10 minutes our food was already on the table. It was an absolutely delicious shakshuka (we had a plane shakshuka, lamb shawarma shakshuka land one sausage shakshuka) and so were the salads. Great friendly service and a nice atmospher, no wonder they won the best shakshuka in Israel award. We met the owner and he was the nicest guy ever. If you’re in Tel Aviv-Yafo area this is a must place to visit and it’s about 30 minutes drive from almost any area near Tel Aviv.

Believe the hype. All of it. You little nerds complaining about service deserve to be slapped. Stop being stereotypical Hebrews complaining about price. You get what you pay for. You’re not here to be coddled you’re here to eat. The abrasive service is part of the experience. Order the small bites tasting menu you won’t be disappointed. Those who hate the food should stick to eating hamburgers and French fries.

The food was pretty good, service was pretty fast, and the atmosphere was pretty cool. It just felt a bit too touristy. Also, the communication about how to order isn't clear. They set all of these delicious looking salads on the table and the customer has to be clear on whether or not they want it. When you're hungry, you dive in. When the bill comes, you pay for it even though you didn't order it. I'd still highly recommend coming here regardless.

Went In December of 2019. Ordered shakshuka. Had no idea this was a famous restaurant because I just followed my friend’s recommendation to come. Only just found out after seeing it mentioned in a travel article. I remember the interior of it quite well and the streets just outside had some public art. I remember enjoying the plating and warmth of the tomato and egg. I can’t exactly recall what the pricing was but I assume reasonable otherwise I would’ve remembered if it was exorbitantly priced. I do remember it being very popular and full when I went (on a Thursday night).