finding kosher restaurants in israel

shalhevet

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 2:41 am

In a nutshell:

There is rabbanut kosher. That means the rabbanut of a particular town/ city/ regional council has approved it as kosher. There is not one uniform standard for this. It might mean they are relying on big leniencies your rabbi at home might not allow - or it might not.

Examples might include: an occasional mashgiach rather than one there all the time, kashering meat after it's been frozen even if 3 days have passed, relying on samples to check if fruit/veggies/grains are buggy, being lax/ forgetting to take challa or trumot u'maasrot, problems with bishul akum etc.

Some rabbanut hechsherim are known to be more reliable than others BUT any place with a rabbanut hechsher must legally allow the use of any product with any other rabbanut hechsher.

There is rabbanut mehadrin. This means the rabbanut of that town/city/regional council has an alternative hechsher with higher standards - you have to ask them what those higher standards mean and, again, they aren't uniform. It might even be that Rabbanut X mehadrin is a lower standard than Rabbanut Y regular.

There are independent kashrut bodies, which claim to be mehadrin. The most famous, and AFAIK, what everyone considers the best is Badatz Eida Chareidis. There are others and everyone will probably tell you something else - most people consider reliable Rav Rubin, Rav Landau from BB, Sheeris Yisrael.

There are also "anonymous" hechsherim which mean absolutely zero which have been found in certain restaurants.

What does all this mean? CYLOR now and ask him what to rely on and/or for the name of someone in Israel who he considers reliable to help you along.

You should also be aware that there are big kashrus problems with things you might not see as problematic in the USA - eg bread and baked goods (taking challa is more stringent here), fruits and veggies (trumos and maasros), grains and dry goods (there are worse than usual bug problems now since we have basically had hot, dry weather virtually unbroken for about 8 months).

cassandra

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 3:06 am

shalhevet wrote:

It might mean they are relying on big leniencies your rabbi at home might not allow - or it might not.

Examples might include: an occasional mashgiach rather than one there all the time, kashering meat after it's been frozen even if 3 days have passed, relying on samples to check if fruit/veggies/grains are buggy, being lax/ forgetting to take challa or trumot u'maasrot, problems with bishul akum etc.

Just curious how this would be a leniency? Are there those who hold that not taking challa or t"um is okay if you "forget"?

shalhevet

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 3:12 am

cassandra wrote:

shalhevet wrote:

Just curious how this would be a leniency? Are there those who hold that not taking challa or t"um is okay if you "forget"?

No- good point.

But the reality is, unfortunately, that in many places without a mashgiach temidi (or even with occasionally) it is known that these things happen.

There are also questionable leniencies in taking challa and tu"m - not sure of the details.

greentiger

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 3:47 am

I'd like to point out that a while back, there was a "new" mehadrin hechsher which may still be around. My husband asked at restaurants and basically it was some scam where a guy calling himself a rabbi offered these eateries a fancy certificate for a good price. There was absolutely no mashgiach involved ever and when we called, they were unreachable. This was clearly illegal but noone was enforcing any control. The problems with this situation was when unassuming frum people relied on the big MEHADRIN signs that there restaurants sported without realizing many of them were not even rabanut. Another problem is when people see their friends or neighbors eating somewhere and automatically assume its ok. I can't tell you how often my friends were shocked by learning the real hashgacha of places they were comfortable eating in regularly simply because they saw someone really frum there.

greentiger

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 3:50 am

mandksima

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 3:53 am

I have been very disappointed with steaks here in general. Red Heifer and El Gaucho weren't great IMO. There are many great restaurants that just have good, nice, simple food. Dairy Italian places or French meat ones. I guess it depends where you are coming from and what restaurants you currently have where you are. I suppose you'd like to eat whatever you can't get at home easily.

If you can search in Hebrew, I suggest www.2eat.co.il as well as www.eluna com like others posted. Be sure to print out coupons to keep in your purse.

greentiger

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 4:00 am

Tamiri

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 4:09 am

Just to simplify, since I am not sure of your persuasion: generally speaking, most DL will eat out at a Rabbanut restaurant unless there is some dire reason not to. Meaning, they saw treif going on there. Otherwise, across the board, Rabbanut is generally accepted by the Mizrachi/Bnai Akiva-type crowd. This broadens the eating-out opportunities to practically endless.
Eluna's recommendations should not be taken at face value, as the eateries pay to appear on eluna. There are no negative comments posted there.
Let us know what town you wish to eat in and if Rabbanut is acceptable. Most likely one or more of us has eaten where you want to.
I seem to recall you are going North. Haifa is a bit lacking in good kosher places, but if you are going further north there are all sorts of kosher restaurants in obscure places. Tverya has plenty of places. Tel Aviv is full of kosher restaurants, as are Ra'anana, Herzeliya Pituach (at least 2-3 upscale steak places), Petach Tikva etc.

catonmylap

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 4:25 am

Tamiri wrote:

In any case, almost all DL will eat any Rabbanut places with Glatt meat.... and eat hasgachot like OU without thinking twice.

I would consider:
Buffalo Steak House
Joy
Modern
Paggagaio
Noya

Tamiri

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 4:30 am

Cat, is there such a thing as a kosher restautant WITHOUT glatt meat? I don't think it's possible to get kashered un-Glatt here, and what restaurant is going to go to the trouble of buying (frozen) unkashered kosher-shechted meat? Question

Regarding OU: how many places around the country have that Hashgacha? A few in Jlm? Anywhere else? So it's not like OP should be seeking out OU places across the country...

catonmylap

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 4:35 am

Tamiri wrote:

Regarding OU: how many places around the country have that Hashgacha? A few in Jlm? Anywhere else? So it's not like OP should be seeking out OU places across the country...

they are increasing in Jerusalem.

I thought most of the 'regular' meat here is not glatt. As opposed to the US, where you can't get kosher meat which isn't glatt.

It's all kashered - that's something else.

Ruchel

Sun, Jan 09 2011, 4:39 am

El Gaucho has lost a LOT. I don't recommend the mehadrin ones anymore.

I still recommend
La Guta (new address!)
Papagaio
Café Rimon
Meat and wine
1868
Pera e mela (if you go, say hello to the boss from his french cousins!)
Something hayam in Tel Aviv
If it still exists, Pizza o meter
Always worth it to try kosher Mc Donalds, Pizza Hut, etc - if you're not sensitive to MSG!
The food court in Malcha... start with dairy, then go to meat Wink

Ethnic restaurants "not for tourists": Persian, Iraki, Indian, Greek, Ethiopian (still didn't manage to find an open kosher one), Buchari (Pinat Ha shlosha near Yaffo yummm). Delicious and really really really cheap.

Has been recommended to me, didn't try yet
Darna
Gavriel
Kohinoor
Gong

They have opened a new kosher Ashkenazi restaurant that looks delish, I can't remember the name but DH will.