Jerusalem - Post Report Question and Answers
What typical restaurants, food delivery services, and/or takeout options are popular among expatriates?
Wolt food delivery has access to a great number and variety of restaurants. There are lots of restaurants here including Armenian, Ethiopian, Italian-inspired, lots of burger places. - Sep 2024
If you don't celebrate Christmas, Sheyan on 8 Ramban Street in Jerusalem is wildly popular among Americans on Christmas eve and day, and is a good option for Chinese food any time of the year. Quesadillas Ascencio (111 Agripas Street across from Machane Yehuda) is very popular among Mexicans. Tacos Luis near Agron (11 Queen Shlomziyon Street) is probably equally popular among Latinos and Americans. There are lots of restaurant options on Emek Refaim Street in the Germany Colony and on Beit Lechem Street in Baka. All of these restaurants are closed on Shabbat. Wolt is a very popular food delivery app and there are options in English. There are 2 other food delivery apps that do not take international credit cards so try to stick with Wolt. There aren't so many expats in Jerusalem. Rather, there are immigrants and there are tourists. English is absolutely everywhere in Jerusalem. Probably 25% of the population of Jerusalem is American. - Nov 2022
Almost everything in metro Jerusalem is closed on Shabbat, with the exception of a couple of restaurants in First Station and the Old City which you will get to know intimately and probably be very tired of by the time your tour is over. On normal days, quite a few restaurants deliver, but there isn't a central delivery platform like GrubHub/UberEats, etc. Most of those places don't have English menus and may not have English speaking staff, so if you don't have Hebrew you may have to go in and take out. - Oct 2019
Restaurants here are delicious but VERY expensive. Most places are either kosher meat or kosher dairy and the fine dining is creative and delicious. Best local food you can get is hummus and falafel (the shwarma here is always super dry!) and it's the best deal at $10 for a meal. Most restaurants in West Jerusalem are closed Friday afternoon - Saturday for Shabbat. Most restaurants in East Jerusalem are hummus and grilled meat places, I would even say zero fine dinning. Not a lot of variety beyond bistro food, burgers and pizza. A taco place just opened and it's good but it costs US$15 for 3 tiny tacos.... - Aug 2018
Lots of restaurants, most are Middle Eastern. Though there are many slightly upscale restaurants that sound different by description, they all have basically the same menu: a fish dish, a steak, a burger, a pasta with olive oil and artichokes or some other seasonal vegetable. It's good, but we find that it gets boring. Eating out is kind of expensive (the same or more than NY prices), so it doesn't seem worth it for that type of food. Most restaurants close Friday night to Saturday. No food delivery, but take out is possible for ok pizza and some "fast food" type things, like Thai noodles. The Thai noodles do not taste Thai to us, but are good. No Chinese, no Indian, and no Mexican; there's not a lot of spicy food here. You have to go to Tel Aviv for all of those things. - Apr 2018
Many excellent restaurant options in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv -- too many to list. Eating out is great but super-expensive. No good Chinese options however. Food delivery exists, but they don't quite have it down yet. Takeout exists as well but they call it "Take Away." - Dec 2016
Food of most kinds, but mostly expensive. There are a few cheap options for food (you can find a $2.00 falafel sandwich inside the Muslim quarter (best falafel in the city is 100 m inside Damascus Gate in my opinion), or you can spend $5.00 for a falafel on Jaffa St). Otherwise, things are generally expensive - you can spend $15 for an awful bigmac meal at McDonalds (seriously) or pay $40 for a decent meal at a decent restaurant. You know things are expensive here when you return to D.C. and are amazed at how reasonable prices are when eating out. There is one Indian restaurant in Jerusalem that I know of. - Aug 2015
Lots of good food (though Tel Aviv is the best). - Best upscale restaurants: Machane Yehuda, Mona, Smadar, Colony, Culinary Workshop, Notre Dame (mostly for the wine and view) - Best medium-priced restaurants: P3 (best Pizza), Azzahra, Armenian Tavern - Best cheap spots: Aroma (Israel's starbuck's equivalent), Lina's (old city), Abu Shukri (old city), Iwo's (non-kosher burger place) - Aug 2015
The food here is again "AMAZING!" There are some fast food places, McDonald's (kosher), Dominos (the sauce is different from the States so the taste is a lot different as well) and maybe another one or two but they are really not worth it. If you are going to do it, do it right and find the good places to eat! Facasia's was our favorite and was open on Shabbat. Eating out is pretty pricey. For two people to eat someplace nice it was around US$100. - May 2015
Israel/Jerusalem has very few American businesses here. Only American brands you will find are KFC in Bethlehem, McDonald's (kosher), Pizza Hut, and Dominoes. There are many shwarma and schniztel places where you can grab something quick. - Mar 2014
KFC in Bethlehem and Ramallah, McDonald's, Dominos pizza, other local chains. There are nice high-end restaurants with good food, mostly local cuisine some French and Italian. Forget about Asian and Mexican. Everything is expensive here. - Aug 2013
There are few international fast food chains, although McDonald's is here. Most restaurants in Jerusalem are cafes that are part of Israeli chains. The quality is generally high. There are also a few higher-end restaurants, but Tel Aviv has many, many more. An average meal at one of the higher end restaurants will cost as much as a meal in Washington, DC. The vast majority of Jerusalem restaurants are kosher, which means that they serve only dairy products or only meat products. Moreover, they are closed on Shabbat, which runs from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. There are about 10-15 quality non-kosher restaurants in West Jerusalem that ignore these rules, but this small scene can feel monotonous after awhile, especially since most of the restaurants are owned by a few conglomerates. - Jul 2013
All of them, but most of them are Kosher, no peperoni pizza or cheeseburgers. - Feb 2009
