"Chef Alaa Musa’s harbour-street Italian: fish crudo, charcoal sirloin and small plates from the Lux team. Book it for a first date."
Crudo sits on HaNamal Street, the old harbour road in downtown Haifa, a short walk from the German Colony. Chef Alaa Musa and his partner Ahmad Assadi opened it after Lux, their first restaurant nearby; crudo, Italian for raw, sets the tone for a menu of Northern-Italian and Mediterranean small plates meant for sharing. You can eat at the Taboon bar, on the harbour terrace, or in the second-floor Private Gallery. For the wider picture, see our Haifa dining guide.
Alaa Musa began cooking at fifteen under Uri Buri in Acre, then worked Tel Aviv kitchens and the Michelin-starred F12 and La Rose in Sweden before returning north. At Crudo he sends out fish crudo with squeezed tomato and shanklish labneh (₪68), a freekeh arancini (₪52), crab agnolotti in fish sauce (₪94), a seafood linguine with calamari and mussels (₪98), and a charcoal-grilled sirloin with porcini sauce (₪134). Pizzas come from the taboon. It reads Italian but cooks with a clear Levantine accent. Read our guide to the best Italian restaurants worldwide, or compare the meze-driven cooking at Douzan in the German Colony.
The mood is laid-back and harbour-side rather than formal. There is a terrace open to the sea breeze off HaNamal Street, an indoor bar for drinks and snacks, and a quieter Private Gallery upstairs for eight to eighteen. The sound runs lively at the bar and calmer on the terrace, lighting is low and warm, and dress is smart-casual. Service is friendly and quick to steer you through the small-plates format.
Book Crudo for a first date because the small-plates format keeps the night moving: you share, you graze, you order another plate if it is going well. The harbour-street terrace is romantic without being stuffy, the cocktails at the Taboon bar make an easy start, and the cheque stays sane because you can build the meal plate by plate. Ask for a terrace table at sunset and start with the fish crudo. See more first-date restaurants.
Not for a quiet, hushed dinner — Crudo is a lively harbour bar built around shared small plates, so it suits grazing and drinks more than a formal sit-down.
Yes, for lively Italian-Mediterranean small plates on the harbour street. Crudo comes from chef Alaa Musa and partner Ahmad Assadi, the team behind the well-regarded Lux nearby, and the menu runs from fish crudo and freekeh arancini to charcoal-grilled sirloin and seafood pasta. Plates sit between ₪52 and ₪134, so the bill flexes with your appetite. See our Haifa dining guide for more.
Crudo is led by chef Alaa Musa, one of the leading figures in contemporary Arab cooking in Israel. He started at fifteen at Uri Buri in Acre, worked Tel Aviv restaurants and the Michelin-starred F12 and La Rose in Sweden, then opened Lux and Crudo on Haifa’s harbour street with partner Ahmad Assadi. His Crudo menu reads Northern Italian but carries a clear Levantine accent.
Start with the fish crudo with squeezed tomato and shanklish labneh (₪68) and the freekeh arancini (₪52). For mains, the seafood linguine with shrimp, calamari and mussels (₪98) and the charcoal-grilled sirloin with porcini sauce (₪134) are the plates to build around, with a taboon pizza for the table. It is a sharing menu, so order a spread across the bar and the grill.
Yes. The shared small plates keep conversation flowing, the harbour-street terrace is romantic at sunset, and the Taboon bar is an easy place to start with a cocktail. Because you order plate by plate, the cheque stays in your control, which makes it a relaxed rather than high-stakes date. See our first-date guide for more across the city.
Reserve via Ontopo. The harbour-street terrace is the seat to ask for on a warm evening; weekends book up.
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Crudo earns a place for its shared small plates and a harbour-street terrace built for an easy, unstuffy date.
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