Yudale

Yudale is Machneyuda's smaller, younger, louder sister restaurant — opened by the same three chef-owners in 2016, two doors down the same alley, and built around a dramatically different concept. Where Machneyuda is a full-service Mediterranean restaurant, Yudale is a mezze bar — sharing plates, bar-counter seating, a compressed twenty-table dining room, and a wine list focused aggressively on Israeli and Lebanese small producers.

The cooking is a condensed version of the Machneyuda philosophy. Kubbeh soup — a Kurdish-Jewish dumpling broth — is the house signature. Charred aubergine with tahini, black garlic and pomegranate; market-caught ceviche with coconut milk and coriander; a harissa-spiced lamb kebab on a bed of tabbouleh. Portions are mezze-scale; a table of four will order twelve to fifteen plates and share all of them.

For a solo diner, Yudale's long bar counter — facing the open kitchen — is one of the best single-diner seats in Israel. The kitchen brigade is young, energetic, happy to chat with any counter diner who shows interest; the bartenders know the wine list without hesitation; the pacing of the solo meal is however long you want it to be. Yudale is loud enough that a single diner with a book is never conspicuous.

Pricing is softer than any of Jerusalem's other destination restaurants — ILS 220 per person will buy a generous solo dinner with two glasses of good Israeli wine. For a first date on a budget, it is the romantic-yet-reasonable answer. For a team dinner of four to eight, the back corner tables under the aubergine-coloured mural work well and the sharing format suits any group dynamic.

Bar counter seating, an open kitchen, and pacing set by the diner. Jerusalem's best solo meal.