Five Techniques, One Kitchen
Popina sits in a restored Neve Tzedek building — the first Jewish neighbourhood outside the old city walls of Jaffa, now Tel Aviv's most architecturally charming quarter — and it is unlike any other restaurant in the district. Where Neve Tzedek typically trades in garden-table romanticism (Dallal, Meshek Barzilay, Suzana), Popina operates as a serious technique-forward kitchen. The menu is organised around five cooking methods — cured, steamed, baked, roasted, slow-cooked — rather than courses or categories. Guests choose dishes across those columns, as if reading a tasting menu dissected into its constituent movements.
Chef Orel Kimchi (sometimes transliterated Kamahi) is the reason Popina works. He spent years in Paris under Joël Robuchon, another formative stretch at Juan Mari Arzak's three-star Arzak in San Sebastian, a year in New York, and a turn at Jerusalem's Cavalier before opening his own room. The dishes reflect all of it. Pumpkin-jam ravioli with amaretto, foie gras, roasted almonds and truffle foam. A shrimp burger lifted by yuzu aioli. Raw fish tartare set in gin-and-tonic jelly. The inventions land about seventy percent of the time — some diners leave raving, others leave irritated — and the hit rate is higher than in any other Tel Aviv kitchen working this hard.
The room is intimate, dimly lit, priced reasonably for cooking at this level. A small courtyard hosts Itta, a pop-up wine bar that has become one of the most interesting neighbourhood additions of the past year. Popina is divisive — you will meet Tel Avivians who call it pretentious and Tel Avivians who call it the best restaurant in the city, sometimes at the same dinner party. This is the correct pattern for any restaurant worth arguing about.
Best for First Date
Popina is a first date for the diner who cares about food, wants something to talk about, and is comfortable with a restaurant that takes risks. The five-technique menu framework gives structure to the conversation — ordering becomes a small collaborative project. The Neve Tzedek setting provides a pre-dinner walk through what is arguably the most beautiful streetscape in Tel Aviv. The price point is serious without being intimidating. And if the food polarises — some of Kimchi's inventions are more successful than others — the conversation about it will reveal something useful about the person across the table. A first date at Popina is an early filter. Both outcomes are acceptable.