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Yavne is the new cool bar on the block – recently voted one of the best bars in Tel Aviv in the Secret Tel Aviv Best Nightlife Spots Poll Summer 2017!

We’ve sent Guest Blogger Vanessa Perplies to check it out…


‘Yanve Bar – Sinfully Good Eats, Cool Drinks and Fresh, Electric Beats’

Written by Vanessa Perplies, Secret Tel Aviv Guest Blogger

Open only 2 friggin months, at 19:30 it was already packed with people on a school night – an eclectic mix of the young, too cool for school hipster crowd, wannabee Tel Aviv socialites and large families out to dinner. Tucked away behind Allenby, this is definitely a blink and you’ll miss it kind of place – but that would be an epic, bloody shame.

With glowing neon, electric lights, the design is the lovechild of a 70s lounge bar meets 90s Las Vegas Casino, but posh and upcycled with a nod to the Kuli Alma cool kid crowd meets Melrose hipster vibe.

The open kitchen is equally impressive – marinating racks of red meat delicately dance off of metal hooks while busy chefs grill, bake and slice sustainable, local, organic, and antibiotic-free fish, meats, veggies and breads to perfection.

The signature flamingo pink Yavne cocktail is served in a cocktail glass that looks like something out of grandpa’s liquor cabinet and gives me happy flashbacks to childhoods spent at the Flamingo Las Vegas casino buffet. The house drink itself blends beet syrup (because everything beets, please!), Finlandia vodka, St. Germain elderflower liqueur (I feel chic and European), cucumbers, lemons and mint into a light, cool, and synergistic combination – not too sweet or overwhelmingly alcoholic but just right and oh so satisfying going down. I savor and nurse my drink nearly the whole night.

A self-admitting paleo-diet drop out, I ordered the house bread as a middle finger to the popular diet fad. Two thick, hearty slices in a brown paper bag greet me with the perfect ratio of crisp crust to dense buttery, cloud-soft insides, served with creamy butter, horseradish, radishes and sea salt.

I literally dream about grilled, root vegetables drizzled with olive oil and sea salt so I’m salivating at the mouth when I order this dish. It’s so popular that I see it on almost every single table – a sign of good things to come. I’m a big fan of simple dishes that get it right and this starter gets it oh-so-right. The grilled root veggies taste smoky, rich, and sinful dipped in cool, smooth and creamy house yogurt sauce.

Because I’m throwing gang signs up at any semblance of a diet tonight, I decide to order the beef necks in a rustic pita, mixed with creamy tehina and tart, lemon preserves. It arrives hot and in another brown paper bag while my +1 looks at me like a rabid dog who would kill me for its next meal. As I bite into the rustic, brown pita, I think this is truly what heaven tastes like. It reminds me of the pita sandwiches from the (slightly overrated) Miznon but much better – richer and far more complex –with bold, tart lemon overtones and creamy, salty tehina to drown them in.

Tonight is about giving a giant f*ck you to the calorie gods, so we order the marshmallow – a giant gob of skewered brown marshmallow, served in crème fresh. It’s just a tad too sweet and missing chocolate and graham crackers (because Murica’) but an overall win.

Next to the bar is a groovy DJ booth and an impressive turn table – with live, local DJs spinning everything from African beats to reggae, jazz and soon even hip-hop! I left rriigghhttt as the restaurant vibe started evolving into the hardcore Tel Aviv bar scene – a feel-good shahta smoking vibe of shanti shanti Kuli Alma kids who want sinful, good eats to go with their cool drinks and fresh, electric beats.

Most restaurant bars try to walk the thin line between bar and restaurant but just can’t switch lanes – either excelling in one area or leaving you wanting more somehow. With my taste buds screaming happy, happy, joy, joy, the warm, the ‘rosh-tov’ feeling of a perfect cocktail and the simple pleasures of good music and good vibes – Yavne Bar is a not-to-be missed place to take a date, your parents or come and hang out for an electrifying night out in Tel Aviv.


* Some history of the name: Yavne Bar and Restaurant shares its name with one of the less-than-exciting cities of Southern Israel. Aside from the Ben N Jerry’s factory store, an outdoor strip mall and the pilgrimage spot of Rabbi Gamliel Divneh (who?), Yavneh is a strictly pass-through but don’t bother stopping by kind of town.

Although it shares its name with this regrettable city, Yavne Bar and Restaurant beckons like a bright, neon, Northern Star in a city of barely memorable restaurant bars


Written by Vanessa Perplies. To become a guest writer at Secret Tel Aviv complete this form. 


Secret Tel Aviv Certified

This bar is featured in Secret Tel Aviv’s Guide to ‘The Best Bars in Tel Aviv’.



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