The Galilee · Where to eat
Where to eat in the Galilee
The Galilee runs on two calendars: a kitchen with a kashrut certificate stops before sundown on Friday and reopens only once the Sabbath is out, while the Arab and Druze villages half an hour away serve straight through.
VAT inside the menu price
18%
Israel's standard rate in 2025. Prices are quoted gross, so the figure on the card is the figure on the bill.
Wild za'atar protected since
1977
Akoub followed in 2005. Both are staples of the Galilee's Arab kitchens, and both are picked under licence conditions.
Akoub a picker may take
50 kg
Per session in open country under the August 2019 amendments, and 5 kg inside a nature reserve.
Tips became wages on
1 Jan 2019
The National Labour Court ruled in March 2018 that restaurant tips are salary, with pension, tax and national insurance attached.
Eating in the Galilee is not a matter of finding a restaurant district, because there is not one. The good kitchens are scattered across hill villages, a lake shore, a forest and two or three moshavim, and most of them are twenty minutes from the next one by car. What holds the list together is that the region's everyday cooking is largely Arab: Galilean Palestinian food with Lebanese and Syrian roots, Druze village cooking, and the mezze habit that puts eight small plates on the table before anyone has ordered a main course.
The other thing that shapes a week here is the calendar, and it is the single most confusing part of a first visit. Tiberias, Safed, Karmiel and the moshavim keep a Jewish week: a certified kosher kitchen serves lunch on Friday and then closes until the Sabbath ends on Saturday night. Maghar, Rameh, Jish, Deir al-Asad, Mi'ilya and Nazareth keep a different one, serving on Friday and Saturday and shutting on a weekday instead. Two villages in sight of each other can be running opposite timetables, and the answer to "is anything open" is almost always yes, but not where you were standing.
The picks below run from a Druze grill house on a main road to a tasting menu above the Sea of Galilee, and each carries its kashrut status as far as the venue or a reliable source states it. Where nothing is stated, the entry says so rather than guessing.
13 places to eat
The places to eat worth the trip in The Galilee
Our pick and why, then everything the listing knows, with the date it was pulled.
01
Magdalena restaurant
The one dinner worth planning around
Yousef Hanna, known as Zozo, has cooked here since 2014 on a terrace at the Migdal junction with the Sea of Galilee below and Mount Arbel behind, and the restaurant calls itself an authentic Galilean chef's kitchen. What that means on the plate is village cooking rebuilt at restaurant pitch: Syrian makdous with Galilean labneh, tabbouleh with candied pumpkin, calamari with courgette and mint tzatziki, a labneh basbousa finished with olive oil and spiced syrup. Asif credits Hanna with training cooks who have gone on to open their own kitchens, which is a fair description of his standing in the region. The kitchen mixes meat with goat yoghurt and puts squid on the card, so it is not kosher and does not claim to be. Its own site runs two sittings, each with a stated last entry, so an unplanned arrival at nine in the evening is a wasted drive.
- Kashrut:
- Not kosher
- Known for:
- Makdous with Galilean labneh, Tabbouleh with candied pumpkin, Calamari with courgette and mint tzatziki, Labneh basbousa
Book. The restaurant publishes an afternoon and an evening sitting with a last entry time for each, and weekends fill.
“The food was perfect, the atmosphere is amazing and the service was lovely!”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.53,273 ratings88% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- מתחם הגליל, כביש 90
- Kitchen
- Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪₪ Expensive
- Phone
- +9724-673-0064
- Website
- magdalena.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Sat 12:30-21:30 02
Ezba
Palestinian home cooking, done properly
The Daoud family have been cooking in Rameh for about three decades, and Minerva learned the repertoire from her mother-in-law rather than from a menu consultant. Asif singles out the kibbeh sanieh, the shish barak and a harissa semolina cake made to order, and describes the kitchen as Shami cooking built on foraged and seasonal ingredients, which is why the card in March is not the card in September. The room sits in Rameh's industrial zone off the village junction, a setting nobody would choose and which tells you where the effort has gone. Meat cooked in yoghurt puts it firmly outside kashrut. It closes one day a week and keeps village hours, so check before committing an evening to it.
- Kashrut:
- Not kosher
- Known for:
- Kibbeh sanieh, Shish barak in yoghurt, Harissa semolina cake
Ring ahead. It is a small family dining room, it shuts one weekday, and the good seasonal dishes run out.
“Incredible food, cozy environment, amazing price.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.41,714 ratings84% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- צומת ראמה מערב
- Kitchen
- Restaurant, Middle Eastern restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-988-8808
- Website
- ezba-rest.com
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun 12:00-18:00 Mon Closed Tue-Sat 12:00-21:00 03
Decks Restaurant
A kosher dinner out over the water
Decks is built in local basalt on a deck that runs out into the Kinneret at the Lido, north of central Tiberias, and its own site states that the kitchen is fully mehadrin kosher. The grilling is the reason to come: meat and locally caught fish cooked over charcoal from olive, citrus and nut wood, with lamb, cattle and geese bought from named farmers rather than a wholesaler. Because the certificate is real, the week is shaped by it, and the restaurant publishes the shape: midday to late Sunday to Thursday, Friday only until the Sabbath starts, Saturday only from the moment it ends. The decks seat hundreds and the tables against the rail go first. For anyone who needs a certified kitchen and does not want a hotel buffet, this is the obvious answer in the north.
- Kashrut:
- Kosher
- Known for:
- Meat grilled over olive, citrus and nut charcoal, Locally caught fish, Lamb
Ask for a table at the rail. Saturday service begins only once the Sabbath is out, which in summer is late.
“The food was fresh, flavorful, and beautifully presented.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 3.92,475 ratings69% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Gdud Barak St 13
- Kitchen
- Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-671-0800
- Website
- decks.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Thu 12:00-23:00 Fri 12:00-16:00 Sat 20:15-23:30 04
Goats With The Wind
A long lunch on a goat farm
This is a working goat farm near Moshav Yodfat that makes organic cheese and runs a restaurant largely to sell it, in stone buildings the owners built from stone cleared off their own land. The menu is fixed, organic and dairy: cheese after cheese with salads, leavened bread and herb tea, eaten outdoors under carob trees or on terraces looking over the valley, with a fire going in winter. The farm's own site says bookings must be made in advance and that a meat option is possible with notice for parties of four or more, which is also a clear signal that this is not a kosher kitchen. Lunch is the only meal and it takes most of an afternoon. Bring cash and do not plan anything immediately afterwards.
- Known for:
- Fixed organic goat cheese menu, Salads and leavened bread, Herbal tea and cookies
The farm states that bookings must be made in advance. It is at the end of a track and does not take walk-ins.
“Exceptional experience, the atmosphere is rural and calm.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.4210 ratings85% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Kitchen
- Restaurant
- Phone
- +97250-532-7387
- Website
- goatswiththewind.com
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Sat 12:00-15:00 05
Fuego
Serious grilled meat in a Druze town
Fuego stands on the main road through Maghar, a hill town of Druze, Muslim and Christian residents between Karmiel and Tiberias, and it is the sort of address Galilee families drive to rather than one visitors stumble on. The kitchen is open to the room and built around a fire wall the restaurant measures at seven metres, holding grills, smokers and a tandoor. The card is house cuts of beef and lamb, entrecote, fillet, T-bone, lamb ribs and mixed platters, with fish and vegetarian dishes for the rest of the table. It seats around eighty-five, keeps a private room by arrangement and closes one day a week. Its site makes no kashrut claim of any kind, so anyone who needs a certificate should look elsewhere.
- Known for:
- Entrecote, fillet and T-bone, Lamb ribs, Mixed meat platters
The site takes reservations and the dining room is not large. Book for Friday and Saturday nights.
“Delicious food, great survey, easy parking.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.9457 ratings97% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- ראשי
- Kitchen
- Restaurant, Chophouse restaurant, Meat dish restaurant
- Phone
- +9724-655-5210
- Website
- fuego-meat.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun 12:00-23:00 Mon Closed Tue-Sat 12:00-23:00 06
Chateau du Roi
Dinner inside a Crusader fortress
Mi'ilya is a Christian Arab village built in and around a twelfth-century Crusader castle raised under Baldwin III, and this restaurant occupies part of it, above the Frankish wine cellar. The cooking is Italian rather than Galilean, run by a chef the house names as Elian Lios with three decades of restaurant work in Italy behind him, which is not what the stonework leads you to expect. Its own site publishes a short week: evenings Wednesday to Friday, from midday on Saturday, closed Sunday to Tuesday. Eight rooms are built into the fortress if dinner turns into a night, and the wine list is the point of the cellar. This is the western Galilee's dress-up meal and it has to be planned around those closed days.
- Known for:
- Italian menu, Wine list held in the Frankish cellar
Closed Sunday to Tuesday on its own published hours, and it is a long way from anywhere else. Confirm before driving.
“Great location, breathtaking old building, the best food, great service”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.51,606 ratings86% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Alkhasni`a St Mi`ilya
- Kitchen
- Italian, Heritage museum, Hotel
- Price band
- ₪₪₪ Expensive
- Phone
- +97252-397-5064
- Website
- chateauduroi.co.il
07
Bait77
A slow breakfast on a vegetarian hilltop
Amirim is a moshav that has been vegetarian since its founding, to the point that the village hospitality pages note the local shop stocks no meat, fish or poultry. Bait77 is its bakery and cafe, a family operation with an art and craft gallery and a small health shop attached and a terrace looking east towards the Kinneret. Breakfasts, quiches, soups, salads and wholemeal breads make up most of the day, with pizza from a stone oven on Thursday evenings. It keeps daytime hours and closes two days a week, which catches people out more often than anything else on this list. Come mid-morning, stay an hour longer than planned, and buy bread on the way out.
- Known for:
- Wholemeal breads and pastries, Quiches and soups, Thursday stone-oven pizza
“Nice breakfast Beautiful view Wonderful peaceful atmosphere 💗”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.3928 ratings83% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Mitzpeh Menakhem St 77
- Kitchen
- Cafe, Art gallery, Bakery
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-698-0984
- Website
- bait77.com
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun Closed Mon-Wed 09:00-17:00 Thu 09:00-22:00 Fri 09:00-17:00 Sat Closed 08
Bat-Ya'ar Farm
A forest steakhouse on a cold night
Bat Ya'ar is a ranch inside the Birya forest north of Safed, which its own site places at eight hundred metres with the Galilee, the Golan and Hermon in view and horses working the grounds. The restaurant is a grill house first, with steaks, picnic baskets and a farm shop, and an events barn that carries much of the business. Getting there means forest roads in the dark, and it charges like a destination, but on a clear cold evening the fire and the altitude earn most of that back. The site advertises kosher catering for events while making no kashrut claim for the restaurant itself, so anyone who needs a certificate should ask specifically before booking. Reserve through the online system rather than arriving hopefully.
- Known for:
- Steaks from the forest grill, Picnic baskets
Books through an online system, and it doubles as a wedding venue, so weekends and festival weeks go early.
“The food was delicious, made with quality ingredients, and nicely presented.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.66,848 ratings91% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- ד.נ מרום הגליל מצפה
- Kitchen
- Chophouse restaurant, Event venue, Horseback riding service
- Price band
- ₪₪₪ Expensive
- Phone
- +9724-692-1788
- Website
- batyaar.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Sat 12:00-22:00 09
Amirey Hagalil Hotel
Kosher dinner without the hotel buffet
The hotel sits below Amirim in a building laid out like a Turkish khan around a courtyard with an old olive tree in it, and its restaurant, Bein Kramim, takes its name from the olive groves and vineyards it overlooks. The hotel's own English page describes the kitchen as strictly kosher, mehadrin, under the supervision of the Marom HaGalil local rabbinate, with Chef Itay Leibovitch running it. It serves hotel guests, local residents and passing travellers, which matters in a stretch of the Upper Galilee where a certified kitchen after dark is genuinely hard to find. Dinner is a set multi-course meal rather than a card to graze, and there is no Saturday dinner service. Book it as an event rather than as a fallback.
- Kashrut:
- Kosher
- Known for:
- Multi-course kosher dinner menu, Israeli breakfast
A hotel dining room with limited covers, evenings only, and no dinner on Saturday. Ring ahead.
“The staff are kind, the food is fresh and delicious.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.71,540 ratings95% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Near Amirim Village
- Kitchen
- Restaurant, Hotel, Spa
- Phone
- +9724-698-9815
- Website
- amirey-hagalil.com
10
Hermitage restaurant
Kinneret fish on the Tiberias promenade
The Hermitage occupies a basalt building on the Yigal Alon promenade that the restaurant dates at more than eight hundred years old, with an Antiquities Authority panel at the entrance explaining it. The kitchen describes itself as traditional Arab: fresh fish from the Kinneret and the Mediterranean, selected meats, seafood and a long run of salads, with vegetarian, vegan and children's dishes listed alongside. Seafood on the menu settles the kashrut question, and the doors stay open every day including Saturday, which for some visitors is precisely the appeal. Tiberias's waterfront is loud and heavily touristed; this is the older and quieter room on it. Ask for a table outside rather than in the hall.
- Kashrut:
- Not kosher
- Known for:
- Kinneret fish, Mezze salads, Grilled meats
“amazing service, very pricey but the food is great”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.21,711 ratings80% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Yigal Alon Promenade
- Kitchen
- Seafood, Meat dish restaurant, Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +97277-822-4200
- Website
- hermitage-restaurant.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Sat 12:00-23:00 11
Tupelo - Wheat Free Bakery
The coeliac's address in the western Galilee
Tupelo bakes without wheat at all, which in a country whose default carbohydrate is pita is rarer than it sounds. It was set up by Vered Baer and Murad Bishara in Tarshiha, the Arab half of the joined town of Ma'alot-Tarshiha, down a lane with a shaded courtyard behind it. Sourdough, quiches, cakes, salads and sandwiches make up the menu, with vegan options running through it. It opens for mornings and early afternoons only and is closed at the start of the week, so it belongs in a day that also takes in Montfort or Rosh Hanikra rather than in an evening plan. For anyone travelling with coeliac disease it is the most useful entry on this page.
- Known for:
- Gluten-free sourdough, Quiches, Cakes and pastries
“We are in heaven - atmosphere, food and atmosphere arw perfect!”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.8367 ratings95% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Ha-Knesiyot St 10
- Kitchen
- Cafe, Bakery, Coffee shop
- Phone
- +97273-787-1899
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Mon Closed Tue-Sat 08:30-15:00 12
Arthur Cafe
The coffee cart locals stop at
A good share of the best coffee on the Kinneret comes out of carts rather than cafes, and Arthur is one of the fixtures: a truck parked on a terrace at Moshava Kinneret with the lake and the Golan escarpment filling the view. Coffee, cold drinks and beer are the core, with sandwiches, cakes and pizza from an oven in the evenings on most days of the week. Seating is sofas, low tables and high tables, all outside, which makes it weather-dependent and close to perfect for about eight months of the year. It opens early enough to be the first stop before a morning at the lake sites. Nobody dresses up, nobody books, and that is the whole idea.
- Known for:
- Espresso and iced coffee, Oven pizza in the evenings, Sandwiches
“Amazing location❤️ great staff, very friendly, fresh food and a cute dog😘”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.51,236 ratings87% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- חצר כינרת
- Kitchen
- Cafe
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +97250-233-3316
- Website
- instagram.com
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun 08:00-22:00 Mon 08:00-15:00 Tue-Thu 08:00-22:00 Fri 08:00-15:00 Sat 08:00-22:00 13
Al Kharouba
A cheap late supper in the hills
Al Kharouba sits high in Maghar and works as half restaurant and half pub, with a Mediterranean card and a spread of salads that reaches the table before anything you ordered does. It is the cheap end of this list and one of the few kitchens in the hill towns still serving long after the coast has gone to bed. Nothing about it is arranged for visitors, which is the recommendation rather than the warning: the room fills with people from Maghar and the villages around it. It does not open until the afternoon and it closes one day a week, so treat it as a supper address. Take cash and do not count on an English menu at every table.
- Known for:
- Mezze salads, Grills
“The salads are great.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.7256 ratings92% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Kitchen
- Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪ Inexpensive
- Phone
- +97252-811-2517
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun 15:00-00:00 Mon Closed Tue-Thu 15:00-00:00 Fri 15:00-00:30 Sat 15:00-23:30
The kitchen
Two cuisines on one hillside, and an argument about a thistle
The dominant cooking of the Galilee is Shami, the food of greater Syria, carried into Israeli hill villages by families who have made it the same way for generations. Asif, the Israeli culinary institute, describes the Galilean Palestinian kitchen as drawing on Lebanese and Syrian traditions and leaning hard on what grows locally. In practice that means kibbeh sanieh, the bulgur and meat tray; shish barak, meat dumplings cooked in goat yoghurt; makdous, small aubergines cured in oil; labneh, freekeh, olive oil pressed within a few kilometres of the table. Because dumplings in yoghurt put meat and milk in the same pot, a great deal of the best food in the region is by definition not kosher, and no amount of wanting it to be otherwise changes that.
A striking amount of what goes into these dishes is picked rather than farmed, and that is where the law arrives. Wild za'atar was declared a protected plant in Israel in 1977 and akoub, the spiny gundelia that Arab kitchens braise in spring, followed in 2005, which made picking, holding or trading them a criminal matter. In August 2019 the rules were relaxed for personal use: up to 50 kilos a session in open country and 5 kilos inside a nature reserve. The science is genuinely contested. One 1995 study found that 29 per cent of heavily harvested akoub plants flowered again the following year against 65 per cent of untouched ones, while Palestinian legal advocates argue the endangered status was never properly demonstrated and that a ban on a plant eaten almost entirely by one community is not a neutral conservation measure.
The lake supplies the other signature. Musht, the Galilee tilapia sold everywhere as St Peter's fish, is on the card at the Tiberias promenade restaurants and around the Migdal junction, usually grilled whole or fried. Goat dairies in the hills sell cheese from their own herds, and one of them, above Yodfat, feeds people rather than shipping the cheese out.
Against all that, the Jewish side of the Galilee's eating is thinner and more familiar: hotel dining rooms, forest steakhouses, kosher grills on the Tiberias waterfront, and the vegetarian moshav of Amirim, whose village shop stocks no meat, fish or poultry. Outside a dozen or so addresses the region does not really have a restaurant scene. A week here involves driving to dinner.
The week
Half the region closes on Friday afternoon and the other half does not
A kashrut certificate is a statement about a kitchen's supplies, equipment and calendar, and the calendar is the part a visitor feels. Decks, the grill built out over the water at the Lido in Tiberias, publishes the pattern on its own site: open from midday Sunday to Thursday, on Friday only until the Sabbath begins, and on Saturday only from the moment it ends. In midsummer that means a Saturday dinner service starting well after dark. Hotel dining rooms solve the same problem differently, cooking in advance and holding food warm, which is why a Friday night in a kosher hotel is a buffet rather than a menu.
The Arab and Druze towns run the opposite week. Maghar, Rameh, Deir al-Asad, Jish and Mi'ilya keep Friday and Saturday as trading days and take a weekday off instead, often Monday. Nazareth adds a third rhythm: it is a Christian city, so Sunday morning is church time and some cafes open late or not at all. The consequence is that an unplanned Friday night is the hardest meal of the week to find in Tiberias or Safed and one of the easiest in Maghar.
Who is allowed to certify a kitchen has been unsettled for several years and has just been settled again. A 2022 reform opened kosher supervision to private Orthodox bodies under the Chief Rabbinate's regulation, and Tzohar among others began issuing certificates in its own name. On 15 July 2026 the Knesset gave final approval, by 46 to 41, to a law restoring the Chief Rabbinate's exclusive control, which strips those private bodies of the power to certify. For a traveller the effect is narrow but real: a certificate in a window may have been issued under rules that have since changed, and anyone who keeps kosher strictly should read whose name is on it rather than assume.
None of this maps onto halal, which is a separate question with a separate answer, and the villages do not run a single policy on alcohol either. Some restaurants are half pub; others pour none at all. It varies village by village, so ask when you ring.
Practicalities
Booking, tipping, water, and the salads you did not order
Booking is a two-tier business here. The handful of destination kitchens take reservations online and genuinely need them at weekends, and the farm lunches, which cook a fixed menu for a fixed number of people, will not seat a walk-in at all. Everything else runs on turning up, with the caveat that a village restaurant closed on its weekday off does not care that you drove an hour. If nobody answers the phone, try again nearer opening time rather than concluding the place has shut.
Tipping is expected and is left on top of the bill rather than added to it. Israeli restaurants rarely apply a service charge, and since the National Labour Court's ruling of March 2018, which took effect on 1 January 2019, tips in the restaurant trade count as wages: employers owe pension, national insurance and income tax on them, and money collected centrally cannot be spent on anything but staff pay. The practical upshot is that the tip is no longer an off-books cash gift, and paying it on the card is normal.
The price on the menu is the price you pay. Israel's standard VAT rate has been 18 per cent since 2025 and it is already inside the printed figure, so nothing is added at the till except what you choose to leave. Tap water is normally poured on request and a bottle on the table is a charged item, so say which one you want. Cash is still useful: the farm kitchens and the village restaurants are the ones most likely to prefer it and the furthest from a cash machine.
Portions are the thing most visitors misjudge. At many Arab and Druze restaurants a spread of small salads, pickles and dips lands with the bread before you have ordered, and at a lot of them it comes with the main course rather than as an extra; at others it is charged. Ask, then order roughly two thirds of what instinct suggests. A mixed grill for two in a Galilee hill town is a mixed grill for three anywhere else.
Geography
There is no restaurant district, so pick a base and eat around it
The lake shore is the densest cluster. Tiberias has the Yigal Alon promenade, where the older stone buildings hold fish restaurants, and the Lido north of it, where the kosher grill sits out on the water. Ten minutes further, the Migdal junction on Road 90 carries the region's most ambitious kitchen and a couple of fish houses. Between them sit the coffee carts, a genuine Galilee institution rather than a stopgap: a truck, a terrace, a view of the Golan escarpment and better coffee than most cafes.
The hill towns along Route 85 and around Karmiel are where the value is. Maghar, Rameh, Deir al-Asad and Jish hold grill houses, a winery restaurant and village kitchens that cost a fraction of the lake shore and open when the lake shore does not. It is also where the food is least adapted for visitors, which is the point of coming.
Nazareth works better as a long breakfast than as a dinner. Its old city and centre carry coffee roasteries, bakeries and small cafes rather than big dining rooms. Further west, Mi'ilya's Crusader castle holds an Italian restaurant, and Ma'alot-Tarshiha has the region's most useful address for anyone who cannot eat wheat.
The last piece of advice is negative. Long stretches of Route 90 and Route 65 offer nothing but a petrol station forecourt, several of the best kitchens serve lunch only, and the ones that do dinner stop taking orders earlier than a European visitor expects. Decide where dinner is before you set out for the afternoon.
The full list
Every place to eat we found in The Galilee
All 37 that Google Maps returned for this area, ranked by rating weighted for how many people rated it, so a five from three people does not outrank a four and a half from three thousand.
| Name | Kind | Rating | Ratings | Price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosé Roastery Boutique Café | Coffee store | 5.0 | 225 | n/a | Nazareth |
| Fuegoמסעדת פואגו - מסעדה בשרית | Restaurant | 4.9 | 457 | n/a | Maghar |
| Cafe Cocenקפה כוכן - Cafe Cocen עגלת קפה מול הכנרת | Coffee shop | 4.9 | 300 | n/a | Chorazim |
| Serra Cafe | Coffee shop | 4.9 | 191 | n/a | Rameh |
| Omnia by AngusOMNIA BY ANGUS | Chophouse restaurant | 4.8 | 737 | n/a | Deir al-Asad |
| moran slowness | Restaurant | 4.8 | 368 | n/a | Moran |
| Tupelo - Wheat Free BakeryTupelo - Wheat Free Bakery טופלו מאפייה ללא חיטה | Cafe | 4.8 | 367 | n/a | Ma'alot-Tarshiha |
| Coffee Cap Espresso Bar | Cafe | 4.8 | 258 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Mikol HaLevמכל הלב - אירוח דרוזי | Family-friendly | 4.9 | 62 | n/a | Yanuh-Jat |
| Basata Gallery & Cafe | Coffee shop | 4.9 | 47 | n/a | Nazareth |
| Beesh Majd Alkurum | Coffee shop | 4.8 | 125 | n/a | Majd al-Krum |
| Cafe Kendis | Coffee shop | 5.0 | 21 | n/a | Kahal |
| Rai Winery & RestaurantRai Winery & Restaurant מסעדת ויקב ראי | Restaurant | 4.7 | 1,661 | n/a | Rameh |
| Baladna | Restaurant | 4.7 | 1,637 | ₪₪ | Jish |
| Cafe Moizeקפה מוייז - עגלת קפה בארץ הגולן | Cafe | 4.7 | 943 | ₪₪ | رموت |
| Beirut Restaurantמסעדת ביירות | Restaurant | 4.7 | 286 | ₪ | Maghar |
| Al Kharoubaאלחרובה | Restaurant | 4.7 | 256 | ₪ | Maghar |
| Ben HaMelechבן המלך ״כשר״ | Chophouse restaurant | 4.7 | 171 | n/a | Migdal |
| Cafe 65קפה 65 Cafe | Restaurant | 4.9 | 15 | n/a | גליל תחתון |
| Cafe HaGalilקפה הגליל | Coffee store | 4.6 | 144 | n/a | Maghar |
| Bat-Ya'ar Farm | Chophouse restaurant | 4.6 | 6,848 | ₪₪₪ | Amuka |
| David's Harp Restaurant Galilee | Seafood | 4.5 | 172 | n/a | Capernaum |
| Dream restaurant | Restaurant | 4.5 | 348 | ₪₪ | Kahal |
| Arthur Cafeארתור קפה - Arthur Cafe - עגלת קפה בכנרת | Cafe | 4.5 | 1,236 | ₪₪ | Kinneret |
| Chateau du Roi | Italian | 4.5 | 1,606 | ₪₪₪ | Mi'ilya |
| Magdalena restaurant | Restaurant | 4.5 | 3,273 | ₪₪₪ | Migdal |
| Shakaשאקה עגלת קפה על הכנרת | Coffee shop | 4.4 | 112 | n/a | Ginosar |
| Goats With The Wind | Restaurant | 4.4 | 210 | n/a | Yodfat |
| Ezba | Restaurant | 4.4 | 1,714 | ₪₪ | כפר ראמה |
| Cafe Yodfat | Cafe | 4.4 | 1,898 | ₪₪ | Yodfat |
| Tagalos | Restaurant | 4.4 | 2,082 | ₪₪ | Karmiel |
| Coffe club Genosar | Coffee shop | 4.2 | 54 | n/a | Ginosar |
| Bait77 | Cafe | 4.3 | 928 | ₪₪ | Amirim |
| Hermitage restaurant | Seafood | 4.2 | 1,711 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
| Tanureen | Seafood | 4.2 | 3,614 | ₪₪ | Migdal |
| Makom Yafe Lecafeמקום יפה לקפה Makom Yafe Lecafe | Cafe | 4.1 | 3,089 | ₪₪ | Kahal |
| Decks Restaurant | Restaurant | 3.9 | 2,475 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings and counts move daily and this table does not: it is a snapshot, and it is here so the ranking above can be checked rather than taken on trust. Prices are Google's own price band, not a menu price.
Practical
What to know before you go
- In Jewish towns, treat Friday as a lunch day. A kitchen with a kashrut certificate stops serving before sundown and does not reopen until the Sabbath is out on Saturday night, which in midsummer is well after dark.
- In the Arab and Druze villages the week runs the other way. Most kitchens serve on Friday and Saturday and close on a weekday instead, and Monday is the commonest one. Check which day before driving.
- Book the destination kitchens and treat the rest as walk-ins. The tasting menus, the castle restaurant and the farm lunches fill up; a village grill on a Tuesday does not.
- Ask whether the salads that arrive with the bread are included. At many Arab and Druze restaurants they come with the main course, at others they are charged, and the difference is worth knowing before you order starters as well.
- Ask for tap water. It is poured without argument in most places, and a bottle on the table is a line on the bill.
- Tip on top of the bill rather than expecting service to be inside it. Since 2019 what you leave is taxable wages rather than a gift, and paying it on the card is normal.
- Carry cash anyway. The farm kitchens and the village restaurants are the ones most likely to want it and the furthest from a cash machine.
- Do not count on finding food between towns. Long stretches of Route 90 and Route 65 offer nothing but a petrol station, and several of the best kitchens serve lunch only.
The figures
Numbers behind this page
Each figure carries the year it belongs to and links the source it came from.
| Measure | Figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard VAT rate in Israel, included in menu prices | 18% | 2025 | taxsummaries.pwc.com |
| Year wild za'atar was declared a protected plant | 1977 | 1977 | salon.com |
| Year akoub (gundelia) was declared a protected plant | 2005 | 2005 | salon.com |
| Akoub permitted per picking session in open country | 50 kg | 2019 | salon.com |
| Akoub permitted per picking session inside a nature reserve | 5 kg | 2019 | salon.com |
| Date restaurant tips became wages for tax and pension | 1 January 2019 | 2018 | timesofisrael.com |
| Knesset division restoring the Chief Rabbinate's kashrut monopoly | 46 to 41 | 2026 | timesofisrael.com |
The rest of the The Galilee guide
Sources and further reading
Every link below was opened and checked when this page was written. Official statements are marked as such: they are the subject's own account, not an independent one.
- OfficialMagdalenamagdalena.co.ilMagdalena, Migdal: the restaurant's own site
Self-description as a Galilean chef's restaurant, the Road 90 address at the Migdal junction, and the two sittings with a stated last entry.
- OfficialLido Kinneretdecks.co.ilDecks Restaurant, Lido Tiberias
The statement that the kitchen is fully mehadrin kosher, the olive, citrus and nut charcoal, and the Friday and Saturday Sabbath hours quoted in the kashrut section.
- OfficialAmirey Hagalil Boutique Hotelen.amirey-hagalil.comBein Kramim, the kosher restaurant at Amirey Hagalil
The hotel's own description of the restaurant as mehadrin under the Marom HaGalil local rabbinate, with Chef Itay Leibovitch. The site blocks automated readers, so this was read through its indexed page text.
- OfficialGoats with the Windgoatswiththewind.comGoats with the Wind: the farm restaurant
The fixed organic dairy menu, the meat option by prior notice for four or more, the carob-tree terraces and the requirement to book in advance.
- OfficialFuegofuego-meat.co.ilFuego, Maghar
The seven-metre fire wall with grills, smokers and tandoor, the cuts on the menu, the seating and private room, the closed weekday, and the absence of any kashrut claim.
- OfficialChateau du Roichateauduroi.co.ilChateau du Roi, Mi'ilya
The twelfth-century Crusader fortress of Baldwin III, chef Elian Lios, the eight rooms above the Frankish cellar, and the published Wednesday to Saturday hours.
- OfficialHermitage restauranthermitage-restaurant.co.ilHermitage, Tiberias
The traditional Arab kitchen, Kinneret and Mediterranean fish, seafood on the menu, the building described as over eight hundred years old, and daily opening.
- OfficialBat Yaarbatyaar.co.ilBat Yaar Ranch
The Birya forest setting at eight hundred metres, the meat restaurant and farm shop, the online booking system, and kosher catering offered for events but not claimed for the restaurant.
- ReportingThe Times of Israeltimesofisrael.comKnesset passes law restoring Chief Rabbinate's monopoly over kosher certification
Final approval on 15 July 2026 by 46 to 41, reversing the reform that let private Orthodox bodies certify in their own name.
- ReportingThe Times of Israeltimesofisrael.comCourt rules waiters must pay tax on tips, sparks fears of restaurant price rise
The National Labour Court ruling of 26 March 2018, effective 1 January 2019, treating restaurant tips as wages for tax, pension and national insurance.
- ReportingUndark, republished by Salonsalon.comFor Israelis and Palestinians, a battle over a humble plant
Za'atar protected from 1977 and akoub from 2005, the August 2019 allowances of 50 kg in open country and 5 kg in reserves, and the dispute over the 1995 reflowering study.
- ReferenceAsif: Culinary Institute of Israelasif.orgMagdalena
Chef Yousef (Zozo) Hanna since 2014, the dish list including makdous with Galilean labneh and labneh basbousa, and his role training other cooks.
- ReferenceAsif: Culinary Institute of Israelasif.orgEzba
The Daoud family, Shami cooking, kibbeh sanieh, shish barak and harissa cake, and the description of Galilean Palestinian cuisine used in the food section.
- ReferencePwC Worldwide Tax Summariestaxsummaries.pwc.comIsrael: corporate other taxes, value-added tax
The standard Israeli VAT rate of 18 per cent for 2025, used for the statement that menu prices are quoted gross.
Where to eat in the Galilee: common questions
If I only get one dinner in the Galilee, where should it be?+
Magdalena at the Migdal junction, if you can get a table and do not need a kosher kitchen. It is the region's most ambitious cooking, it looks over the Sea of Galilee, and the chef is credited by Israel's culinary institute with training much of the next generation of Galilean cooks. If you need a certificate, Decks at the Lido in Tiberias is the equivalent answer, and it grills over olive, citrus and nut charcoal.
Is there kosher food in the Galilee?+
Yes, but it is concentrated rather than everywhere. Tiberias, Safed, Karmiel and the Jewish moshavim carry certified kitchens, hotel dining rooms and grills, while the Arab and Druze villages that hold much of the region's best cooking do not. Two reliable options on this page are Decks in Tiberias, whose own site states the kitchen is fully mehadrin, and Bein Kramim at Amirey Hagalil near Amirim, described by the hotel as mehadrin under the Marom HaGalil local rabbinate.
What is open on Friday night and Saturday?+
Almost everything in the Arab, Druze and Christian towns, and very little with a kashrut certificate. Certified kitchens stop before sundown on Friday and reopen only after the Sabbath ends on Saturday night; hotels serve their guests from food cooked in advance. Maghar, Rameh, Jish, Mi'ilya and Nazareth are all trading normally on a Friday evening, and are typically twenty to forty minutes from wherever you are staying.
Do I need to book?+
For three or four places, yes, and for the rest, no. Magdalena runs sittings with a published last entry, Chateau du Roi opens only four days a week, and the farm restaurants cook a fixed menu for a booked number of people and will not seat you otherwise. Village grills, cafes and coffee carts take walk-ins, though many close one weekday, so a phone call still saves a wasted drive.
How much should I expect to pay?+
The range is unusually wide for a rural region. Village kitchens in the hill towns are among the cheapest sit-down meals in Israel, while the two or three destination restaurants are priced like Tel Aviv. Menu prices already include VAT, currently 18 per cent, so the printed figure is what you pay before the tip. The dated price band beside each entry below comes from the listing snapshot rather than from us.
Do I tip, and is service already on the bill?+
You tip, and service is usually not on the bill. Israeli restaurants rarely add a service charge, so the tip is left on top, and it can go on the card without awkwardness. Since the National Labour Court ruling that took effect on 1 January 2019, tips count as wages, which means the money is taxed and carries pension and national insurance rather than going straight into a pocket.
Is the food in the Arab and Druze villages halal?+
Usually, but it is a separate question from kashrut and it is not certified in the same visible way. Most kitchens in Muslim and Druze villages source accordingly; Christian villages such as Mi'ilya and Jish do not necessarily. Alcohol policy varies village by village rather than region-wide, with some restaurants running a bar and others serving none, so ask when you ring.
Can vegetarians and people who cannot eat wheat eat well here?+
Better than in most of Israel outside Tel Aviv. The mezze tradition is largely vegetable-based, so an Arab or Druze restaurant will feed a vegetarian generously without any special arrangement. Amirim is a wholly vegetarian moshav with a cafe and bakery at Bait77, and Tupelo in Tarshiha bakes entirely without wheat, which makes it the one address in the western Galilee a coeliac can rely on.
Is St Peter's fish worth ordering?+
It is worth ordering once, at the lake, and it is a fish rather than a delicacy. Musht, the Galilee tilapia, is the fish the promenade restaurants in Tiberias and the kitchens around Migdal grill or fry whole, and eating it within sight of the water it is named for is most of the point. Order it where fish is the kitchen's business rather than where it is one line on a long menu.
Where do locals actually eat?+
In the hill towns, and at coffee carts. Grill houses in Maghar, Rameh and Deir al-Asad fill with people from the surrounding villages rather than with visitors, and the coffee carts parked along the Kinneret shore and at Moshava Kinneret are where people from the valley stop on the way to and from work. Neither takes bookings, and neither has much interest in impressing anybody.