Tel Aviv restaurant wins award in Abu Dhabi
George & John is Israel's best restaurant and sixth best in Middle East & Africa
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
The Drisco Hotel’s George & John restaurant has been named the Best Restaurant in Israel and the sixth Best Restaurant in the Middle East and North Africa at the the annual World’s 50 Best Awards. Chef Tomer Tal and The Drisco Hotel CEO and founder Avi Zak were at the ceremony in Abu Dhabi to accept the award.
“We are truly honored to be recognised for our commitment to quality, innovative cuisine that celebrates the best of local ingredients here in Israel,” said Tomer. “This award is a testament to our craft in the kitchen and our imagination for what modern Middle Eastern cuisine can be. We will keep striving to please the world’s most discerning diners.”
Avi Zak stated: “In 2018, I met Tomer Tal and invited him to join me in realising a dream: to open Israel’s best restaurant in Israel’s best hotel. Happily, Tomer accepted the offer, and we have been working nonstop since then to realise our common vision. It’s not easy, and it can be difficult at times, but when two people want something so strongly and are surrounded by a determined and talented team, anything is possible. We completed our first mission after five challenging years. Our next goal is to join the Michelin guide and make the list of the world’s 50 best restaurants, for which we will continue to improve and work hard for our valued customers.”
Tomer draws on combines flavours and recipes from his Jewish-Moroccan heritage. Each beautifully plated dish tells its own story, showing an aspect of the local eastern Mediterranean cuisine. George & John’s home, a 19th-century construction in the heart of Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s American Colony neighborhood, is a source of continual inspiration to the chef and his dedicated team. The founding brothers, after whom the establishment is named, set up shop in one of the country’s first modern hotels; the rest is history. The hotel now hosts Jaffa’s first wine bar and outdoor grill. Several kinds of charcoal-based grills and smokers are used in the kitchen: the hand-chopped kebab is prepared in a small, traditional Middle Eastern classic grill; while wild local cabbage is smoked in a clay pot smoker, set in George & John’s garden.
One of the restaurant’s signature dishes is the tuna carpaccio, served with black garlic sauce, puffed tapioca in dashi and seasonal herbs and juicy Medjool dates. For a taste of the grill, opt for the lamb chops in charcoal, slow-roasted with a tahdig (traditional Persian scorched rice) tart and glazed quince.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
