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Opa

Tel Aviv

Vegetables reimagined by Shirel Berger

On the Pass

Shirel Berger

What's it all about? Opa, run by Chef Shirel Berger and her identical twin sister, Sharona, is located in a small bright space in Tel Aviv’s hipster Florentine neighbourhood. Berger’s 11-course, plant-based seasonal tasting menu gives local raw materials an unexpected personal interpretation, combined with always beautiful plating.

Not your average vegan joint: Opa’s menu may be entirely plant-based, but this restaurant is as far away as possible from resembling most vegan spots. All the courses are based on locally grown fruits and vegetables, mostly circling around one ingredient cooked or cured in several variations, with minimum usage of legumes and carbs. Some of the highlights include strawberries with local wasabi, smoked pine nuts and eggplant amazake; beets with verujus, beat leaves and aged beet water; and cabbage with fermented mushroom stock and rosemary.

Date night: One of the Berger’s signatures dishes focuses on dates – an ingredient seldomly used in fine dining venues of Opa’s calibre.  After being smoked in-house, the local dates are accompanied by avocado, sourdough crumbs and herbs – the latter grown on the restaurant’s rooftop garden.

Zero waste: Berger and her team use all parts of the vegetables and fruits in the menu, fermenting and pickling some of them for years and storing them in jars placed on the kitchen’s walls. The cured ingredients will be used by this enigmatic chef in future menus.

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