Without a doubt, when it comes to cuisine, Dubai is a world power and the undisputed number 1 in the Middle East. The field is simply dominated by Dubai. At best, Cairo may play along. And Israel. Israel! Well, one restaurant makes it into the top 10 with George & John in Tel Aviv. Israel’s disappointing performance in terms of cuisine is no coincidence.
I would like to contribute a few subjective impressions and considerations for the no-show of Israel, the largest economic and political and military power in the Middle East and the leading innovation center of the world par excellence.
First, there is a lack of fertile ground. This means you need a lot of good bars and restaurants to carve out a vibrant top-A cuisine.
Second, and above all, you need a large crowd of a cuisine affine clientele who not only has the necessary change, which is not easy given the high cost of living, but also the corresponding appreciation for culinary as art. Moreover, style and design and presentation are not really Israel’s strengths. It’s just not enough to be loud, young, expensive and wild.
If you then have to walk down a nasty, potholed road with a parked, littered sidewalk, which you can hardly call that as such because of more potholes, to a fancy eatery, you might prefer to stay at home. So, third, the infrastructure needs to be improved. Good infrastructure is the basis for a prosperous gastronomy.
Once you have arrived, you quickly learn that the words customer, service and attention are simply unknown in most Israel’s restaurants. Inattention and a rather rough tone are usually the norm. They are friendly, but not polite and certainly not service-oriented. Where to put a fork and from which side a soup has to be served is beyond the horizon.
If you arrive as a customer with English or a foreign language other than Russian, then you are usually lost. In a nutshell, fourth, social competence and skills of etiquette and behavior are also a basis to develop and establish a leading international gastronomy. And if you then finally have hardly any internet connection, then you are missing something and fade out.
Fifth, and finally, the prices that are being asked – with a view to service, cooking&social skills and quality – are simply too high. One notices quickly that gastronomy suffers from high “duties” to extortionists. The furniture in the bars speaks volumes, the crockery presented is mostly worn out and you often discover one or the other six-legged visitor.
In sum, Israel is world-class in many areas. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the gastronomy industry.
If you want to continue to do good business, you also need a solid international gastronomy that can boast more than just one place in the top 10. Israel can do it better.