The most important and most worthwhile meal of the day

You’ll find focaccia with zucchini and tomatoes, fresh challah, and dishes with ikra, skordalia and padrón peppers, avocado bruschetta with poached egg, ijje patties with tahini and sumac-onion, roast beef brioche with sunny-side-up egg, Spanish tortilla with caramelized onion and paprika aioli, musabaha with soft egg and shipka, scrambled eggs with goose breast on toasted challah, homemade gravlax with potato rösti, and also steak and eggs.

Mercatino’s colorful and generous format includes a worry-free route (priced at NIS 147 per person), with shared starters, a main course of choice, desserts, sangria, hot drinks, and consistent chasers.

You’ll find, among other things, bread and dips, fried potato salad and egg salad, fried cheese ravioli and stracciatella carpaccio, cured fish with sour cream and roasted beets, cauliflower from the taboon, “Italian mashawsha,” and a greens salad.

Then you can choose from scrambled egg on bruschetta, poached egg on bread pudding with mushroom cream, roast beef sandwich, ceviche sandwich – and morning cocktails for the delightful price of NIS 25.

Among the options: Savory pastries like a gratin potato and Bûche cheese croissant, garlic and cheddar brioche kubaneh, mozzarella fresca wheel with sun-dried tomatoes, “Galilee bourekas” filled with za'atar, sumac onion, chard, and homemade labaneh, and a polenta-parmesan twister.

For dessert (or mid-bite): Brioche cube filled with pastry cream and homemade raspberry jam, s’mores cube coated in dark chocolate ganache, strawberry pain de mie, “cookie wheel” filled with chocolate chip cookie and dulce ganache, chausson aux pommes, “cheesy tropical cruffin” filled with baked ricotta cream, and a pear-chai wheel.

These add on to hits like leek and mozzarella croissant, “pocket” focaccia with sunny-side-up egg, avocado and sun-dried tomato pesto, and “green cocktail pizza” that does exactly what it suggests.

Here, among other things: Taboon-baked focaccia and Caprese salad, white fish carpaccio with sour cream, white shakshuka and “Tuscan shakshuka” with zucchini, onion, garlic, oregano, Kalamata olives and buffalo mozzarella, poached eggs in carbonara sauce, frittata, creamy scrambled eggs with lots of parmesan – and for dessert, “panche dolce” (fried brioche with mascarpone cream, caramel sauce, fruit, and roasted hazelnuts).

Alongside, and simultaneously: Mimosa, matcha drinks, strawberry-vanilla mixes, and much more.

You’ll find: A dipping platter with egg salad, chopped liver, ikra and herring, croque monsieur, avocado toast, or eggs royale, savory bread pudding, blini with Dan River caviar, pretzel with smoked salmon and cream cheese, truffle cheese toast, and serious lunch mains like Niçoise salad, tuna tataki, cheeseburger or steak and chips, tiramisu and pancakes for dessert – all intended to be washed down with as many cocktails as possible.

Gil-Ad Dabush’s menu includes roasted shishito peppers with miso and sesame sauce, soba noodle salad with black sesame vinaigrette, shiitake tempura with sour shiitake vinaigrette, egg dishes like “Triple Egg Sando” on shokupan, tamago unagi with bonito flakes and soy glaze, okonomiyaki with shrimp, chicken heart skewers with cured yolk and togarashi, duck with chestnut pumpkin cream, deboned wings in tare curry sauce with crispy chicken skin, sashimi and nigiri, tuna tartar temaki – and matcha Basque cheesecake and buckwheat chocolate tart for dessert.

You’ll find savory bread pudding, crispy ijje patties, smoked mackerel with sour cream, “French scrambled” eggs on parmesan sourdough, poached egg over potato gratin and bacon, fancy sandwiches, muesli bowl, good coffee and wake-up cocktails.

Chez Vivie’s renewed brunch includes the “Vivie Tower” with cheeses, cured palamida, gravlax, avocado and jam, eggs of choice with cured salmon, Boursin cheese and vegetables, shakshuka with tahini and challah, fish pastilla with spicy greens and tomato salsa, steak and eggs with potatoes – and morning mixes like “Nice” (Rooster Silver tequila, lime, grapefruit liqueur, lychee, red Galliano and grapefruit bitters), “Lille” (white wine cooked with pear, clove and muscat, Dolin Blanc, vanilla liqueur, prosecco, pinot grigio and mint), and “Bordeaux” (espresso martini with cognac and brown butter) at great wake-up prices.

The menu, served on Fridays and Saturdays, includes scrambled egg croissant with a labaneh ball, cheese and za'atar-filled cigar with soft egg and spicy tomato salad, “French breakfast” (poached eggs in hollandaise sauce on brioche with onion jam and seared Saint-Maure cheese), chard shakshuka with feta cheese, and also a burrata salad with tomatoes and roasted pistachios.

The refreshed morning menu at Bagel Cafe nods to Israeli Americana and offers – alongside salad and coffee or juice, of course – two open bagel halves topped with classics like smoked salmon and cream cheese, or avocado with grated hard-boiled egg, combinations of mushrooms, onion jam and truffle cream cheese, sabich with roasted eggplant and amba tahini, and a Balkan mix with pesto, Bulgarian cheese, roasted peppers, and Kalamata olives.

Rafaello’s awakening menu (NIS 43–49, or five-dish combo for NIS 209) includes toasted brioche challah with egg salad and caramelized onion, gently cured salmon with crème fraîche and roasted almonds, sea fish ceviche with mint cream, scrambled eggs with parmesan-lime cream, poached egg on leek and lemony spinach stew, salmon arancini, and red shakshuka with poached eggs.

All of it can be washed down with cheerful morning mixes like “a Rosa” (white vermouth, red grapefruit, basil, tonic and raspberry dust), “Piazza Negroni” (gin, red vermouth, Campari, tonic and orange), “Vita Dolce” (ouzo, Campari, passionfruit syrup, soda, dried lemon and star anise), and “Limonlychee” (Villa Massa limoncello, lychee syrup, squeezed lemon, prosecco and apple).