I don’t recall packing my passport and getting on a plane, but as we sat in the Port Local Bistro restaurant overlooking the Caesarea harbor and the sea beyond, I was sure that I was on a cruise ship or on an island someplace.
Port Local Bistro Restaurant is situated at the edge of a cliff overlooking Caesarea Harbor. The outdoor deck and the round interior space offer a striking view of the harbor and the big blue sea. This is the best view of any restaurant in Israel and Port Bistro has the food to go with it.
The best view in Israel and the food to go with it
You may have breakfasted at Port Local Bistro some years ago when breakfast was their calling card. Today, the restaurant specializes in fish dishes served at lunch and dinner. While fish is the star of the show, the menu also offers dairy pasta and pizza dishes.
We were hosted at the restaurant by its owner, Ziv, who pointed out the highlights of the lunch/dinner menu. Full disclosure: For this write-up we were showered with more dishes than we would normally order for two diners, especially because each dish was generous enough for two people to share.
Lunch began with the house focaccia, a warm, crispy loaf of bread straight from the tabun oven, served with a mild tomato dip (NIS 28). The focaccia also goes well with the mixed platter of spicy roasted peppers and garlic confit, olives, and schug, a spicy Yemenite dip (NIS 22).
Nile perch is a meaty fish, usually served in a spicy tomato sauce. At Port Local Bistro, chunks of the sea fish are stir-fried and served on a bed of tahini sauce with olive oil, crunchy garlic, and spinach (NIS 78). The slightly tart tahini sauce balances the flavor of the fish. You won’t want to leave any of the sauce, so save some focaccia to mop up the last drop.
Salad? Did I come all the way to Caesarea for salad? “We do a great salad,” said Ziv. This is not just his opinion; it is a fact. From now on, I am going to include dates, walnuts, and labane balls in my lettuce and onion salad. But it is not the greens that do it. It is the amazing honey-mustard dressing, a secret recipe of some eight or 10 ingredients, that makes this a stand-out salad (NIS 68).
WE COULD have ended our meal right there, but then we would have missed the fish, the major attraction of the menu.
We chose the whole Striped Sea Bass (Levrak) (NIS 140). At Port Bistro, the fish is grilled the way meat is usually grilled over coals. The great flavors come from the Josper oven, a sealed unit unique to this restaurant. The whole fish that arrived at our table was charcoal-crispy on the outside and white and flaky inside. It takes some skill to open a whole fish and separate the meat from the bones. That is why many people prefer a filet to a whole fish. The whole Levrak fish was served with a chimichurri sauce, which was a crime, because it overwhelmed the delicious flavor of the grilled fish. A few drops of lemon will do, if you must.
No side dish is necessary with this fish, but to give us the complete experience, they brought out a bowl of crispy potatoes, another house specialty. What is the secret? How do they get so well cooked and so crispy at the same time? The potatoes are softened by slow-cooking them in an oven for 8 hours and then fried to a crisp in butter. Warning: you can’t eat just one of them.
Dessert is totally unnecessary after a delicious and filling meal like this, but the Port Bistro Crack Pie, we were told, is an absolute must. So we nibbled a slice of crack pie served with a scoop of whipped cream. A cup of their unusually strong coffee was the perfect “tzu” (go with it).
You may think that now is not the right time to travel abroad. Vacation abroad 2024 is in Caesarea. No passport necessary.
- Port Local Bistro
- Caesarea National Park
- Kashrut: Rabbanit Caesarea Mehadrin
- 077 997 9794
- Open: Mon.-Thurs., 9 a.m. to midnight; Fri., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sat., from 8:30 p.m.
- The writer was a guest of the restaurant
The author is the founder and CEO of eLuna.com the premier English language website for kosher restaurants in Israel.