A highly-rated restaurant in Tel Aviv, recognized for its excellent wine, great cocktails, and original, flavorful small plates, holding a 5.0 rating on Tripadvisor.
Chef Guy Ariche leads the kitchen at Santi, a restaurant known for its contemporary Israeli cuisine and its focus on collaborative culinary experiences with other prominent Israeli chefs.
Santi is a 'Western Izakaya' concept restaurant located in the heart of Tel Aviv, challenging traditional culinary conventions. It offers a unique dining experience with creative small plates, an excellent wine selection, and a vibrant atmosphere. Guests can enjoy seating at a chef's table or kitchen island to witness culinary artistry firsthand.
Customer Perception
Customer perception is generally positive regarding the delicious and creative flavors, excellent wine and cocktail selection, and unique dining experience. Many praise the 'outstanding' and 'original' dishes. However, there's mixed feedback on portion sizes, with some finding them 'distinctively tiny' and leading to a feeling of poor value for money, while others found them 'perfect' for a tasting menu. The atmosphere is described as 'impeccable' by some, especially at the chef's table, but others noted loud, uncurated background music that didn't always fit the 'fine dining' price point.
Santi was founded by Chef Guy Ariche and partners Ido Kessler, Nitzan Dayan, and Omri Amar. It is recognized on Tripadvisor, ranking #108 of 1,386 restaurants in Tel Aviv with a 5.0 rating based on customer reviews.
The restaurant offers a 15% discount between 17:00-18:00 from Monday to Thursday. General operating hours appear to be 18:00-23:00 on Friday and Saturday, and likely similar hours on other evenings after the discount period.
Santi is an outstanding restaurant and one of the best dining experiences we've had recently. The food is creative, original and full of flavor. The sauces deserve a special mention, especially the mussels sauce, it was absolutely brilliant and one of those flavors you keep thinking about long after the meal.
Even the desserts were smart, balanced and beautifully executed. The menu is full of interesting and inventive dishes that make you want to come back and try more.
The atmosphere is warm and lively, the staff is friendly and welcoming, and the wine list is surprisingly good, with excellent choices that perfectly match the style of the restaurant.
We celebrated a birthday here and had a fantastic evening from start to finish. We truly enjoyed every moment and will definitely be back. Highly recommended!
Sadly the dishes were either oversalted completely or undersalted. Also sadly the beef tartar was underwhelming compared to others you can get on the city, and the toasted sourdough that it comes with was burnt and the burnt flavour overpowered the entire dish. The calamari skewers was an interesting mix of flavours and cooked well.
Presentation of all the dishes was great. The music selection was a lot of fun. There's also a very large cocktail menu to choose from
5
We ordered a table for 3 for dinner at Santi, and we had a truly wonderful experience.
First of all, the service was excellent. Adi, our waitress, was lovely, professional, pleasant, and made us feel like she genuinely cared about our experience. Ido, the manager, was also very kind, professional, and present in exactly the right way.
The food was at a very high level. Every dish we ordered was spot on. It’s honestly hard for me to choose a favorite, it’s somewhere between the Brussels sprouts, the Gruyère tortellini, the hamburger, or maybe even the insane cereal milk mousse that ended the meal perfectly.
The only small thing we noticed was that at a few different moments, other waiters who approached the table forgot to clear things or tidy up the table a bit, which could have made the seating experience even more pleasant and comfortable.
But other than that, we truly have zero complaints. It was an excellent culinary experience, with great service and a very pleasant atmosphere. We’ll definitely be back
5
I read lots of reviews of Santi and knew exactly what to expect. Armed with the right expectations the experience was sublime. The service wasn’t exactly 5 star but it was certainly pleasant and friendly. It didn’t detract from the outcome at all.
We got there early and chose to sit at the bar. Excellent choice as we had four wonderful tablemates - a real estate agent, a famous singer, a chef and a food photographer. Everyone was friendly and engaging like we were old friends.
The food was superb. We ordered eight dishes and all were excellent. The best was the scallops, followed by the beef tartare.
Instead of ordering wine or beer we chose a bottle of Sake. Excellent choice if I may say so myself!
The restaurant is really is really special. The food is amazing, the atmosphere is buzzing, I will definitely return.
5
Recommended by a friend who lives in Tel Aviv and it did not disappoint. It’s a small restaurant with an indoor area and bar seating, and a small patio that’s covered as well. We were seated immediately, and waited on by servers, who are friendly and professional, and kind. The food consists of a lot of small plates, some of which is grilled, and all of which is delicious. We had calamari on skewers, incredible sashimi, beautiful pasta, wonderful beef tartare, and a variety of other dishes. Would highly recommend this restaurant for anyone visiting Tel Aviv.
