February
2004, Revised 2025
Shederot Yerushalayim is in the process of urban renewal. With many buildings stripped to their bones and graffiti covering many of the remaining buildings, this neighborhood seems closer to North Africa than Tel Aviv. This is where you will find the Gueta Restaurant, specializing in Libyan cuisine from Tripoli. The Restaurant is in a rustic legacy building, clean and well organized. While the area is in the midst of the construction, a comfortable, the restsaurant itself is a comfortable well-spaced dining environment with clean and modern netilat yadayim and washing facilities.
Gueta stands proud at a corner on Shderot Yerushalayim directly across from the Noga theater. The restaurant is owned and operated by the Gueta family, who came on aliya from Tripoli. Mother Leah is the culinary inspiration. Together she, her husband and their two sons run this family restaurant. Son Shilo is the face of the restaurant. Whatever you want to know, Shilo is your man.
Whereas many ethnic restaurants also offer the Israeli style shipudim and steaks, Gueta is true to its heritage. The menu offers only Libyan cuisine. This is a bit risky, but impressive considering the way Gueta makes it work. The restaurant is a bustle of activity. A food prep bar fills the far wall of the restaurant, with a decorative display of bottles of Arak and home-made jams. Groups are entertained in the upstairs seating area, walk in traffic is shown to the main dining area, and a never-ending stream of Wolt delivery and motorcycle drivers are in and out throughout the day.
Gueta manages all the action without compromising service or quality with efficient and good organization. This is a production environment with loaves of bread piled high, cutlery prearranged in gold-tone buckets, and salads ready to go. These processes suit the style of the restaurant and enable quick service and fresh tasty food at reasonable prices.
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My companion and I visited Gueta for a late lunch mid-week. As we sat down, the vintage worn-for-the-ware wood table was quickly covered with a fresh and clean sheet of table-size paper. Not cloth, but it works, and fits the style of the restaurant. Not just the food, the atmosphere and the decor are in keeping with the Libyan theme. The background music is the rhythmic music of North Africa. No Ashkenazi wedding music at this restaurant.
I approach ethnic restaurants with trepidation. I am not one for spicy foods and I am hesitant to try foods that I cannot identify, My companion, on the other hand, is a restaurant's dream. He is an adventuresome diner, open to new flavors and immune to spicy foods. We introduced our preferences at the start, and the restaurant was most accommodating. Apparently, they have heard it before.
We chose the tasting menu, to try a bit of everything. Out came a selection of salads and a basket of freshly sliced white bread. The salads include the classic Libyan Chirshi, a pumpkin and potato puree, and pickled lemon, a North African favorite. Sliced carrots and the bowl of olives look innocent enough, but take it slowly on these. Most of the salads were on the spicy side for me, but my companion was in his element.
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Libyan cuisine is characterized by slow cooked stews and cooked root vegetables stuffed with rice and meat. These are balanced by couscous, a North African staple, and fresh white bread (challah on Fridays), that provide a quiet carb base for the flavorful stews. in Levantine cuisine, dishes are often punctuated by dried fruit. This adds a bit of sweetness that might surprise the Western palate.
With my preferences in mind, the restaurant brought out a vegetarian platter of Machshi, rice-filled stuffed red pepper and a Mafrum fritter. Mafrum is usually prepared with meat but a veggie version where onion is substituted for the meat, is also available. I was pleased with the mild spicing of the stuffed pepper and the mafrum.
None of the many dishes in the tasting menu were wasted on my companion, He tried every dish and enjoyed each one. A peppery brown bean soup! what could be better!
Or a mild bean soup with leaves of mangold (green chard)! Lovely! Everything with couscous! His mafrum with a savory meat-and-vegetable filling – outstanding! If you are adventuresome diners, be sure to go to town with the tasting menu. If not, a single dish of a meat or fish with couscous will come in at under NIS 70,
but you will miss out on the huge selection of possiblities and you must have dessert.
A big meal like this must end with a hot drink, or as my Ashkenazi ancestors would say "gluz tea". My companion chose espresso but I opted for the Libyan tea served with “safra,” the classic Tripolitanian semolina cake, delicious, , that is baked with a layer of dates. The tea is sweetened with caramelized sugar, spiced with cloves, and sprinkled with peanuts – a not-to-be-missed treat.
There are many reasons you may find yourself in Jaffa – the theater, the flea market, the atmosphere – but you don't need an excuse to go to Gueta This special restaurant is worth a trip in and of itself. Prepare to be charmed and enchanted – you won't be disappointed.
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From the Menu
Starter salads: NIS 39. or NIS 9 each
Tasting menu NIS 259
Bean soup with Mangold NIS 44
Machshi stuffed veggies NIS 68
Chicken platter NIS 68
chicken croquette platter NIS 68
couscous vegetables NIS 55
Dessert NIS 29
Childrens menu NIS 48
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