Fringe Restaurant

February 2026. Originally visited November 2022
Fringe is a restaurant for people who appreciate quality dining. From the presentation of the food to the combination of flavors, the professional service and the relaxed atmosphere, this is a quality dining experience. The name Fringe describes the restaurant's location on the fringe of the Jerusalem Theater lobby. As you enter the theater look left, and there it is.

The menu is dairy and fish. Eretz Yisrael chauvinists, you have come to the right place. Fringe prides itself on using only locally sourced ingredients, mostly from Jerusalem. The fish is sourced from Israel's long coastline. The cheese from local dairies and the fruit and vegetables are all grown on the lands around Jerusalem. The wine list favors Israeli wines. Dishes are high end but not over the top. In addition to the rich menu, enjoy fine wine and cocktails.

Fringe is one of several restaurants in the Talbiyeh Culinary and Hospitality Group. Nir Levi is the visionary, executive chef and manager of this group. In my eLuna travels I have met many chefs and managers but I would be hard pressed to find a more congenial manager than Nir Levi. His relaxed and approachable style carries over to his staff, who are all friendly and helpful. Nir is a native Yerushalmi and a great Jerusalem chauvinist. To date he has established several restaurants in Jerusalem (kosher and non-kosher) including The kosher Talbiyeh Patisserie on the second floor of the Jerusalem Theater that also supplies the desserts at Fringe.

The one-page Fringe menu in Hebrew and English offers a good selection of appetizers and main courses. Many of the dishes are tried and true Fringe staples carried over from earlier menus. The new chef, who came on board in the last few months, has added some of his creative dishes to the menu. Since the products are locally sourced the menu changes by the season.

The chef makes good use of the on-site taboun oven. Many of the dishes - including the bread and some fish dishes, are baked in the restaurant's hotter-than-hot Tabun oven. Though tempting, we skipped the Taboun-baked focaccia in anticipation of the impressive selection of dairy and fish dishes on the menu.

I would not have chosen it, but for our appetizer our server strongly suggested the taboun-roasted beets with nut dressing mint salsa labane flavored with sumac. Out came a platter of sliced beets on a bed of labane topped with the mint dressing. Don't try this at home. Beets prepared in the taboun oven have a unique flavor that cannot be achieved in a convection oven. The beets dish is outstanding and in my opinion beats out the other appetizers.

For our second appetizer we chose the all-vegetable leek patties with creme fraiche. This crowd pleaser is a very tasty and nicely presented dish. This popular dish was carried over from previous Fringe menus, so if you were looking forward to enjoying it once again, you will not be disappointed.

The restaurant then surprised us with the very attractive sea fish skewers dish with a greens stew and hot yogurt. This dish has an impressive presentation. My companion loved this dish so much I barely got a taste.

For my main courses I got a lesson in Egyptian condiments. Do'a (Dokkah) is a crunchy Egyptian condiment made from toasted hazelnuts, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and salt. Do'a gets its name from the preparation process, which is to pound all the ingredients with a mortar and pestle till the mixture gets a coarse dry texture. This is a new one for me. With this introduction I could not help but choose the Sea Bream fillet fried in Egyptian Do'a. If you are adventuresome and you like unusual spices this is your dish. Egyptians traditionally eat Do'a on bread. In this dish it is used in the crumb topping for the fish fillet.

My companion chose the Sea Bass in capers butter atop roasted potatoes. The buttery caper sauce is flavored with mustard, white wine, garlic confit and herbs. This was described as dominated by the flavor of capers, but I found the strong flavor of mustard.

The menu offers several non-fish pasta options including tortellini, with zucchini and pine nuts and gnochhi in tomato butter. These are especially attractive and we will save them for another visit.

When it comes to dessert, you are in the right place. The Talbiyeh group Patisserie on the second floor of The Jerusalem Theater supplies the desserts at Fringe. This is the way to top off a perfect dairy or fish meal.

One of the very special things about Fringe that has not changed since our last visit is its team spirit. The staff at Fringe are good people who work harmoniously as a team, some coming from other restaurants in the Talbiya Group. The chef, who studied photography, is both an artist in the darkroom and an artist in the kitchen. The staff were all familiar with the dishes and could explain them in detail. They presented the dishes at the table with pride. This made our visit to Fringe a culinary experience and not just a dinner for two.

From the menu: Leek patties with creme fraiche NIS 46 Taboun-roasted beets NIS 54 Sea fish skewers NIS 66 Sea Bream fillet fried in a Egyptian Do'a NIS 102 Sea Bass in capers butter NIS 108 About the prices: Fringe is restaurant dining at coffee shop prices. This level of quality dining is rarely this reasonable.