Margaux Brasserie, Petach Tikva

November 2025
Margaux Brasserie raises the bar for restaurant dining in Petach Tikva and perhaps all Gush Dan. Named for the French wine region, Margaux is a slice of Europe in Petach Tikva.

�Come in the evening� owner Shai suggested. �The restaurant is now open for lunch, but to fully appreciate the restaurant, you want to come in the evening.� Truer words were never spoken.

The entrance to the restaurant is through a romantic candle-lit deck with small round tables covered in crisp white tablecloths. In the evening the deck suggests a lovely Parisian terrace. .

The interior space is decorated European style, with mirrors, art work, and soft lighting. The bar at the heart of the space, gives the whole room a glow. Soft music and the hum of French conversation round out the warm and charming atmosphere.

Owner Shai Mardov is the visionary behind Margaux Brasserie. His goal was to bring the French brasserie concept to Petach Tikva. A brasserie offers higher quality food than a bistro but without the formality of a fine dining restaurant. Shai is a hands-on restaurateur. He designs the menu, overseas the kitchen, and weaves his way between the tables, personally greeting his guests. Shai has a passion for good food and wine and a wealth of experience in the hospitality side of some of our favorite restaurants in Gush Dan. Hospitality comes naturally to him and he is a generous host.

The menu is straight out of the brasserie playbook: simple dishes done exceptionally well, casual in spirit but refined. Everything from the sauces to the pasta is made with care. Meat is aged at the restaurant, and dishes are all prepared in house from specialty ingredients.

The "brasserie" which means "brewery," is known for the large selection of beers and wines. You will appreciate the selection of wines at Margaux, many available by the glass. These were all chosen by owner Shai, who is himself a wine collector. We also enjoyed a Margaux-Colada cocktail.

So, raise your glass and enjoy the delicacies that you are about to experience. The menu follows classic brasserie lines, offering starters, salads, pasta dishes, main courses, burgers, and drinks. Dishes are simple, elevated by expert food preparation techniques and quality ingredients. A burger, for example, is not just a burger. It is made of aged meat ground that day at the restaurant with the expert additions and techniques honed in at the restaurant. A classic French brasserie specializes in foods on the Jewish forbidden list. Shai has succeeded in creating a brasserie-style restaurant that complies with kashrut.

We started our dinner with warm focaccia from the stone oven, soft yet crusty, served with a trio of garlic confit, crushed tomatoes, and green schug. Save some of that focaccia for the eggplant dish. You�ll thank us later. We went on to the colorful salad of red, yellow, and orange cherry tomatoes tossed with black olives and peppers. The salad looked like a still life painting, fresh, bright, and unapologetically Mediterranean.

The eggplant spread is another quiet star � a thin layer of smoky eggplant dip, dotted with herbs, pine nuts and a swirl of tehina.

Shai is especially proud of the French chicken liver terrine, one of his specialty dishes. As a master chef Shai has reinvented the classic non-kosher chicken liver terrine using vegan butter and soy to keep it kosher without losing its creamy texture. The dish arrives as two thick, silky slices with onion confit and triangles of toasted bread. The meat was smooth, rich, and absolutely French. For his main dish my companion chose one of Margaux�s much-lauded specialty burgers, made with beef aged (30 days) at the restaurant. The burger was juicy, flavorful, and deeply satisfying.
Tr�s bien, Shai.

I chose the pasta limoncello. This unique dish is a house made fettuccine in a (parve) buttery lemon sauce that walks the fine line between pleasurable and indulgent. This is a generous dish that will have you sighing halfway through it, and then continuing to eat.

The dishes at Margaux Brasserie are worth lingering over. We will forgive you if you forget for a moment that you are in Petach Tikva.

From the menu Eggplant carpacio NIS 49 Chicken liver terrine NIS 49 Glazed chicken wings NIS 59 Red tuna tartar NIS 69 Tomato salad NIS 49 Margaux Burger NIS 89 Cocktails NIS 59 Wine by the glass NIS 49.