Azura

Restaurant · ₪₪ · Jerusalem religious council, meat

5 Beit Yaakov Street, Iraqi Market, Mahane Yehuda, Jerusalem

The family stew restaurant of Mahane Yehuda market, opened by Ezra Sharfler in the early 1950s and run today by his sons, with Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish kubbeh soups and stews cooked slowly on small burners

Azura is the restaurant of Ezra Sharfler, whom everyone called Azura: born in Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey, he came to Israel with his family in 1949 and started out washing dishes in the market. Haaretz, Walla, Kol Ha'ir and Yedioth Ahronoth date the opening to 1952; Time Out, Wikipedia and Yedioth place the first restaurant in Mamilla before it came back to the market, and ynet wrote in January 2025 that he founded it in 1948. It settled in the market's Iraqi quarter in 1981 and spread into the neighbouring rooms in 2009. Ezra Sharfler died in December 2022, and his sons run it: ynet wrote in January 2025 that Shabi and his three brothers do the cooking and the managing, and Yedioth named Chiko, who makes the stews, and Nir, who looks after the diners. The food is Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish home cooking from pots on small burners, which ynet described in 2025 as running on kerosene and Israel Hayom as gas. The press singles out the kubbeh soups, hamusta, beetroot and hamo among them, the sofrito of beef and potatoes, the dish called Azura, an aubergine with minced beef, the oxtail stew, the stuffed vegetables, the majadra and the hummus; Israel Hayom put a main course at 45 to 90 shekels in May 2025. It serves from 9 in the morning to the middle of the afternoon, is busiest at lunchtime, when queues form, and closes for Shabbat. Politicians, artists and market traders have eaten there for decades, Yossi Banai wrote a poem about it, and in April 2024, Yedioth reported, it was named outstanding institution at the Israeli Cuisine Awards. The family has run a second Azura in Tel Aviv since 2015. At the turn of 2025, Globes and TheMarker reported, the restaurant left its rooms on HaEshkol Street, where a residential building is planned, for another address in the market; the religious council's kashrut list gives 5 Beit Yaakov Street.