The Sea of Galilee · Where to eat
Where to eat around the Sea of Galilee
St Peter's fish is on every menu round the lake, but the Kinneret's own fishery has been under restriction since a two-year ban began on 1 March 2010, so where the fish came from is a fair question to ask.
VAT inside the menu price
18%
Israel's standard rate in 2025. The printed figure is the figure on the bill, and a service charge is rarely added.
Commercial fishing banned from
1 March 2010
A two-year closure of the Kinneret to 28 February 2012, announced after the agriculture ministry said stocks were falling by tens of percentage points a year.
Proposed annual closed season
15 Apr to 15 Aug
Put to replace the blanket ban in February 2011, covering the months the fish spawn.
Tips became wages on
1 January 2019
The National Labour Court ruled on 26 March 2018 that restaurant tips are salary, with income tax, pension and national insurance attached.
Eating round the Kinneret is a shoreline business, and the shoreline is short. The addresses worth a detour sit in a ring you can drive in an afternoon: the Yigal Alon promenade and the Lido in Tiberias on the western slope, the Migdal junction ten minutes north, Kibbutz Ein Gev's harbour on the eastern shore under the Golan escarpment, and a scatter of kibbutz counters and coffee vans in the flat south around Degania and Afikim.
The honest summary is that this is not a restaurant scene, it is about twenty restaurants. Between them lie beach kiosks, hotel dining rooms cooking for half-board guests, and long stretches of Route 90 with nothing on them but a petrol station. Several of the better kitchens serve lunch and then stop. Deciding where dinner is before the afternoon starts is not fussiness here, it is the difference between eating and not.
The other thing that shapes a week is the calendar, and it catches out almost every first-time visitor. Tiberias keeps a Jewish week, so a kitchen with a kashrut certificate closes before sundown on Friday and stays shut until the Sabbath is out on Saturday night. The Arab-run kitchens at Migdal and the kibbutz restaurants on the eastern shore do not. Each pick below carries its kashrut status as far as the venue or a reliable source states it.
13 places to eat
The places to eat worth the trip in The Sea of Galilee
Our pick and why, then everything the listing knows, with the date it was pulled.
01
Magdalena restaurant
The one dinner worth planning around
Yousef Hanna, known as Zozo, has cooked here since 2014 on a terrace at the Migdal junction with the lake below and Mount Arbel behind, and the restaurant describes itself as an authentic Galilean chef's kitchen. What that means on the plate is village cooking rebuilt at restaurant pitch: Syrian makdous with Galilean labneh, tabbouleh with candied pumpkin, calamari with courgette and mint tzatziki, a labneh basbousa finished with olive oil and spiced syrup. Asif, Israel's culinary institute, credits Hanna with training cooks who have gone on to open their own kitchens, which is a fair description of his standing in the north. Squid on the card and no certificate claimed puts it outside kashrut, and the restaurant does not pretend otherwise. It serves every day, which also makes it one of the answers to a Friday night.
- Kashrut:
- Not kosher
- Known for:
- Makdous with Galilean labneh, Tabbouleh with candied pumpkin, Calamari with courgette and mint tzatziki, Labneh basbousa
Book, and watch the sittings. The restaurant's own site publishes a last entry of 4.30pm for lunch and 9.30pm for dinner.
“The food was perfect, the atmosphere is amazing and the service was lovely!”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.53,273 ratings88% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- מתחם הגליל, כביש 90, Migdal
- Kitchen
- Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪₪ Expensive
- Phone
- +9724-673-0064
- Website
- magdalena.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Sat 12:30-21:30 02
Decks Restaurant
A certified kosher dinner over the water
Decks is built on a deck running out into the Kinneret at the Lido, north of central Tiberias, and its own site states that the kitchen is fully mehadrin kosher. Grilling is the reason to come: meat and locally caught fish over charcoal from olive, citrus and nut trees, with lamb, cattle and geese raised for the restaurant by named local farmers rather than bought from a wholesaler. Because the certificate is real, the week is shaped by it, and the restaurant publishes the shape: midday to close Sunday to Thursday, Friday only until the Sabbath begins, Saturday only once it is out. It is a large room, seating hundreds across the decks, and the tables against the rail go first. For anyone who needs a certified kitchen and does not want a hotel buffet, this is the obvious answer on the lake.
- Kashrut:
- Kosher
- Known for:
- Meat grilled over olive, citrus and nut charcoal, Locally caught fish, Lamb from named farms
Ask for a table at the rail. Saturday service starts only when the Sabbath ends, which in midsummer is late.
“The food was fresh, flavorful, and beautifully presented.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 3.92,475 ratings69% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Gdud Barak St 13, Tiberias
- Kitchen
- Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-671-0800
- Website
- decks.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Thu 12:00-23:00 Fri 12:00-16:00 Sat 20:15-23:30 03
Hermitage restaurant
Fish and mezze on the promenade
Hermitage occupies a building on the Yigal Alon promenade that the restaurant's own site describes as more than eight hundred years old, with an Israel Antiquities Authority panel at the entrance explaining it. The kitchen is a traditional Arab one: fish from the Kinneret and the Mediterranean, grilled meats, a table of fresh salads that lands before anything is ordered, and premium seafood, which is what places it outside kashrut. It serves every day including Friday night and Saturday, so it is one of the few central Tiberias answers when the certified kitchens have shut. There is a hookah service and rooms for events, so it is a busy dinner rather than a quiet one; ask for a table on the terrace over the water.
- Kashrut:
- Not kosher
- Known for:
- Whole Kinneret fish, Mediterranean fish, Mezze salads with the bread, Grilled meats
Worth booking for Friday and Saturday nights, when it absorbs the demand from every kosher kitchen in town.
“amazing service, very pricey but the food is great”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.21,711 ratings80% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Yigal Alon Promenade, Tiberias, 1420243
- Kitchen
- Restaurant, Meat dish restaurant, Seafood restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +97277-822-4200
- Website
- hermitage-restaurant.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Sat 12:00-23:00 04
Lagos
All-day fish at Ein Gev harbour
Lagos sits on the harbour at Kibbutz Ein Gev, on the eastern shore beneath the Golan escarpment, and its own site sets out the idea without decoration: fish landed fresh that day, seasonal vegetables from the surrounding valley, decent coffee, tables at the water. It opens from nine in the morning through the evening every day of the week, which makes it useful both for the meal that is neither lunch nor dinner and for a Saturday, when a good deal of Tiberias is closed. Nothing on the site claims a kashrut certificate. Come late in the afternoon: the sun goes down behind the Arbel cliff on the far shore and the light runs back across the water towards the table.
- Known for:
- Fish of the day from the lake, Seasonal vegetables from the valley
4.817 ratingsGoogle Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- عين غيف، 1494000
- Kitchen
- Restaurant
- Phone
- +97254-894-3144
- Website
- lagos1.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Wed 09:00-20:00 Thu-Fri 09:00-21:00 Sat 09:00-20:00 05
Marinado
Golan meat and its own wine
Marinado is a butcher's business with a dining room attached, at the entrance to Kibbutz Ein Gev, and the meat is the argument: lamb and beef the company raises itself, sold in the shop and cooked next door, alongside its own sauces, spices and olive oil and wine from its vineyard at Tel Peres. The published summer week has it closed on Sunday and open Monday to Saturday, which puts it on the Friday and Saturday list along with the rest of the eastern shore. No kashrut certificate is claimed anywhere on the site. It suits a long lunch after a morning on the eastern beaches better than it suits a late dinner.
- Known for:
- Lamb and beef from the company's own herds, Wine from the Tel Peres vineyard
It takes bookings through an online system and fills at weekends; the kitchen closes about an hour after the dining room stops seating.
“The food was very tasty, and the service was incredibly kind and welcoming.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.24,384 ratings80% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- קבוץ, Ein Gev, 14940
- Kitchen
- Chophouse restaurant, Meat dish restaurant, Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-665-8555
- Website
- marinado.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun Closed Mon 09:00-22:00 Tue-Wed 12:00-22:00 Thu-Fri 12:00-23:00 Sat 12:00-22:00 06
The Scots Hotel
Breakfast in a Victorian mission hospital
The hotel belongs to the Church of Scotland and occupies the building where Dr David Watt Torrance, who arrived in Tiberias in 1884, opened the town's first hospital in January 1894; it treated patients until 1953, ran as a maternity ward until 1959, and opened as a hotel in 2004. The dining room named after Torrance serves breakfast from 8 to 11 and dinner from 7 to 9, cooking what the hotel calls Israeli food crossed with Galilean tradition and Scottish influence, with herbs from its own garden and wines from the north. Downstairs, the Saint Urban cellar bar pours northern Israeli bottles alongside small plates from the same kitchen and runs wine and whisky tastings. The hotel's own culinary page makes no statement about kashrut in either direction. Non-residents can book by telephone, and should: the room is not large and there is a smart casual dress code.
- Known for:
- Breakfast with herbs from the hotel garden, Galilean and Scottish crossover dishes at dinner, Northern Israeli wines in the Saint Urban cellar
Reserve by telephone in advance, and dress for it: swimwear, vests and flip-flops are turned away.
“Beautiful hotel, helpful staff, right on the Sea of Galilee”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.71,908 ratings94% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Gdud Barak St 1
- Kitchen
- Hotel, Bed & breakfast, Breakfast restaurant
- Phone
- +9724-671-0710
- Website
- scotshotels.co.il
07
Tanureen
Whole musht by the Migdal junction
Tanureen sits on Route 90 by Migdal, a few hundred metres from the lake's best-known kitchen and at a good deal less money, and it describes itself as an authentic Galilean restaurant. What it is known for is musht, the St Peter's fish, served whole, alongside the usual Galilean spread of salads and grills. It opens every day including Friday night and Saturday, which makes it one of the short list of places in the north where an unplanned Sabbath dinner is possible. The site claims no kashrut certificate.
- Known for:
- Whole musht, the St Peter's fish, Galilean mezze, Grilled meats
Ring ahead on Friday and Saturday nights, when the Migdal junction takes the overflow from Tiberias.
“Great service, creative and tasty food.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.23,614 ratings79% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- 90, Migdal
- Kitchen
- Mediterranean, Seafood restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +97253-809-6629
- Website
- tanureen.co.il
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Sat 12:00-22:00 08
Avi's Restaurant
The cheap kosher grill in town
Avi's is a kosher grill house on HaKishon Street, a couple of streets back from the Tiberias waterfront, doing skewers, salads and a mixed grill rather than a view. It keeps the week that a certificate requires, serving Sunday to Thursday and closing for the Sabbath, so it is a weekday answer rather than a Friday night one. This is the address for anyone who wants something ordinary, kosher, not a hotel buffet and not priced for a coach party, and it is where a Tiberias family eats on a Tuesday. Nothing about the room is designed: the salads arrive, the skewers arrive, and you leave.
- Kashrut:
- Kosher
- Known for:
- Skewers from the grill, Mixed grill, Salatim with the bread
“The dishes were well executed and the service was friendly.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.41,827 ratings86% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- HaKishon St 1, Tiberias
- Kitchen
- Kosher, Bar & grill, Middle Eastern restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-679-1797
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Thu 11:30-22:00 Fri-Sat Closed 09
Ben HaMelech
A kosher steak at Migdal junction
The Migdal junction carries the lake's most interesting kitchens and none of the well-known ones is certified, which is exactly what makes this chophouse useful: it trades under a sign that carries the word kosher in it, and it works a Sabbath week, with a short Friday and no Saturday. The cooking is grill house cooking, steaks and skewers with salads on the table, rather than anything trying to be clever. It is plainer than its neighbours and means to be. Ring before driving out: it is a small operation and the Friday service ends early in the afternoon.
- Kashrut:
- Kosher
- Known for:
- Steaks, Skewers, Salatim
Telephone first. Friday is lunch only and it does not open on the Sabbath.
“We were spoiled nonstop and felt truly welcomed throughout the entire meal.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.7171 ratings93% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- צומת, Migdal, 14950
- Kitchen
- Chophouse restaurant
- Phone
- +97250-722-2313
- Website
- zapgroup.wixsite.com
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Thu 11:00-22:00 Fri 11:00-15:00 Sat Closed 10
Jona
Breakfast before the heat of the day
Jona is a small kosher coffee house in the old town of Tiberias, on Yohanan Ben Zakai Street by the Rambam house, and it opens early and closes in the middle of the afternoon with one late evening a week. The card is the Israeli cafe repertoire: coffee, breakfast plates, then pizza, pasta, salads and cakes as the day goes on, with an order-ahead pickup service for anyone in a hurry. It is closed on the Sabbath. In July and August the shape of a sensible day here is breakfast early, the sites by nine and shade by noon, and this is a good place to start it.
- Kashrut:
- Kosher
- Known for:
- Breakfast plates, Coffee, Pizza and pasta later in the day
“Cozy place with, a good atmosphere, nice staff, and great service.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.7439 ratings92% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- בית הרמב''ם, Yokhanan Ben Zakai St 10, Tiberias
- Kitchen
- Coffee shop, Kosher restaurant, Restaurant
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-672-3563
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Wed 07:00-16:30 Thu 07:00-15:30, 20:00-23:30 Fri 07:00-14:30 Sat Closed 11
Milk and Honey
The stop locals make, not visitors
This is a small coffee shop and cheese counter at Kibbutz Afikim, in the flat farmland south of the lake, selling dairy made nearby along with the coffee. There is no website, no lake view and no English signage; it keeps short weekday hours and does not open on the Sabbath, which tells you fairly precisely who it is for. Treat it as part of a southern morning taking in Degania, the Jordan outlet and the Yardenit turning rather than as a destination in itself. No kashrut position is published anywhere, and the counter is a dairy one in any case.
- Known for:
- Local dairy produce, Coffee
“An intimate coffee shop with local diary produce.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.978 ratings100% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Afikim, 1514800
- Kitchen
- Coffee shop, Cheese shop
- Phone
- +97254-975-2900
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun Closed Mon-Thu 09:00-17:00 Fri 09:00-13:30 Sat Closed 12
Zuza Patisserie
Pastry and coffee before the drive
Zuza is a patisserie rather than a lakeside kiosk, which on this shore is unusual, and it sits at Kvutzat Kinneret in the south near the Yardenit turning and the Degania kibbutzim. It works mornings into the early afternoon and closes for the Sabbath, so it is a start-of-day address, not a dinner one. There is a second branch on HaBanim Street in Tiberias for anyone based in town. Buy pastries to take down to the shore: the southern beaches are ten minutes away and much emptier than the ones by the promenade. Nothing on its pages states a kashrut position.
- Known for:
- Patisserie, Coffee, Bakery
“Cozy place, tasty pastry great service and ambient.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.8821 ratings95% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- Kvutzat Kinneret
- Kitchen
- Pastries, Bakery, Coffee shop
- Price band
- ₪₪ Moderate
- Phone
- +9724-842-2355
- Website
- facebook.com
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Thu 08:00-15:00 Fri 08:00-14:00 Sat Closed 13
Shaka
Coffee from a truck on the shore
The coffee van is a genuine Kinneret institution rather than a stopgap, and Shaka is one of the good ones: a truck parked in the marine zone at Ginosar with a few chairs, a stretch of gravel and the lake immediately in front. Its published week is short and split, a couple of hours in the morning and a couple in the late afternoon, and not on every day, so this is a place to catch on the way to or from a swim rather than to plan a meal around. It costs less than anything else on this list. On a February morning with nobody else on the beach it is also better than most of them.
- Known for:
- Coffee, Whatever the truck has that day
“Cute little food and coffee truck beside a chill area and the beach!!”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.4112 ratings83% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
- Address
- מרחב ימי, Ginosar
- Kitchen
- Coffee shop
- Phone
- +97252-343-8934
Map, hours and reviewsHours as listed
Opening hours as published on Google Maps Sun-Mon Closed Tue 16:30-19:30 Wed-Thu 08:00-13:00, 16:30-19:30 Fri 08:00-17:00 Sat 09:00-17:00
The catch
St Peter's fish is a real fish, and the lake is not always where it came from
One dish runs the whole way round the shore. Musht, the Galilee tilapia, is sold everywhere as St Peter's fish, after the Gospel story of Peter finding a coin in a fish's mouth, and it arrives the same way at nearly every address: whole, scored, grilled or fried, with chips, lemon and a table of small salads nobody ordered. It is the thing to eat once, at the water, in the late afternoon. It is also the thing most often described loosely.
The lake's own fishery has been under restriction for most of two decades. In January 2010 the Ministry of Agriculture announced a complete ban on commercial fishing in the Kinneret, running from 1 March 2010 to 28 February 2012, with NIS 15 million allocated to enforcement, retirement compensation for about a third of the lake's fishermen, monthly payments to the rest and a restocking project; the minister's justification was that fish numbers had been dropping by tens of percentage points a year. In February 2011 the ministry put forward an annual closed season of 15 April to 15 August in place of the blanket ban, covering the spawning months, and an expert committee recommended stocking the lake with at least 1.5 million young tilapia every year. None of that stops a menu printing the words St Peter's fish in July. Ask where it came from, and treat a straight answer as a good sign about the rest of the kitchen.
Past the fish, four different kitchens share this coast. Galilean Arab cooking is the region's everyday food and it is what the Migdal junction and the promenade do best: mezze first, then grilled meat or fish, with olive oil, labneh, makdous and yoghurt doing the work that butter and cream do elsewhere. The Golan side sells meat and sells it as an argument about provenance, the chophouse at the Ein Gev gate raising its own lamb and cattle and pouring wine from its own vineyard at Tel Peres. The southern kibbutzim make dairy and pastry. And the coffee van, a truck with a grinder, a few chairs and the lake in front of it, is a real local institution rather than a stopgap. Outside Tiberias, all four stop taking orders earlier than a visitor from Europe expects.
The week
Friday afternoon shuts half the lake, and not the half most visitors expect
Tiberias is one of Judaism's four holy cities and it keeps a Jewish week. A kitchen holding a kashrut certificate serves lunch on Friday, stops before sundown, and does not reopen until the Sabbath has gone out on Saturday night, which in midsummer is well after dark. Decks, the grill built out over the water at the Lido, publishes exactly that shape on its own site: midday until closing from Sunday to Thursday, Friday only until the Sabbath begins, Saturday only once it is out. Hotel dining rooms answer the same constraint by cooking ahead and holding food warm, which is why Friday night in a kosher hotel is a buffet rather than a menu.
The exceptions are geographical, and they are the reason a Friday night here usually involves a drive. The Arab-run kitchens at the Migdal junction serve every day of the week, as does the Arab kitchen in the old building on the Tiberias promenade. On the eastern shore, the restaurants at Kibbutz Ein Gev publish Friday and Saturday hours on their own pages. So the practical rule is: for dinner on a Friday, go north to Migdal or east to Ein Gev, and book, because every other visitor in Tiberias has worked this out as well.
Who is entitled to certify a kitchen has been unsettled for several years and has just been settled again. A 2022 reform allowed private Orthodox bodies to certify under the Chief Rabbinate's regulation, and Tzohar among others began issuing certificates in its own name. On 15 July 2026 the Knesset gave final approval, by 46 to 41, to a law restoring the Rabbinate's exclusive control, stripping those bodies of recognition. The effect on a traveller is narrow but real: anyone who keeps kosher strictly should read whose name is on the certificate in the window rather than assume, because some of them were issued under rules that no longer apply.
An uncertified kitchen is not the same thing as a kitchen serving pork. Plenty of places round this lake have simply never applied, while several of the best put seafood on the card or cook meat in yoghurt, which puts them outside kashrut whatever they applied for. Where a venue states a position, the picks below repeat it; where nobody states anything, they say unstated rather than guess.
Practicalities
Booking, tipping, water and the salads nobody ordered
Booking splits into two tiers. The few destination kitchens take reservations and genuinely need them at weekends, on Jewish holidays and through August, when Tiberias fills with Israeli families: Magdalena, at the top of this list, runs two sittings and publishes a last entry for each, 4.30pm for lunch and 9.30pm for dinner, so a late walk-in is a wasted drive. Everything else works on turning up. If nobody answers the telephone, ring again nearer opening time rather than assuming the place has closed.
Tipping is expected, it is left on top of the bill, and it is rarely added for you, because a service charge is uncommon in Israel. Since the National Labour Court's ruling of 26 March 2018, in force from 1 January 2019, restaurant tips count as wages: the employer owes pension, income tax and national insurance on them, and money collected centrally cannot be spent on anything but staff pay. What you leave is therefore taxable salary rather than an off-books gift, and paying it on the card is entirely normal.
The price on the menu is the price on the bill. Israel's standard VAT rate was 18 per cent in 2025 and it sits inside the printed figure, so nothing is added at the till except what you choose to leave. Tap water is poured on request in most places and a bottle on the table is a charged item, so say which one you want. Carry cash as well: the coffee vans and the kibbutz counters are the addresses most likely to want it and the furthest from a cash machine.
Portions are what visitors misjudge. At the Arab kitchens and the grill houses a spread of small salads, pickles and dips lands with the bread before anyone has ordered, at some places included with the main course and at others charged. Ask which, then order about two thirds of what instinct suggests. A whole musht is a whole fish, and a mixed grill for two around this lake will feed three.
Geography
One ring road, four eating zones
Tiberias holds the densest cluster and it divides into three. The Yigal Alon promenade has the fish restaurants, several in old basalt buildings on the water, and it is where a first evening usually happens. North of the centre, at the Lido, the big kosher grill sits on a deck over the lake. Up the hill, the old town and the streets behind it hold the coffee houses and plain grills where people who live in Tiberias eat.
Ten minutes north, the Migdal junction on Route 90 is the most serious eating address on the lake for its size: a chef's restaurant, a fish house and a kosher chophouse within a few hundred metres of each other, all of them useful precisely because they keep opening when Tiberias closes.
The eastern shore is the Golan side and it eats like it. Kibbutz Ein Gev has a working harbour with a fish kitchen on it and a butcher's restaurant at the kibbutz gate, and the road climbing east carries meat restaurants looking back across the water. It is also the quietest of the four zones, which in August is reason enough for the drive round.
North and south are opposites. In the south, around Kvutzat Kinneret, Degania and Afikim, eating is a kibbutz business: a patisserie, a cheese counter, a restaurant beside the Yardenit complex where the Jordan leaves the lake. On the north shore, where the Gospel sites are, there is startlingly little. Tabgha, Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes sit within a few kilometres of one another and offer between them one lunchtime restaurant and a couple of coffee vans. Buy lunch in Tiberias or Migdal before setting out.
The full list
Every place to eat we found in The Sea of Galilee
All 35 that Google Maps returned for this area, ranked by rating weighted for how many people rated it, so a five from three people does not outrank a four and a half from three thousand.
| Name | Kind | Rating | Ratings | Price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cafe Cocenקפה כוכן - Cafe Cocen עגלת קפה מול הכנרת | Coffee shop | 4.9 | 300 | n/a | Chorazim |
| Zuza Patisserieזוזה פטיסרי - Zuza patisserie | Pastries | 4.8 | 821 | ₪₪ | Kvutzat Kinneret |
| Zuza Patisserie Tiberiasזוזה פטיסרי טבריה - Zuza patisserie Tiberias | Coffee shop | 4.8 | 378 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Coffee Cap Espresso Bar | Cafe | 4.8 | 258 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Milk and Honeyחלב ודבש | Coffee shop | 4.9 | 78 | n/a | Afikim |
| Jona | Coffee shop | 4.7 | 439 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
| Ben HaMelechבן המלך ״כשר״ | Chophouse restaurant | 4.7 | 171 | n/a | Migdal |
| Café Rico | Coffee shop | 4.7 | 144 | n/a | רמת הגולן |
| Cafe Kendis | Coffee shop | 5.0 | 21 | n/a | Kahal |
| Moshbutz | Restaurant | 4.6 | 5,241 | ₪₪₪ | رموت |
| Hanalehחנהל'ה - בית קפה בקיבוץ דגניה ב' | Coffee shop | 4.6 | 151 | n/a | Degania Bet |
| Lagos | Restaurant | 4.8 | 17 | n/a | عين غيف |
| Confectionery Golan | Cafe | 4.6 | 68 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Agalat Kafeעגלת קפה | Coffee shop | 5.0 | 6 | n/a | Intersection |
| Magdalena restaurant | Restaurant | 4.5 | 3,273 | ₪₪₪ | Migdal |
| Arthur Cafeארתור קפה - Arthur Cafe - עגלת קפה בכנרת | Cafe | 4.5 | 1,236 | ₪₪ | Kinneret |
| Hasenyorהסניור - HASENYOR | Italian | 4.5 | 383 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Dream restaurant | Restaurant | 4.5 | 348 | ₪₪ | Kahal |
| David's Harp Restaurant Galilee | Seafood | 4.5 | 172 | n/a | Capernaum |
| Shakaשאקה עגלת קפה על הכנרת | Coffee shop | 4.4 | 112 | n/a | Ginosar |
| MizumiMizumi | מיזומי | Japanese | 4.4 | 1,818 | n/a | Kinneret |
| Avi's Restaurant | Kosher | 4.4 | 1,827 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
| Coffe club Genosar | Coffee shop | 4.2 | 54 | n/a | Ginosar |
| Restaurant Dalia Taverna | Restaurant | 4.3 | 1,582 | ₪₪ | Migdal |
| Tibi's Restaurant | Restaurant | 4.3 | 3,053 | ₪₪ | Vered Hagalil |
| Bora Bora | Restaurant | 4.3 | 3,286 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
| On the Riverעל הנהר - ON THE RIVER | Restaurant | 4.3 | 3,937 | ₪₪ | Kvutzat Kinneret |
| HaDayagim Restaurantמסעדת הדייגים | Restaurant | 4.2 | 170 | ₪₪ | عين غيف |
| Hermitage restaurant | Restaurant | 4.2 | 1,711 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
| Tanureen | Mediterranean | 4.2 | 3,614 | ₪₪ | Migdal |
| Marinado | Chophouse restaurant | 4.2 | 4,384 | ₪₪ | عين غيف |
| Little Tiberias | Restaurant | 4.1 | 1,317 | ₪₪₪ | Tiberias |
| Makom Yafe Lecafeמקום יפה לקפה Makom Yafe Lecafe | Cafe | 4.1 | 3,089 | ₪₪ | Kahal |
| Galei Gilמסעדת גלי גיל | Restaurant | 4.0 | 1,149 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
| Decks Restaurant | Restaurant | 3.9 | 2,475 | ₪₪ | Tiberias |
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings and counts move daily and this table does not: it is a snapshot, and it is here so the ranking above can be checked rather than taken on trust. Prices are Google's own price band, not a menu price.
Practical
What to know before you go
- For dinner on a Friday, plan to drive. Certified kosher kitchens in Tiberias stop before sundown and reopen only when the Sabbath is out; the Arab-run kitchens at Migdal and the kibbutz restaurants at Ein Gev publish Friday and Saturday hours.
- Ask where the fish came from. The lake's own fishery has been under restriction since the ban that began on 1 March 2010, and a menu that prints St Peter's fish is not by itself a claim about the Kinneret.
- Book the Migdal kitchens and the hotel dining rooms, and treat the rest as walk-ins. A village grill on a Tuesday does not need a reservation; a chef's restaurant on a holiday weekend does.
- Ask whether the salads that arrive with the bread are included. At some places they come with the main course and at others they are charged, and the difference decides whether to order starters at all.
- Ask for tap water. It is poured without argument in most places, and a bottle on the table is a line on the bill.
- Tip on top of the bill. Service is rarely added in Israel, and since 2019 what you leave is taxable wages rather than a cash gift, so paying it on the card is normal.
- Carry cash for the coffee vans and the kibbutz counters, which are the addresses most likely to want it and the furthest from a cash machine.
- Do not count on finding lunch on the north shore. Tabgha, Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes have almost nothing between them; buy food in Tiberias or Migdal first.
The figures
Numbers behind this page
Each figure carries the year it belongs to and links the source it came from.
| Measure | Figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard VAT rate, included in menu prices | 18% | 2025 | taxsummaries.pwc.com |
| Commercial fishing ban on the Kinneret | 1 March 2010 to 28 February 2012 | 2010 | israelnationalnews.com |
| Allocated for enforcement, compensation and restocking | NIS 15 million | 2010 | israelnationalnews.com |
| Proposed annual closed season for spawning | 15 April to 15 August | 2011 | mideastenvironment.apps01.yorku.ca |
| Young tilapia recommended for restocking each year | 1.5 million | 2011 | mideastenvironment.apps01.yorku.ca |
| Date restaurant tips became wages for tax and pension | 1 January 2019 | 2018 | timesofisrael.com |
| Knesset division restoring the Chief Rabbinate's kashrut monopoly | 46 to 41 | 2026 | timesofisrael.com |
The rest of the The Sea of Galilee guide
Sources and further reading
Every link below was opened and checked when this page was written. Official statements are marked as such: they are the subject's own account, not an independent one.
- OfficialMagdalenamagdalena.co.ilMagdalena, Migdal junction: the restaurant's own site
Self-description as an authentic Galilean chef's restaurant at the Migdal junction on Route 90, and the two sittings with a last entry of 4.30pm and 9.30pm.
- OfficialLido Kinneretdecks.co.ilDecks Restaurant, Lido Tiberias
The statement that the kitchen is fully mehadrin kosher, charcoal from olive, citrus and nut trees, meat raised by named local farmers, and the Friday and Saturday Sabbath hours.
- OfficialHermitage restauranthermitage-restaurant.co.ilHermitage, Tiberias
The traditional Arab kitchen, Kinneret and Mediterranean fish, seafood on the menu, the building described as over eight hundred years old with an Antiquities Authority panel, and daily opening.
- OfficialLagoslagos1.co.ilLagos, Ein Gev harbour
The harbour setting at Kibbutz Ein Gev, fish landed daily from the lake, seasonal valley vegetables, the daily hours from nine in the morning, and the absence of any kashrut claim.
- OfficialMarinadomarinado.co.ilMarinado, Ein Gev
The butcher's shop and restaurant at the Kibbutz Ein Gev entrance, self-raised lamb and beef, wine from the company's Tel Peres vineyard, the online booking system and the published summer week.
- OfficialThe Scots Hotel, Tiberiasscotshotels.comCulinary: Torrance Restaurant and the Saint Urban wine cellar
Breakfast from 8 to 11 and dinner from 7 to 9 at Torrance, the Israeli, Galilean and Scottish description, herbs from the hotel garden, the cellar bar's northern wines and tastings, and the absence of any kashrut statement.
- OfficialThe Scots Hotel, Tiberiasscotshotels.comThe history of the Scots Hotel
Dr David Watt Torrance's arrival in 1884, the hospital opened in January 1894, operation to 1953 and as a maternity ward to 1959, and the conversion to a hotel in 2004 under Church of Scotland ownership.
- OfficialTanureentanureen.co.ilTanureen, Migdal
The Route 90 address by Migdal, the self-description as an authentic Galilean restaurant, whole musht as the dish it is known for, and the absence of a kashrut claim.
- ReportingIsrael National Newsisraelnationalnews.comKinneret a No-Fishing Zone
The 24 January 2010 announcement of a two-year ban from 1 March 2010 to 28 February 2012, NIS 15 million for enforcement, compensation and restocking, and stocks described as falling by tens of percentage points a year.
- ReportingEnvironment and Climate in the Middle East, York Universitymideastenvironment.apps01.yorku.caMinistry proposes prohibiting Kinneret fishing for 4 months (Jerusalem Post)
The proposed annual closed season of 15 April to 15 August covering the reproduction season, and the expert committee's recommendation to stock at least 1.5 million young tilapia a year.
- ReportingThe Times of Israeltimesofisrael.comCourt rules waiters must pay tax on tips, sparks fears of restaurant price rise
The National Labour Court ruling of 26 March 2018, effective 1 January 2019, treating restaurant tips as wages for income tax, pension and national insurance.
- ReportingThe Times of Israeltimesofisrael.comKnesset passes law restoring Chief Rabbinate's monopoly over kosher certification
Final approval on 15 July 2026 by 46 to 41, reversing the reform that allowed private Orthodox bodies such as Tzohar to certify in their own name.
- ReferenceAsif: Culinary Institute of Israelasif.orgMagdalena
Chef Yousef (Zozo) Hanna since 2014, the naming after ancient Magdala, the dish list including makdous with Galilean labneh and labneh basbousa, and his role training other cooks.
- ReferencePwC Worldwide Tax Summariestaxsummaries.pwc.comIsrael: corporate other taxes, value-added tax
The standard Israeli VAT rate of 18 per cent for 2025, behind the statement that menu prices are quoted gross.
Where to eat around the Sea of Galilee: common questions
Where can I eat St Peter's fish, and did it come from the lake?+
Almost anywhere on the shore, and not necessarily. Musht, the Galilee tilapia, is on the card at the Tiberias promenade restaurants, around the Migdal junction and at Ein Gev harbour, usually whole and grilled or fried. The Kinneret's commercial fishery was closed completely from 1 March 2010 to 28 February 2012 and the ministry then proposed an annual closed season from 15 April to 15 August in its place, so the fish in front of you may have been raised in ponds rather than caught outside the window. It is a reasonable question to ask, and a kitchen that answers it straight is usually a kitchen worth eating in.
Is anything open on Friday night?+
Yes, but generally not in central Tiberias. A kitchen with a kashrut certificate closes before sundown on Friday and reopens only after the Sabbath ends on Saturday night, which in midsummer is well after dark. The Arab-run kitchens at the Migdal junction and on the promenade serve every day, and the restaurants at Kibbutz Ein Gev on the eastern shore publish Friday and Saturday hours. Book: those few places absorb the demand from every closed kitchen in town.
Do I need to book?+
For the destination kitchens, yes; for everything else, no. Magdalena at Migdal runs two sittings with a published last entry for each, the Ein Gev meat restaurant takes bookings online, and the hotel dining rooms need warning for non-residents. Grills, cafes and coffee vans work on turning up. Weekends, Jewish holidays and August are when the difference bites, because domestic tourism fills Tiberias.
Is there anywhere to eat at Capernaum, Tabgha and the Mount of Beatitudes?+
Barely. The northern shore is the Gospel strip and it is not set up for eating: there is a lunchtime restaurant near Capernaum, a coffee van or two on the Chorazim and Ginosar roads, and very little else within several kilometres. Buy food in Tiberias or at the Migdal junction before you start, or arrange the day so that lunch happens at Ginosar or back in town.
Is eating out here expensive?+
It spans a wide range, and the printed price is the final price. At one end are the coffee vans, the kibbutz counters and the back-street grills in Tiberias; at the other, the chef's restaurant at Migdal, the Ein Gev chophouse and the hotel dining rooms. Israel's standard VAT of 18 per cent in 2025 is already inside the menu figure and a service charge is rarely added, so what you pay is the menu plus whatever you leave as a tip.
Do I tip, and is service included?+
You tip, and service is almost never included. The tip is left on top of the bill rather than added to it, and paying it on the card is normal. Since the National Labour Court's ruling of 26 March 2018, in force from 1 January 2019, restaurant tips count as wages, carrying income tax, pension and national insurance, and centrally collected tips cannot be spent on anything but staff pay. The amount is a matter of custom rather than of rule.
Can I eat well around the lake without a car?+
In Tiberias yes, elsewhere with difficulty. The promenade, the old town and the Lido are all walkable or a short taxi ride from the town's hotels, and the boats across to Ginosar and the northern shore help in daylight. Ein Gev, Migdal and the southern kibbutzim are bus or car journeys, and evening services are thin, especially from Friday afternoon. Anyone without a car should plan dinner in town and lunch wherever the day has taken them.
Is there much for vegetarians and vegans?+
More than the grill signage suggests. The mezze habit means a table of salads, dips, pickles and bread arrives before anything is ordered, and at the Galilean Arab kitchens that spread is a meal in itself. The cafes on the hill in Tiberias and above the lake at Kahal mark vegan and gluten-free items on their menus, and dairy cafes and patisseries in the south do not serve meat at all. Certified kosher meat restaurants, by definition, will not put cheese anywhere near the food.
Is anything open late?+
Later in Tiberias than anywhere else on the lake. The promenade restaurants and the kosher grill at the Lido run into the late evening, and one or two bars on the water go later still. Around the rest of the ring, kitchens stop taking orders earlier than a visitor from Europe expects, and the coffee vans and kibbutz counters are daytime businesses that close in the middle of the afternoon.