Seafood Restaurant in Tel Aviv

I always ‘see’ food but have an appetite for Seafood! A lunchtime fish feast in Tel Aviv with hubbie and youngest brought us to Goocha. This well known seafood establishment is situated on the corner of Ben Gurion Boulevard and Dizengoff Street in busy mid town. It boasts outside table seating (preferable) and inside regular tables, a sharing high table or should you desire a few lessons in food preperation, a bar directly facing the kitchen. Personally, as the cooking smells have a tendency to cling to my hair, I rather take my chances in the polution outside…and do a little people spotting.  Today however weather hot and somewhat clammy, family insisted on the inner sanctum and so we placed our bums on stools and sat at the high mid table listening to other diner’s conversations. The restaurant itself is pretty standard in decor, modern wooden furniture, limited wall art plus the obligitary tall vase of freshly cut flowers (which dont stand a chance against the fishy aromas).But dont be deceived, the food is delicious and the menu vast, based  mostly on combination or fusion dishes with seafood and fish with a few meat options such as yummy hamburgers or steaks. Cocktails are decent and prices reasonable. We eat at this resturaunt when the urge for a fish dish that the man cannot execute with sufficient confidence at home overtakes or if I fancy a mussel or two (note mussel not muscle..). The atmosphere is lively and the place is always full. Generally there are queues outside as this is a very popular eatery in Tel Aviv for locals and tourists, so expect a wait. Reservations can be made but at very limited times, not usually convienent.

Back to the food. I love mussel marniere and I love chips, especially those skinny crispy sticks called french fries (why French,  is it because they are the same color as their sunburn?), so of couse this was my choice. Ordering the biggest portion to share with my sweet girl we greedily decided to add a couple of starters , scrumpious deep fried calamari in a crunchy coating and a tangy but refreshing papaya salad with fine rice noodles and peanuts. With eyes bigger than bellies we added a shrimp tempura Caesear salad, until we finally admitted that “doggy bags” were a good idea. Hubbie fancied white fish. He received a proudly standing whole Sea Bass  with crispy herbed crust complete with eyes,tail and puffy cheeks. He must have been famished  because after he demolished what was edible, I am not sure that were many bones left on the plate. Too hot for a glass of something alcoholic, we settled instead for squeezed fruit juices and an ice cold carafe of H2O.

Enjoyable, satisifying and tiring. We collapsed on the sofa once reaching home and napped our calories sweetly away.

P.S I once thought the name was Gotcha -as in caught a fish, but I guess that was just my over active brain attempting a joke (or my hearing playing tricks)

♥Goocha 

171, Dizengoff Street (corner Ben Gurion Boulevard)

Tel: +972-35222886

Opening hours: 12 noon to 12 midnight

Reservations – limited but possible