Aresto: Italian Pasta on the Edge of Herod's Ancient Harbor

The terrace at Aresto sits a few meters from the water, on stones that Herod's engineers laid down over two thousand years ago. On a summer evening the light slips behind the breakwater, the sea turns the color of bronze, and the lanterns above the white sofas flicker on one by one. A waiter sets down a basket of warm focaccia, still smelling of olive oil and oregano, and somewhere behind you a group of diners breaks into laughter. Caesarea National Park empties of tourists by sundown, and the restaurant becomes a quieter place: a long indoor room of polished wood and leather armchairs, a sprawling terrace of two hundred seats facing the open Mediterranean, the ruins of a Roman harbor framing every view. This is the only kosher dining room inside the ancient port, and it carries that responsibility with a certain quiet confidence.

Chef Hali Ben Naim came up through Bishulim, the Tel Aviv culinary academy that has trained much of the country's serious dairy talent, and she has spent thirteen years working only with dairy kitchens. The menu reflects that focus: handmade pastas, wood and stone oven pizzas, focaccias finished in a tabun, a small but considered list of fish, and a dessert program that takes itself seriously.