Rooftop: Old City Walls and a Kitchen That Speaks Two Languages

Dusk is the hour to arrive. The limestone of the Old City wall, two stories below and somehow within reach, turns from honey to deep gold to the colour of strong tea. A retractable white canopy floats overhead, glass panels run floor to ceiling, and the Jerusalem evening air carries the scent of charcoal grilling somewhere behind you. You sit in a rattan armchair on the terrace of the Mamilla Hotel and the city does its trick again: ancient wall on one side, hotel pendant lights on the other, and a waiter approaching with a basket of focaccia still warm from the tabun oven. Rooftop has been performing this exact piece of Jerusalem theatre since 2009, and after a 2025 renovation, it does it with a sharper script.

When Kfir Mysnikov and Ran Nehemia took the kitchen during the 2025 refit, they made a wager that has so far paid off: keep the red meat backbone, drop dairy and butter entirely, and let Southeast Asia do the work that cream and cheese once did. The result is a menu that reads like a diplomatic mission. Bluefin tuna tataki arrives slicked with plum nam jim, the tang of green plum sharpening the fattiness of the fish. Beef fillet crudo gets a soy yuzu vinaigrette that cuts the raw flesh into clean, citrus laced bites. King fish pani puri is a brilliant piece of restaurant theatre, the thin shell cracking under your spoon to release ceviche and a curry lime aioli that lingers on the tongue long after the bite is gone.