Shawarma
Photo: Vera Yu and David Li · CC BY 2.0

Shawarma is a signature dish of Israel; we have verified places to eat it in Tel Aviv. Start with where to eat Shawarma in Tel Aviv.

Shawarma · Tel Aviv

Turkey and lamb fat shaved off a rotating vertical spit, piled into pita or laffa with tahini, pickles and fries, Israel's own spin on the Ottoman doner served fast and cheap across the city.

The vertical rotating spit was developed in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, credited by some accounts to a Bursa butcher named Iskender; both Levantine shawarma and Greek gyros descend from that doner kebab technique. Israel's own variation adds turkey to the traditional lamb, cut into thin slices and layered with lamb fat between them on the spit so the meat self-bastes as it turns, a workaround born of turkey's low cost and low fat compared with lamb or beef alone. Mifgash Rambam runs its spit through the day near Nahalat Binyamin, and M25 in the Carmel Market meat alley smokes and fries its version at the butcher counter.

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