"If you and your loved ones partake in weekly brunch, you’re probably 75% hollandaise by now. That’s nice. We respect your ability to digest all that butter before noon. But sometimes the body needs a little lightness on a crusty morning. When we’re beat up on a Sunday at 10am, all we want is Tel Aviv Fish Grill’s tart pickles and whole-fried fish drenched in lemon juice. The Israeli food at this Tarzana strip mall restaurant with a popular shawarma sister is refreshing and bright across the board. So the next time you need your batteries recharged, and the idea of eating another eggs benny has you crawling back into bed, come here. photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp Despite its fairly generic grey room, Tel Aviv Fish Grill turns into a noisy brunch spot once the fish fryers start up. On Saturdays, Tel Aviv Fish Grill is closed for Shabbat, but come Sundays, this place gets slammed, as if every family group chat in the Valley decided to come here for fish at the same time. So it's normal to wait 10-15 minutes outside for a table once the minivans roll in around 11am. (FYI, Tel Aviv Fish Grill stays open until 8pm on Sunday, but closes at 4pm the rest of the week and at 2pm on Friday, in case you're planning to cross multiple freeways to get here.) But we can’t hold the restaurant's crowds against them: there’s a good reason everyone wants to eat here. Everything we’ve tried on the lengthy menu is excellent, from the butterflied branzino slathered with harissa to the golden fish schnitzel dipped in a garlicky lemon-parsley sauce, and the whole white bass that’s so delicately fried that you can pull its flaky meat right off the bone with your fingers. Once you’ve picked off every last piece of fish and mopped up your creamy hummus with pita, you might feel inclined to order a hot mint tea and rest in content. Which, for us, is the whole point of brunch in the first place. Food Rundown photo credit: Jessie Clapp Limonana Remember powdered lemonade? That mouth-puckering sugary stuff that tasted so good and gave you the energy to play in the pool all day? That, plus a ton of fresh mint, is the base of this refreshing slushy. Whether you’re feeling queasy and dehydrated or perfectly fine, please drink one. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Roasted Kohlrabi Kohlrabi sometimes doesn’t taste like much, but this appetizer begs to differ. The starchy brassica is tender enough to slice with a fork, and best eaten with salty whipped feta at the bottom of the dish. The serrano chiles sprinkled on top add a nice touch of heat, too. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Fish Schnitzel If you’re here alone, this is the move. We usually need to lie down after eating chicken or veal schnitzel, but this one is light with its thin breading that loudly crackles when you cut in. Don’t be conservative with the lemon or garlic-parsley sauce—both make this beautiful fish cutlet even better. photo credit: Jessie Clapp White Bass “There are so many fish in the sea.” Yeah, yeah, sure. At this restaurant, in this moment, all we care about is getting our hands on this fish. The white bass is fried just long enough for entire clumps of intact meat to come off the spine and into the garlic-parsley sauce." - Sylvio Martins
