400 seats and over 10 million shekels: We ate at the Asia restaurant in Eilat
After a year and a half of setup, the Asia restaurant is officially opening — with four spaces, two bars, and a massive kitchen on the level of a logistics center. On the menu by Moshe Badishi you will find sushi, gyoza, bao, woks, and grill dishes, but no less than the food, it is hard to ignore the ambition to bring Dubai to Eilat.
Last June, we reported to you about the upcoming opening of the Eilat restaurant Asia, and here it is happening — time to get to know the biggest restaurant currently in Israel, which is also the most intriguing Asian one operating right now in the country, on the seam line between the hotel area and the city center area, on the roof of a shopping center less than a year old. Asia is not just another restaurant, it is the most grandiose project in Eilat, behind which stands Elad Gozlan — who was the owner of all the biggest clubs in Eilat, and also of the restaurants Jessica and Kamao in Tel Aviv. Gozlan managed to leave his mark on the Eilat food scene as well, with the first rooftop he opened in 2021 on the roof of the Now hotel that he owns. The place is called Mood, it is kosher dairy and serves sushi. Asia, which is now finishing its trial run, is already a completely different story.
In recent years, Eilat has been undergoing an accelerated process of culinary upgrading: from a city that relied mainly on hotel kitchens, it is becoming an arena that tries to attract both local audiences and tourists with high expectations, and it does so with the help of projects on a scale we did not know here until a few years ago. Asia is the current peak of this trend.
What do you eat at Asia?
The menu of Asia was created by the consulting and accompanying chef Moshe Badishi, one of the greatest experts in the country on Asian food, who was one of the founders of the Mina Tomei chain. You will find in it all the classics from all the cuisines of Asia, but also unique dishes. The menu is divided into appetizers (24-46 shekels), starters (54-68 shekels), soups (38-46 shekels), raw dishes (59-72 shekels), and bao (49-59 shekels), and it has the tastiest gyoza I have tasted, filled with entrecote, chicken thigh, or shiitake (52-62 shekels), which a Filipino cook prepares manually on-site every day.
There are also grill dishes like aged entrecote prepared on a Japanese robata grill (98 shekels), and a seemingly classic fish dish with an Asian twist in the plot: miso yaki — meagre fillet marinated in miso koji marinade and served alongside root cream (86 shekels). The menu also has wok and rice dishes (64-74 shekels), 7 classic sushi rolls (66-78 shekels), and another 5 special rolls (58-69 shekels), as well as children's dishes (26-49 shekels), among them a special maki for children.
Among the special dishes I tasted here, I really loved the crispy rice with tuna tartare, which is served as a deconstructed dish — crispy rice cubes that come alongside tuna tartare and avocado for self-assembly. Also excelling were the hand roll, a crispy cone with sirloin tartare and zucchini rings in tempura served on a skewer with togarashi and jalapeño aioli. The menu also has a salad with mango, cashew, and crispy fish, which has everything that is tasty in all Asian cuisines, and the nigiri dish with filet mignon, furikake, foie gras pate in miso, and white chocolate was especially intriguing.
Dubai, Miami, and London — in Eilat
If we were asked to describe the Asia restaurant in one single word, it would be the word 'more'. Asia is more beautiful, more planned to perfection, and more designed than any other restaurant, even in Tel Aviv. The investment of over 10 million shekels and the construction process that took a year and a half are evident here in everything.
'Asia is everything I wanted and dreamed of,' says Gozlan, 'the concept was built during my visits to Dubai, which currently dictates the standard for new restaurants in the country, and also during visits to Amazonico in London and Zuma in Rome, and in general to the restaurant scene of Miami and New York.' The bar that Dubai sets is also the biggest challenge to recreate in Israel: there the model includes a waiter attached to every table and a runner attached to every waiter — a level of service that is very difficult to copy in the country.
It is important to clarify: despite the appearance, the designed plates, the luxurious restrooms, and the kitchen which is one of the craziest you will see, Asia is not a chef restaurant with one leading figure standing at the forefront of the branding, but a restaurant with an accompanying chef. The kitchen itself, by the way, was designed by Jackie Dabbah and chef Moshe Badishi, and more than a kitchen, it appears to be a logistics center: 12 kitchen workers per service, who staff three sushi stations, four woks, a robata station, and a Josper. There are also gyoza machines that give a special sear to the dumplings and a dedicated device for steaming bao. Alongside the cooking stations, Asia operates cooling and storage infrastructure on an industrial scale with freezing and cooling rooms, including a separate cooling room for processed vegetables, internal butcher shops, and a thawing area. Everything is backed by a nearby logistics center that feeds the restaurant on an ongoing basis.
Asia is built of 4 different spaces; there are two bars here, a covered restaurant area, and an open rooftop area, from which you can see the Red Sea from afar. The lounge area with the pool has not yet opened officially — that will happen after the holidays, in October, along with a delivery service for Eilat residents. Currently, the restaurant seats 300 out of 400 seats it has, in two rounds in the evening.
In summary, Asia is a grandiose and spectacular restaurant, which nevertheless manages to maintain not bad value for money — a significant point in a city like Eilat, which has become a very expensive destination. After the holidays, two new fast-food restaurants will join it, which will operate on the entrance floor of the Seven Stars Mall where it is located. The Italian restaurant Nona will operate in self-service with seating and will serve pasta, pizza, and frozen Campari, and Paris Texas will serve kosher fast food.
Asia. Seven Stars Mall, Eilat. Sunday-Thursday from 18:00, Saturday-24:00. Kosher.
