Som tam
The Carmel Market is Delicious Israel’s office, and we love wandering the many alleys and side streets in search of the latest bite to eat or visiting old favorites. While the market used to just feature traditional Israeli street food or other Middle Eastern comfort foods (especially Yemenite, as the market borders the Yemenite Quarter), recent years have seen all sorts of new, international eateries pop up to meet changing Tel Avivian tastes: Venezuelan arepas, Chinese dim sum, and now Eisan Thai, to name a few.
Eisan’s delicious tofu pad thai
Just this week, Team Delicious had the pleasure of trying one of the newest additions to the Carmel Market - Eisan. Just opened in December 2018, this small Thai restaurant is located on a side street off the main drag of the market and could easily be missed. Eisan refers to the northeastern Thai region, so you’ll find northern and eastern Thai food here, brought over by the restaurant’s owner, who hails from this region.
We stopped by for lunch - Eisan stays open until around 16:30 - they are not open for dinner. Since this was our first visit, we stuck to a few classics to test Eisan’s kitchen: som tam (green papaya salad), pad thai with tofu, and massaman curry.
Eisan’s English menu
We started off with the som tam salad, which was tangy and acidic from plenty of lemon juice, and very spicy thanks to green chiles instead of the usual green beans.
After that, we shared the massaman curry with tofu and the tofu pad thai. The pad thai was delicious and did not taste watered-down to the Israeli palate, which can happen too often with Asian eateries in Israel. The massaman curry was very tasty, if a bit soupy. We were also treated to a small treat of coconut tapioca.
Portions and prices are reasonable by Tel Aviv standards and the atmosphere is casual, with Thai music to really set the mood. Overall, Eisan made for a great lunch experience and we are definitely happy to have more Asian cuisine options in the market.
Their menu is only available in Hebrew online, so we’ve posted the English one here for you.
Happy eating!
Eisan
Rabbi Akiva 22
Sunday-Friday 11:00-16:30, closed Saturdays
