Shila

Raw fish held in the center

Raw fish meets avocado, almonds and mint before the plate widens around it; Sharon Cohen, chef at Shila in Tel Aviv, keeps the gesture direct. The restaurant’s clearest line of work runs through seafood and shellfish, handled with enough restraint that fat, crunch, herb and acidity remain legible. Cohen’s formation is not given through a named mentor or an outside apprenticeship. It reads through the room he built in Tel Aviv, through the city’s appetite, and through a Mediterranean discipline that favors flavor made precise rather than enlarged.

Shila has moved with him. After two decades on Ben Yehuda Street, the restaurant relocated to Montefiore Street in Tel Aviv-Yafo, carrying its marine kitchen and bar into a different neighborhood without losing the pressure of the pass. Cohen’s cooking there is often described through refinement: tightened flavors, considered presentations, and plates that hold life, people, Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean in the same frame. That language can sound broad until the food makes it physical. Fish tartar takes fat from avocado, cut from almonds and cool lift from mint. The hand is in the proportion.

Shellfish, acidity and the Catalan line

The program at Shila belongs to the sea first. Shrimp carpaccio with smashed tomatoes, za’atar and almonds gives the kitchen its signature register: raw or barely worked shellfish, tomato brightness, spice from the region, and nut texture set against the softness of the flesh. Crudo, grilled whole fish and plancha-seared shellfish extend the same method across temperature and surface. The plancha matters because it changes the edge of the ingredient quickly, giving shellfish a seared face without asking it to become heavy.

Cohen’s menu also lets other traditions enter the station without scattering the identity of the place. Mediterranean cooking carries the base, Asian influences and classic French technique appear in the handling, and the Catalan accent is most visible in the taste for seafood, tomato, heat and clean fats. Gnocchi with shrimp and asparagus in fresh tomato sauce works by contrast: softness, shellfish sweetness, green snap and acidity. Medallion of beef ribeye with shiitake mushrooms, cauliflower and creamed spinach moves onto land, but the concern remains balance rather than display.

The counter beside the crudo

The room is built to let the work stay visible. A central bar holds an open crudo kitchen, with aquariums close enough to keep the marine character present before the plate arrives. The counter gives the service a bench-side quality: fish cut, shellfish handled, tomatoes crushed, herbs added at the last useful moment. Shila is large enough to carry a charge, and its warmth comes less from quiet than from motion. The bar, the pass and the tables all seem to pull from the same current.

That energy suits Cohen’s food. Raw seafood needs speed, but not haste; the difference sits in the hands. When the kitchen is at its best, the room’s noise does not blur the plate. It frames Shila, especially when it arrives from the pass.