Xoho, Tel Aviv

Xoho Cafe, 17 Gordon, Tel Aviv

Xoho Cafe, Tel Aviv is an beautifully eclectically designed cafe which has a wonderful vegetarian and vegan menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and offers delicious homemade baked cookies and muffins throughout the day.

Having recently moved from their Mapu and Ben Yehuda location to their new home just up the street at 17 Gordon, their space has expanded three-fold. The intimate cafe that once sat 30 to 35 people has grown to a capacity of about 60.  Owner Xoli Ormut-Durin assures she and her business partner Zoe Komarin will continue the tradition of their original Xoho space, that of a welcoming charming little coffee spot. New to the Xoho set up are communal tables which will hopefully be a big hit with patrons. Xoli once again wanted to bring something she loved so much from her home town of Melbourne, where coffee shop patrons would sit together, read and drink their coffee and create a sense of community.

A very welcoming cafe for tourists, and ex-pats in Tel Aviv, even Israelis choose to practise their English when they go. The staff is warm and friendly (in both languages) and they help create the laid-back, relaxing vibe.

Read EatDrinkTelAviv’s wonderful interview with Xoli and Zoe HERE.

Zoe assures us the dishes that made the original Xoho so popular – the Beer Bread Breakfast, the Breakfast Burrito and the Bagel Sandwich will be mainstays on the menu, along with several others.  She is very excited about the freedom to create more dynamic, full flavoured dishes that will be prominently displayed on the Specials Board each week.  Visitors should expect an exciting mix of new ingredients usually not seen at other coffee shops. The entire staff works hard to explore their creativity with the multitude of various exotic ingredients: multi-coloured carrots, round zucchinis, edible flowers, and a variety of mushrooms.

Xoho has recently began serving the very popular and fresh coffee beans of Mae Coffee, a locally roasted bean created by two Israelis who spent many years learning on the farms of Costa Rica. Xoho is proud to support local businesses and assures their cafe has some of the freshest coffee in Tel Aviv.

One sneak peak at their new Beer Bread Breakfast with beet flavour (and coloured) cream cheese, with spinach and eggs topped with edible flowers, reveals a beautiful mishmash of protein, carbs, colour, taste and texture.

If you have not yet discovered Xoho, now is the perfect opportunity to check out the whimsy both inside and out.  Xoli and Zoe look forward to greeting you, as they are usually found at the cafe.  They also hope to provide patrons with fresh bagels in Tel Aviv for sale all day, with a variety of flavoured cream cheeses to-go.

Cafe Xoho’s Website

So whether you go for a perfectly healthy and fun brunch, to study, catch up with friends, or even to prepare for your own breakfast gathering, Xoho is the right destination.

Dishes at Xoho Cafe

• Beer Bread Breakfast 54 NIS
• Fresh Orange Juice 5 NIS (with meal)
• Breakfast Burrito
• Fried Egg Sandwich 38 NIS
• -egg white only 4 NIS
• Americano (with meal)

Xoho Restaurant Rating

Xoho Tel Aviv

EatDrinkTelAviv’s Original Review was finding a spot to call your own.

Xoho Tel Aviv Original Review

There is so much to say about this little cafe, but know this —  if you go you’ll be like me and keep coming back.

I’m not sure what Xoho even means, but when I moved to Tel-Aviv a friend Melanie brought me here once for brunch and I’ve returned consistently time and time again.  As I mentioned before I am trying to make brunching a verb and Xoho is helping me achieve that goal.  I have been to this establishment at least 10 times, and I’m working my way towards becoming the thing I’ve always wanted – A Regular.

I’ve had dreams of being a regular back when I was living in Los Angeles.  I had just moved to West Hollywood into an apartment at Sunset and La Brea.  My new roommate and I were excited by the area and knew of a small, hip bar called the Woods.  We thoughts that would be a great place to be a regular, heading over there for after work drinks to enjoy the atmosphere, music, look at women, and hopefully spot a celebrity.  Being a regular is hard work.  We just couldn’t do it.  You have to go to a place at least 2-3 times a week for about a month or two and MAYBE they’ll start to know your name.  And there is more to it than we anticipated.  First off, it requires a lot of drinking.  It was a bar, and frankly I don’t like alcohol that much.  And there is only so many $15 mojitos we could drink before we realized how financially irresponsible we were.  Not to mention we were burgeoning on becoming alcoholics.  We abandoned all hope.

With Xoho it just seemed a lot easier.  Probably because they serve food.  And with fresh baked goods, I’d much rather be a chocoholic than an alcoholic.

Since my first trip, friends I’ve connected with were asking for a good place to meet up for coffee or a sandwich.  I would simply say:

Have you been to Xoho? 

It’s a small, eclectic little cafe at the corner of Ben Yehuda and Mapu.  The staff is friendly and the service is decent (which as you know in Israel that is saying a lot) and the food is great.   The cafe owner Xoli says she went to great lengths to bring some of the best coffee to Israel. Melanie insisted that was one of Xoho’s greatest virtues… With Xoli spending time in Australia and Melanie being Australian insisting it’s the best, who am I to argue?  (It must be an Australian thing.)  I worked at Starbucks when I lived in Vancouver – a city known for having the most coffee shops per capita, so I do understand what coffee culture is and what good coffee is to a degree.  To me, it’s just varying degrees of brown water – some better than others.  For the most part, what I get at Xoho is very good coffee.  If you happen to be with Aussies, just agree with them that whatever they say is the best… it makes the day go by easier.

Suggestion

I have had the breakfast burrito, and the fried egg bagel sandwich both of which are extremely good.  I’ve ventured to the second page of the menu with a nicoise salad, while my friend Lolita had the healthy salad (the one with oranges).  And I’ve even shared the Beer-Bread breakfast with my friend Isaac.

Two things: 1) Yes, I come here a lot with friends and 2) you can’t go wrong with anything you order.

Bring one friend, maybe two.  Make it your secret brunch place.

On a recent visit I saw Xoho server Dani sitting outside smoking a cigarette. Since she’s served me several times in a two week period I felt okay to strike up a conversation.  What was nice was the moment she asked me my name.  She knew I had come often and thought it would be nice to know my name.   It might not have been a big deal, but it’s all ONE GIANT STEP closer to being a what I’ve always wanted: A Regular.

If you are planning on brunching, Xoho definitely needs to be on your list.