Restaurants are in Ahmed Khattab’s blood. His great-grandfather owned a hummus spot in Jaffa more than a century ago and today, he runs this one with his mother Samira Khattab. In 1949, her family fled Jaffa to Nablus and later to Jordan, where Samira’s father opened the Al Kalha restaurant in Amman — a photo of it hangs in the restaurant in Jaffa. When Samira was six, her father moved the family to Kuwait, where he opened another successful spot. Growing up in the kitchen, Samira acquired a wealth of culinary knowledge.
When her son, who everyone calls Zizo (after a French soccer player) decided to open his own restaurant in Jaffa, she joined him, passing down what she learned as her family moved from one place to another. Their menu features falafel stuffed with fried onions and pine nuts, fava bean stew topped with a fried egg, and fatteh, a hearty dish that’s made with leftover bread. With chickpeas, rump steak, a cream yogurt tahini sauce, and clarified butter called samna, the preparation here is luxurious.

Fatteh. Photo by: Noam Preisman

“I hadn’t encountered this delightful [fava] dish or their stuffed falafel anywhere else. The reason for this is that unlike most Arab restaurants in Israel, Al Kalha distinguishes itself as an immigrant restaurant that safeguards memories from a journey spanning almost a century — the pots still resonate with the echoes of its rich history,” notes Alpert.