I have a confession – I recently developed a serious addiction to pizza in general, and to Shine's pizza in particular.

Honestly, I don't even know if I can really say “recently” since it's already around a year and a half. But one thing's certain, as someone who lives in Eilat, I ate at Shine many more times than people who actually live in Tel Aviv. 

I think there's some kind of cosmic force that pulls us to the corner of the streets Shlomo Hamelech and Frishman over and over again. 
Staying at a hotel in Tel Aviv? Hop over to Shine for their business lunch. 
Staying by friends in Tel Aviv? Hop over to Shine for their business lunch. 
Traveling to visit family in Jerusalem? Hop over to Shine for their business lunch.
On the way back from a trip abroad and dreaming about the perfect pizza? You guessed correctly, on the way back from the Ben Gurion airport – Hop over to Shine for their business lunch.

After a million times Daniel and I hopped over to Shine, I decided that it's time to finally take my camera out and write a post about the café / restaurant I love most in Tel Aviv lately – so you can also fall in love with it and I won't get fat alone from all these pizzas 😉 {it's easier when we're all in the same boat, right? Hehe}. By the way, I planned on writing this post a while ago but I just couldn't resist the pizza every time it got to our table…

But with all my love for Shine, you can say that the love affair with the place started off on a bad note. 
The first time I went to eat there was very disappointing, not because the food was bad, but because my friend built – up one of the dishes so much and accidentally ordered a different one which was good, but definitely didn't have the wow-effect I was promised. A long time passed till I went back there, after all, there are enough good restaurants in Tel Aviv, so I decided that it's not worth giving the place another chance. Oh, I was so wrong!

One Friday we debated where to eat lunch, and our friends suggested Shine. I tried rejecting the suggestion, but Naomi, who really wanted to eat there, said the 4 words that changed everything: “they have amazing sangria“. 

Naomi knows me.
She knows that I can easily be convinced with good sangria

After, turns out that Shine is part of the same group which owns the great restaurant, “The Pizza”, on Bugrashov and the corner of Pinsker – and I understood that I was really wrong about Shine.
Since that Friday afternoon, and that legendary sangria that proves itself time after time, Shine turned into our place in Tel Aviv.

I discovered that Shine is far beyond the place that serves the most refreshing sangria in town. The pizzas there have become my first choice for pizza in Tel Aviv, the salads are fresh, just as salads are supposed to be (unlike salads served in many cafes and other restaurants) and their cheese cake is what I call perfection. The menu of this so-called café {because it’s so much more than a café} is much more diverse than the examples I gave here,

but honestly, I didn’t really get to taste other dishes because we have a regular order that we can’t miss: the garden salad and Salmon and avocado tartare as appetizers, Verdure pizza for the main course, and Nitzan’s cheese cake for dessert – and of course, I almost never skip the amazing white sangria. Daniel manages to mix it up a bit, especially when choosing pizza {in the picture: Francheska pizza which I asked to get only half with bacon, because I don’t like it but wanted to taste, but the smoked smell of the bacon took over the whole pizza so Daniel had to eat it alone and was a bit bummed out about the half empty side}, but the appetizers and the dessert always repeat themselves… They are just too good to skip!

A garden salad filled with fresh vegetables and high-quality {fatty!} feta cheese with focaccia wedges from their taboon. On one hand, there’s nothing special about this salad, and on the other hand, its simplicity, seasoning and freshness make it a salad we don’t ever want to skip.

The tartare is served in the form of large salmon and avocado chunks, combined with a freshly chopped salad with coriander, parsley, chili, cucumbers, peppers, red and green onions and black sesame served on a bruschetta with a great aioli spread. Just like the salad, this dish is super fresh and seasoned with perfection.

Shane’s pizzas are excellent – period. There really is a reason why they are featured in almost all of the best pizzas in Israel lists. The dough hand-made there, and as the best Neapolitan tradition the dough is made without sugar, without oil and without baking enhancers – only flour, salt, water and a little yeast. No wonder that once you put this simple and good dough into the traditional taboon Shane has, you get a pizza that is so high quality and accurate. Beyond that, you can’t not talk about their amazingggg tomato sauce! Not only is it the perfect match for this dream dough, it is also served separately, made as a dip on the side that’s a little spicy for the pizza crust. Let's put it this way, it's so good that I eat it with a spoon before the dishes are even served – and always ask for more sauce in a larger dish!

Now let's talk about the dessert… New York style cheesecake is my favorite dessert, and the one served at Shine is one of the best in the city {good but different ones you can eat at Toto and at The Norman}. Shine's cake isn’t too heavy and not too sweet – just perfect for the sweet-finale after a meal with lots of dough 😉

Suddenly I noticed that I didn’t emphasize why we love this business lunch so much! Not only are the pizzas perfect and everything is fresh and made on the spot {including the desserts!} – it’s priced very well and served until 17:00 {so there's a chance you'll even catch it after work if you leave a bit early }. In Shine’s business lunch, you choose a main dish, add 14 NIS and get a drink + an appetizer or a small salad {garden or Caesar}. The drink can be upgraded to one of the cocktails on the menu {sangria or aperol spritz} at an additional charge, which is so worth it!

By the way, Shine also has options that are suitable for vegetarians, vegans or gluten-sensitive people, and I have no doubt that they are just as good as the other dishes on the menu.