Restaurant in Ashdod, Israel
Three OAD rankings. Worth the Ashdod trip.
Pescado is Ashdod's most consistently recognized casual dining room, with three consecutive appearances on the Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe list. Chef Yehi Zino's Mediterranean kitchen is seafood-forward and worth booking for anyone in the city — easy to reserve, strong Google rating (4.5 from 1,899 reviews), and a genuine step above the local baseline.
The number that matters here is three: Pescado has appeared on the Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe list in 2023 (#148), 2024 (#186), and 2025 (#205). That's a consistent track record of peer recognition for a Mediterranean restaurant in a city that doesn't typically draw serious food travelers. If you've eaten here once and are wondering whether to return, the answer is yes — and you should go with more intention the second time.
Pescado sits on Martin Buber Street in Ashdod under chef Yehi Zino. The OAD rankings place it firmly in the conversation alongside European casual dining rooms that punch well above their local profile. For context, OAD's Casual Europe list draws from a well-traveled community of diners who eat widely and rank critically — appearing three consecutive years, even with a slight position drift, signals that the kitchen is doing something repeatable and worth the trip.
The address , a street-level location in an Ashdod residential district , suggests a room that's intimate rather than grand. Mediterranean restaurants in this format typically run tight seatings, counter access, and a flow that rewards diners who arrive knowing what they want. If you're returning for a second visit, request whatever seating format gave you the most engagement with the kitchen on your first visit. The room is part of the experience here, not just a backdrop for the food.
Hours run split service: lunch from noon to 4 pm and dinner from 6 to 11:30 pm, Monday through Thursday and Sunday. Friday is closed, and Saturday runs dinner-only from 8:30 pm. Plan accordingly , a Saturday visit means committing to a late-evening dinner only, which suits the occasion meal better than a casual weeknight drop-in.
Pescado's cuisine type is listed as Mediterranean, and Yehi Zino's consistent OAD placement over three years points to a kitchen that's disciplined about its sourcing logic. Mediterranean cooking at the casual dining level lives or dies by ingredient quality: the proximity to the coast in Ashdod gives a kitchen like this access to local seafood that you won't find replicated in inland Israeli restaurants. The restaurant's name , Pescado, Spanish for fish , signals where the menu's center of gravity sits. If sourcing is the editorial lens here, that means ordering fish is the whole point. Returning diners should resist the instinct to branch out and instead go deeper into the seafood side of the menu, where the kitchen's sourcing advantages are most legible on the plate.
Price range data isn't available in our records, but the OAD Casual designation and the Ashdod location suggest this is not fine-dining pricing. For comparison, Mediterranean restaurants at this recognition level in Tel Aviv , such as Alena at The Norman in Tel Aviv , run meaningfully higher tabs. Pescado's value proposition, assuming comparable sourcing quality, is likely stronger than its Tel Aviv peers simply by geography.
See the comparison section below for peer venues in Ashdod. For broader Israeli Mediterranean context, Helena in Caesarea is the regional benchmark for coastal Israeli cooking. Globally, Ottolenghi in London and Balear in Madrid represent the Mediterranean casual end of the spectrum at high recognition levels , Pescado's OAD placement puts it in legitimate conversation with that tier.
For more Ashdod dining, see our full Ashdod restaurants guide. If you're building a longer trip around the region, our Ashdod hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the full picture. For Mediterranean dining in other cities, Dalida in San Francisco, Forma in Los Angeles, Apolonia in Chicago, Mediterranean Exploration Company in Portland, Landersdorfer & Innerhofer in Munich, Le Ponant in Dubrovnik, and Restaurant Bonay in Barcelona offer useful reference points for what this cuisine tier looks like internationally.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pescado | Mediterranean | Easy | |
| Abu Hassan | Humus | Unknown | |
| Dr. Shakshuka | Middle Eastern | Unknown | |
| Ha'Achim | Israeli | Unknown | |
| Habasta | Israeli | Unknown | |
| HaSalon | Israeli - Mediterranean, Israeli | Unknown |
Comparing your options in Ashdod for this tier.
Book at least one to two weeks in advance. A restaurant that has held a spot on the Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe list for three consecutive years does not stay empty. Evening slots from Tuesday through Thursday fill faster than Sunday lunch, which is your best shot at a last-minute table.
Yes, with the right expectations. Pescado is a casual Mediterranean room, not a formal tasting-menu destination, so it suits occasions where the focus is on good food and a relaxed setting rather than ceremony. Three straight OAD rankings signal consistent kitchen quality, which matters more than occasion-night theatre for most people.
It works well for solo diners. A street-level address in a residential district typically means a compact, unfussy room where a single diner does not feel out of place. Lunch service, open most days from 12 to 4 pm, is the lower-pressure option if you want to eat without a reservation.
Dining options at Pescado's credential level are thin in Ashdod itself — it is the city's only venue with a named international ranking. If you are willing to travel, Helena in Caesarea is the regional benchmark for Israeli Mediterranean cooking at a higher price point. Within Ashdod, Abu Hassan is the practical fallback for quality without the need to book ahead.
Bar seating details are not confirmed in available data. Given the residential-district address and the casual format that earned Pescado its OAD placements, the room is likely small and table-focused. check the venue's official channels or arrive at lunch when the room is quieter to ask about walk-in options.
Dinner is the stronger choice if availability allows. The kitchen runs the same hours across both services, but dinner slots are when a three-time OAD-ranked room tends to be at full pace. Lunch from 12 to 4 pm is a genuine option and easier to book — Friday is the one day Pescado is closed, so plan around that.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
