A chef who is the son of a Bedouin father and an English mother cooks his home on the Golan Heights - and the result is wonderful
The "Rouge" restaurant at the Praz Hotel on the Golan Heights, which is open to the general public, offers an original interpretation of Galilee classics without losing its soul.
About Rouge
Chef: Yossi Hayeb
Cuisine type: Local Galilean
Kosher: Kosher style (no seafood or pork, no mixing of milk and meat)
Restaurant design: Dana Leitersdorf
Menu type: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Number of dishes on the menu: 22-25
Price range: 36-255 NIS per dish
Address: Praz Hotel, Beit HaMeches Junction, Golan Heights
Phone: 077-3641002
Opening hours: Sunday-Saturday: breakfast 08:00-11:00; lunch 13:00-16:00; dinner 18:00-21:30
Reservation required: Yes
"Rouge" is a local chef restaurant at the Praz Hotel on the Golan Heights. The hotel is located in the French Customs House building, established in 1911 on the historical road between Haifa and Damascus and abandoned after the Six-Day War.
In September 2021, after meticulous conservation and restoration work, it was reopened as a boutique hotel. Since the outbreak of the war in October 2023, the hotel has operated according to the security situation in the north, closing and reopening several times. During this turbulent period, the chefs in the kitchen changed: Roi Dori left and his place was taken by Yossi Hayeb, a native of the area and a protégé of chef Erez Komarovsky. The restaurant is open to the general public with three different menus: a great breakfast (150 NIS), lunch, and dinner (a la carte).
Why we chose it
Under Hayeb, the menu at Rouge relies on the seasons and on Shami and Galilean cuisine, while making extensive use of regional produce: cheeses from small dairies in the Galilee and Golan, vegetables from local farms, and wines from the surroundings. These are complemented by foraging, preserving, and pickling, which further deepen the kitchen's connection to the place and Hayeb's rich culinary traditions.
Raw materials are just the starting point. Hayeb is a very creative and humble chef. His ability to juggle dishes from Arab cuisine and pour into them a personal, original, and precise interpretation—without them losing their soul—is impressive. This is what he does, for example, with dishes like shishbarak, msakhan, trout, and vine leaves—familiar dishes that get a new life. It is worth ordering several dishes for the center of the table and sharing; only then can you truly understand the kitchen of Rouge.
About the chef
Yossi Hayeb, 39, was born and raised in Kiryat Shmona to a Bedouin father, a former cattle rancher, and an English mother. In the house where he grew up, food was served to the center of the table and eaten together on mattresses spread on the floor. "I grew up in a house where all the food was sharing, a kind of Arab tapas," he says. While waiting to be drafted into the army, he started working in kitchens, eventually wandering between restaurants in the north.
During this period, he ended up at Erez Komarovsky's house in Matat. Komarovsky invited him to work in his cooking workshops. "A crazy connection was formed between us. Erez is a mentor for me, almost like a father," says Hayeb. "In meeting him, I understood what I was supposed to cook. You don't need to look right and left, but to your past and your home and cook them."
Signature dishes
"I always knew that when I had a restaurant, there would be dumplings in it—shishbarak, of course," says Hayeb. He serves two excellent dumpling dishes at Rouge: shishbarak stuffed with trout confit, and agnolotti filled with charred eggplant in a tahini beurre blanc sauce—a dizzying interpretation of baba ghanoush that became a best-seller.
For an Instagram-worthy dish, Hayeb uses butternut squash soaked in brine, baked, and filled with a salty crème brûlée of squash, cardamom, and sheep's cheese. For dessert, he creates a soft fig leaf panna cotta topped with roasted fig and toffee made from unripe pine cones picked from the trees surrounding the hotel.
Wine and service
Only Israeli wines are served, with a preference for wineries from the north. The wine menu was built by sommeliers Hagai Hess and Bania Katziro. Rouge defines itself as a fine-casual restaurant: the dishes are complex, the service is professional, but the atmosphere is relaxed, warm, and communal. There are no white tablecloths or unnecessary formality here. Rouge manages to tell the story of the Galilee and the Golan through the plate.
