This review has been one of the most difficult I’ve ever tried to write. Not because the food is not good (it is very good), but I don’t want this to be a spoiler by describing the experience too much. The surprise factor was one of the things that made an evening at ImerSion so much fun, and I don’t want to ruin it for you.
But let’s start with how you get there. A day before your reservation, you get an address of where to go in Tel Aviv and a request for your cocktail preference. I already liked this experience even before it began.
When you arrive, you climb onto a mini-bus and go to a secret location. Once off the bus, your adventure begins, starting with the promised cocktail and some music. Then you go into a second room, where the real fun starts.
It is a unique combination of AI and food that reminded me of a digital art museum I visited in Japan called TeamLab Planets. ImerSion combines good food and digital art with creative presentation. You’ll have to try it to understand what I mean.
Combining good food and digital art in a secret location
There are six courses plus an amuse-bouche. I came very hungry as I had skipped lunch, ate almost everything, and was definitely full when I left. Each course is unique and completely different from the one before, and the food is very good and served with style. Again, I don’t want to give away too much, but trust me.
The restaurant is also sensitive to allergies or food preferences. I am not allergic but I have a strong dislike for raw onions, so they made everything for me with no raw onions.
Now let’s get the issue of the price out of the way. The meal is expensive – NIS 690 per person for the early seating (which is the one I did), and NIS 750 per person for the later seating. Chef Sally Nejman, the chef and co-owner of ImerSion, admits that it’s expensive. But, she says, a tasting menu at the newly opened &Moshik (run by Moshik Roth, who won a Michelin star for his restaurant in Amsterdam) is NIS 800, not including drinks.
“People need to understand this is not a regular restaurant,” Nejman told me. “There is a show, there are five waiters for 20 people, and there is a host.”
Nejman said she first saw the concept in a restaurant in Shanghai run by a chef who had a Michelin star. There, the cost is double what her restaurant charges, she stated.
The menu changes every six months, so if you’ve already been, you’ll get a chance to try a new menu in six months.
- ImerSion
- Location: Secret
- Sunday-Thursday, two seatings: 7 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.
- Phone: 052-514-2977
- Kashrut: Rabbanut Tel Aviv
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.