Bellboy is theatre that happens to serve drinks. Set in the lobby of the boutique Hotel B Berdichevsky, it wraps a quirky, 1920s aesthetic around cocktails served in deliberately absurd vessels, and it has been one of Tel Aviv's most talked-about rooms since it opened. It sits at No. 11 in our world ranking, and local critics have called its drinks the best, most original and wittiest in Israel.
Most bars ask you to take them seriously. Bellboy asks you to play along, and then quietly proves that the liquid underneath all the spectacle is as good as anywhere. That combination, genuine showmanship with genuine craft, is rarer than it sounds, and it is exactly what has kept Bellboy at the centre of Tel Aviv's drinking life for more than a decade.
Why it ranks No. 11
Our list is ordered by verified guest rating, ties broken by review volume, and Bellboy holds a 4.6 average across more than 3,100 reviews. That number is more impressive than it looks, because theatrical, high-concept bars are notoriously divisive: the spectacle that thrills one guest can strike another as gimmicky, and scores usually suffer for it. Bellboy holds a 4.6 at real volume anyway, which tells you the drinks and the hospitality are carrying the theatrics rather than hiding behind them. That is precisely the kind of quality-at-scale our methodology is designed to reward.
It is also a bar with genuine historical weight. Bellboy was a pioneer of Israel's cocktail movement, one of the rooms that put Tel Aviv on the international drinking map, and it has drawn recognition well beyond its borders in the years since. A bar that shaped a city's whole scene and still keeps a top guest score more than a decade on has earned its place near the top of the list.
The theatre
What sets Bellboy apart is its imagination in the glass and in the serve. Cocktails arrive in whimsical vessels: miniature bathtubs complete with rubber ducks, oyster shells, conch shells, and more, and shots are sometimes wheeled through the room in a vintage baby carriage. Wine-coloured velvet, brass accents and warm lighting set a cosy, cinematic 1920s mood, somewhere between vintage speakeasy and playful fever dream. It is a room engineered for delight and for the photograph, but the theatre is never the whole story. Behind every gimmick is a properly made drink, which is the distinction between a serious bar with a sense of humour and a novelty act.
Ariel Leizgold
Bellboy is the creation of Ariel Leizgold, the owner and mastermind who opened it in 2014 and has since become one of the defining figures of Israeli bartending. Leizgold's instinct is to treat a cocktail bar as a piece of storytelling, where the presentation, the room and the drink are all part of one performance, and Bellboy is the fullest expression of that idea. His influence extends across the local scene, and the bar's reputation as a launchpad for talent and ideas is a large part of why it matters beyond its own four walls.
The drinks
The cocktails are built on homemade infusions and tinctures and a willingness to combine flavours most bars would not dare put together. The signature Rings a Bell is a tangle of gin, sauvignon blanc, Campari, lychee cordial, grapefruit, cocoa balsamic, passion fruit and Sichuan chocolate, complex and bright and unmistakably Bellboy. Josephine's Pet is just as bold: cognac infused with blue cheese, balanced with the bar's own citrus honey, Mandarine Napoleon and lime, a savoury-sweet drink that has no right to work as well as it does. These are cocktails with ideas and a wink, but the balance underneath is serious, which is why the room rates so highly with people who have tried plenty of gimmicks that fall flat.
Butler, the bar within the bar
Behind a secret door inside Bellboy hides Butler, a separate, hush-hush mini-speakeasy that seats only around a dozen guests. Where Bellboy is loud, colourful and playful, Butler is quieter and more classic, a room of old-world charm and bygone-era cocktails for a different, calmer mood. Also a Leizgold creation, it gives the venue two entirely distinct experiences in one address, and discovering it is part of the fun. If Bellboy's spectacle is not what you are after on a given night, Butler is the answer hidden a few feet away.
How to visit
Bellboy is inside Hotel B Berdichevsky at 14 Berdichevsky Street, in the Lev HaIr area of central Tel Aviv, walkable from the city's main nightlife districts. It is popular and the room is intimate, so reservations are recommended, especially at weekends, and it is worth checking the bar's own channels for current hours and for how to access Butler. Prices sit in a fair mid-range for a bar of this ambition. Come ready to play along, order a signature, and let the room show you what it can do. If you want the quieter experience, ask about Butler when you book.
Who it's for
Bellboy suits the drinker who wants world-class cocktails with a sense of humour, the traveller ticking off Tel Aviv's essential rooms, and anyone who enjoys a bar that treats a night out as a performance. For a calmer, classic evening, its hidden Butler room is the alternative in the same building. Come for the spectacle; stay because the drinks earn it.
For more of the city, the full cocktail bars in Tel Aviv roundup expands the picks, our hidden gem bars in Tel Aviv guide covers the quieter rooms, and the Tel Aviv bar guide covers every occasion. See where it sits among its peers on our world's top 50 bars ranking.
What to order
- 01
Rings a Bell
The signature: gin, sauvignon blanc, Campari, lychee, grapefruit, cocoa balsamic, passion fruit and Sichuan chocolate.
- 02
Josephine's Pet
Blue-cheese-infused cognac with the bar's citrus honey, Mandarine Napoleon and lime. Bold and savoury-sweet.
- 03
Whatever comes in the strangest vessel
Ask the bartender for the most theatrical serve on the menu and lean into the spectacle.
- 04
A classic in Butler
If you can find the hidden door, the speakeasy within pours quieter, old-world cocktails.