A Jerusalem Institution Closes: The Eucalyptus Restaurant Serves Its Final Meals
After 45 years, one of Jerusalem’s most storied kosher restaurants is closing its doors. The Eucalyptus, the biblically inspired fine-dining landmark helmed by chef Moshe Basson, will serve its final meal at the end of February 2026, a bittersweet ending to a restaurant that helped define what it means to eat in Jerusalem.
We at KosherSquared know this loss firsthand: we named The Eucalyptus the Best for Unique Dining Experience in our roundup of the top 20 must-try kosher restaurants in Jerusalem, and it earned that distinction many times over.
A Restaurant Born From Biblical Vision
The Eucalyptus was never just another restaurant. Chef Basson, now 75, founded it under a eucalyptus tree he had planted as a 12-year-old in the Talpiot neighborhood. Over the decades, the restaurant evolved into a landmark in Jerusalem’s Artists’ Quarter (Hutzot Hayotzer), set in a beautiful stone building with a courtyard serving guests on three levels, steps from the Old City walls. Its philosophy was singular: every dish traced its lineage to biblical ingredients and indigenous plants that Basson foraged himself from the surrounding Judean hills — mallow, wild chicory, Jerusalem sage, purslane, and more.
The menu read like a culinary archaeology project. King Solomon couscous, red lentil stew served in a rustic stone vessel, figs stuffed with chicken, and the now-legendary Maklouba — a chicken and rice dish that Basson turned into a tableside ceremony, with guests participating in flipping the dish. The tasting menus, spanning seven to fifteen courses, were a signature experience that regulars returned for year after year.
Celebrities and heads of state took notice. Late Prime Minister Shimon Peres once remarked, after dining at Eucalyptus, that it was his first time “eating the Bible,” not just reading it. Seinfeld‘s Jason Alexander, actors Blair Underwood and Debra Messing, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, and legendary chef Joel Robuchon all made their way to Basson’s tables. He was featured fifteen times in The New York Times, and Food & Wine selected Eucalyptus for its millennial issue.
The War’s Toll and an Impossible Business Equation
The closure, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, is ultimately the product of economics made brutal by war. The October 7 attacks, which ironically coincided with the release of Basson’s Eucalyptus Cookbook, sent tourism into a prolonged decline, and the restaurant’s patron base never fully recovered. A serious investor was brought forward, with Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion personally advocating for a deal to keep the restaurant open, but the business plan was rejected by the municipality-affiliated company.
The financial math was unforgiving. “I cannot deny that this company was encouraging,” Basson told the Jerusalem Post, “but the arnona [municipal tax] is NIS 24,000 per month. For the past two years, they didn’t charge rent because they didn’t give me a long-term contract. From March 2024, I have been required to pay arnona only.” The result, he says, was a calculated decision by the property’s managers: post-war, the space would have simply become another shuttered building, and they would have been on the hook for the taxes.
“Shock Waves” in the Foodie Community
The announcement reverberated immediately through Jerusalem’s culinary community. A post about the closure in the GKR Foodies Facebook group, one of Israel’s most active food communities, drew significant reaction, underscoring how deeply the restaurant had embedded itself in the culture.
Shimshon Leshinsky, a prominent Israeli food and lifestyle reviewer, described Eucalyptus as an “institution” and called the news “huge.” As he told the Jerusalem Post: “I heard about it yesterday, and the news is causing shock waves in restaurants’ communities.” He added that while he wasn’t entirely surprised given earlier signals, the closure still stings — and he holds out hope: “The tasting menus are great, and the décor is like a museum. I sincerely hope he finds an investor to help him continue.”
Israeli food blogger and event planner Debbie Kandel, quoted in the same piece, placed the loss in broader context: “There is a shortage of themed restaurants and a gap for Moroccan restaurants. The closest thing to another themed restaurant is Salon Yevani, which is Greek and dairy.” She noted that Eucalyptus stood apart in a Jerusalem increasingly dominated by steakhouses and sushi spots. “When people come from abroad, they don’t come to Israel to eat sushi.” Her broader point about the restaurant’s exceptionalism rings true: “When a restaurant stands on its merits, not on its hechsher [kosher certification], that’s when you have a winner.”
Perhaps the most moving tribute came from acclaimed American restaurateur and cookbook author Levana Kirschenbaum, who described Basson as a “formidable polymath” — cook, gardener, forager, memoirist, and “accidental Talmudist all rolled into one” — who “received diners at his restaurant as effusively as if they were guests in his own home.”
What Comes Next for Moshe Basson
Basson, characteristically, is not retreating. He told the Jerusalem Post he plans to pursue lectures, book tours, cooking events, and food travel globally — “business and pleasure together.” He has not ruled out an investor coming forward to preserve or revive the restaurant in some form, but for now, he says he needs time to recuperate “body and soul.”
His next cookbook is already in the works: a volume about eating like Maimonides. And he retains a trait that defined his restaurant — an extraordinary memory. “I can recognize every customer who comes to my restaurant,” he said. “I can tell him where he was sitting and with whom.”
As for the space itself, the Jerusalem Post reports that while the company is already showing the building to other chefs, many have declined to take it over, saying the space was simply too identified with Basson to reinvent.
A Hole in Jerusalem’s Culinary Map
We noted in our Jerusalem restaurant guide that Eucalyptus offered something no other restaurant in the city could replicate: a dining experience rooted in the land itself, where the food told a story that predated every other restaurant on the list by thousands of years. That kind of irreplaceability is exactly what makes this closure so difficult to accept.
“Eucalyptus will be in my heart,” Basson told the Jerusalem Post. For the thousands of diners who made the pilgrimage to that stone courtyard near the Old City walls, it will be in theirs too.
We will be updating our Top 20 Best Kosher Restaurants in Jerusalem guide to reflect this closure.
