1001 Arabian nights and one Locanda in Ramada Olivie Nazareth

The Ramada Nazareth Hotel celebrates local culture with authentic cuisine, a market tour, and a folklore evening with a Knafeh workshop and a belly dancer. The Ramada Hotel is a pampering hotel with a heated indoor pool and Jacuzzi, a sports center, a spa and fine cuisine. One of the highlights here is Locanda chef restaurant, which reopened this week after renovation and upgrading.

1001 Arabian nights and one Locanda in Ramada Olivie Nazareth

The Ramada Olivier Hotel is an Arabian-style boutique hotel with modern comfort and an emphasis on culinary pleasure of tastes and aromas from the Nazareth-Galilee cuisine (and is not kosher). The Ramada Olivia Hotel is overlooking the old city of Nazareth, it situated within a short walking distance from the churches, markets and alleys of the old city. The hotel has 200 spacious rooms including 5 elegant suites for families. The rooms are classically designed and have everything one needs for a pleasant stay - comfortable beds, television, coffee and tea making facilities, minibar, and plenty of USB sockets for charging. The bathroom is well equipped and includes a pleasant rain shower, terry towels and bathrobes.

Ramada Nazareth

While the main aim of Ramada’s guests is to visit Nazareth, it is definitely a hotel suitable for rest and relaxation. What's more fun than having a swim in the heated pool or dipping in the Jacuzzi after a tiring day’s trip? At Ramada, the pool is open from the early morning until 10PM at night! Next to the pool are a large Jacuzzi and a spacious and well-equipped gym overlooking the pool that offers the guests complimentary fitness classes. Jasmine Spa has 4 massage rooms, including one double room, offering a variety of treatments. A pampering Hammam complex will be opened here in the near future.

Ramada Nazareth

After a fun time in the pool and an excellent massage, we had lunch at the Sultana Rooftop bar. The lunch included a selection of salads including original Hummus, a roasted eggplant salad decorated like a well-tended flower garden, excellent Kibbeh and fine grilled meats and fish. We also returned to the Sultana bar in the evening for refreshing cocktails and to enjoy the performance in the ambience of one thousand and one nights with the performance of a belly dancer in a traditional colorful outfit to the sounds of Darbuka drum. The guests were fascinated and it really felt like a festival, or as the locals call it “Hafla”. 

סולטנה רופטופ בר

Sultana Bar - Ramada Nazareth

Sultana Bar - Ramada Nazareth

Locanda Restaurant

One of the Ramada’s culinary highlights is the Locanda restaurant located right outside the hotel door and is open to the general public. Locanda restaurant was recently renovated with an investment of two million shekels. One of the prominent elements of the new design was the introduction of nature inside - the entire restaurant is immersed in vegetation, in bright green colors. Locanda has a balcony with a view of old Nazareth. The balcony is decorated in Arabic style with modern touches.

Locanda Restaurant

Locanda’s menu has also gone through a process of renewal and now consists of chef's dishes from the Nazarene-Galilean cuisine under the direction of Chef Rami Aboleil. The cooking at Locanda is meticulous and of high quality and the menu contains the best dishes of the Arab cuisine, where maximum attention is invested in the preparation of each and every dish. The chef himself buys the fresh products for the menu every day from the local market in Nazareth. The vegetables served in the restaurant are grown on an individual level in an organic farm. The dishes in the restaurant include a connection from different periods in the life of chef Rami Aboleil, from his mother's nostalgic kitchen to the modern and innovative cuisine, while maintaining an authentic-traditional taste.

Locanda Restaurant

The dishes at Locanda are a fusion of Arab and international cuisine with a range of flavors - in combinations that come from Eastern Europe, Italy, Greece, and more. For example, beetroot Carpaccio with purple smooth Shanklish cream cheese with beetroot mash and touches of blue cheese. Memories of Mama Fatma – stuffed vine leaves and zucchini with tzatziki yoghurt. The variety of salads is unusual with salty, sour and sweet salads. For example, there is a sour tabula salad, a tomato salad with burrata cheese and a sweet salad with endive and a variety of fruit decorated with sesame twills. Among the dishes we also found lebanese Kibbeh Nayeh from mashed goat meat and lamb - avery picturesque and impressive dish! We devoured the lamb ribs dish in Tabun oven – they were soft and melted in out mouth. The same goes for the excellent saffron freekeh.

Locanda Restaurant

Locanda not only has a great cuisine, it also has a lively bar. When we ordered cocktails, we did not anticipate the cool performance that the bartender gave when preparing our drinks – acrobatics of bottles flying in the air and humanly controlled fountains of alcohol moving from one container to another. We found ourselves getting up a few times to watch him at work – with a new trick for each drink!

It is worth mentioning that Locanda is available for private and business of up to 60 guests. From time to time, the restaurant hosts unique concept evenings, which you can find out about in advance on the restaurant's Facebook page: @locanda.naz.

Back to the hotel; the rich hospitality here also continues over breakfast, which includes a number buffets combining Israeli, Arab and Galilean flavors. It is worth noting the selection of Nazarene sweets that star in the meal, which well represents the Nazarene expertise in this aspect.

The Ramada Hotel is located about a 15 minutes walk from the famous churches of Nazareth and the market. On Saturdays, hotel guests are invited free of charge to a guided tour of Nazareth. During the tour, the guests walk through the alleys of the old city and its historical sites. The tour also includes tastings in famous local bakeries, coffee shops and candy shops.

Ramada Olivie Nazareth,  https://www.roxonhotels.com/ramada-nazareth-hotel

Disclosure: the writer was a guest of Ramada hotel and Locanda restaurant.