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Best Bethlehem food spots Afteem 2
 Afteem has been serving some of Bethlehem's best falafel for years.
Fiona Dunlop

Afteem Restaurant

Inside this stone-walled basement hung with vintage utensils you'll find arguably the best falafel and hummus in town as well as fatteh, a soupy hummus thickened with pita bread strips and sprinkled with almonds, and foul -- a dense, garlicky fava bean soup laced with unctuous olive oil.
Fresh salads and homemade pickles clean up the palate. Keen prices and cheerful service magnetize streams of locals and foreigners, some simply devouring takeaways on the steps outside.
Afteem Restaurant, Manger Square, Bethlehem; +970 2 274 7949

Abu Shanab

Ever since two extravagantly moustachioed brothers, Sameer and Jamal Kara'a, opened this restaurant down on the ring road by the university, their succulent grilled kebabs, lamb chops, chicken and sheep's testicles have seduced diehard carnivores from near and far.
Typical appetizers, salads and knafeh (an addictively sweet white cheese pastry), whisky, arak, Palestinian wine and beer help lure evening diners, despite the graying of those celebrated mustaches and the 1970s time-capsule setting.
Abu Shanab, Main Street, Bethlehem; +972 2 274 2985
 

The Singer Café

This child-friendly hipster hangout owned by a Palestinian-Dutch couple is a quirky ode to Singer sewing machines and healthy eating.
Young Palestinians and NGO staffers devour breakfast shakshuka (eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce) or tuck into lunchtime salads, pasta, sandwiches, pancakes and cakes washed down with fresh juices, beer, wine and great coffee.
Laptops are de rigueur.
The Singer Cafe, Old City Street, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem; +972 59 992 9989.

Al-Jisser

Round the corner from the Singer Café is an even more hip venue, this time aimed at nighthawks, and opened last year by the same owners, Tariq and Kristel.
The industrial chic bar (whose name means "the bridge") pulls in a young, cosmopolitan crowd for lively chat, freshly baked pizza, a vast range of alcoholic drinks, weekly live music and shisha pipes long into the night. Indoor and outdoor seating go with the seasons.
Al-Jisser, Al-Madares Street, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem; +970 597 492 175
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