Why You Need To Try Yogalach in Pardes Hanna: A Café That Feels Like Home

At Yoli and Yogev’s Yogalach in Pardes Hanna, the café is almost like an extension of their home, and for a small business that blossomed out of a lockdown malabi shop, they wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Yogev and Yoli began selling malabi for friends and family during the COVID lockdowns, the kind of small, generous gesture that fills empty days with purpose. Around that time, Yoli stopped eating eggs. After searching Pardes Hanna for vegan baked goods that met her standards and coming up empty, she did what any determined home baker would do.

They started experimenting. Cookies, baked goods and cakes reworked again and again to be as good or better than their buttery egg-based counterparts. Frozen desserts without the dairy, pastries built on spelt flour and chia seeds, breads baked with only the best quality ingredients. No shortcuts, no substitutions, all from their home kitchen.

Word moved the way it does in a small but growing city; soon enough, more people than they could count were showing up at their door. The backyard filled in first with baked goods, then with drinks, then with enough regulars that Yoli and Yogev had to make a real decision: close the whole thing down, or open a proper coffee shop. They chose the latter. 

What they didn’t choose to give up was the concept itself: everything made from scratch. Within only a few months, October 7th struck. Their baristas, cooks and servers all got called up to reserve duty, and the growing Pardes Hanna became a ghost town. Seeing the lack of gluten free and vegan options for the influx of soldiers enlisted, Yogalach decided to bake gluten-free and vegan goods for soldiers because that’s what they do best, and it felt obvious to send it where it could do some good.

Yogalach, a portmanteau of Rugelach and Yogev, obviously, specializes in the iconic Israeli dessert, but also makes delightful pies, sandwiches and little treats. The café’s signature sandwich leans into the flavors of an Iraqi-Israeli kitchen filtered through a fully vegan lens: an Iraqi sandwich, with veggie fritters, potato, eggplant and crispy onions drizzled with amba. Their berry pie with white chocolate drizzle is both gluten free and vegan and stands out as one of the best I’ve ever had. Clean ingredients and healthy components don’t always equate to delicious flavors but here they always do. Their brownies and halva pastries were some of my favorites, and their energy bites are the perfect thing to enjoy alongside a delicious coffee or beet apple juice. 

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What makes Yogalach more than just another local coffee shop is what happens around the food. Yoli and Yogev are both Ba’al Tshuvas, and being Mehadrin kosher isn’t a business decision so much as part of who they are. They’ve always been a couple who, when inviting people into their home, show them a real piece of themselves. Yogalach operates the same way. It doesn’t feel like a café with a homey theme; it feels like an actual extension of their home.

The café hosts Torah lessons twice a week, plus an evening class, along with various other community events, bringing people together through great food and company. Yogev, an educator by training and a musician for fun, brings that side of himself into the space too. The vinyl records on the walls are pulled from their own collection, their own holy books sitting nearby on the same shelves. Local art and Judaica line the walls, on loan or for sale, turning the café into something like a rotating community gallery that uniquely reflects Yogev and Yoli’s personalities. 

Regulars don’t need to introduce themselves. Yoli and Yogev know almost everyone by name, and most people already have their regular drink and seat in the café. It’s the kind of place where you’re remembered, which is rarer than it should be. 

Yogalach isn’t trying to be a destination bakery in the flashy sense, although the vegan and gluten-free offerings are among the best in the country. It’s trying to be what it already is: a place that feels like home. 

📍 Yogalah (יוגלך)

• Location: 16 HaNadiv Road, Pardes Hanna-Karkur
• Hashgacha: Kosher Mehadrin (Dairy)
• Social Media: See their latest bakes and pastries on Instagram (@yogalah.bakery)

*Kashrut status is subject to change over time. We always recommend verifying current hashgacha certification directly with the venue before visiting.