Onigiri-ya

Onigiri-ya is a tiny Japanese counter on Florentin Street that opened in August 2024, and it does one thing most of Tel Aviv’s Japanese restaurants don’t: it ignores sushi entirely. The window says so plainly — “זה לא סושי,” this is not sushi — and what it serves instead is onigiri, the hand-pressed seaweed-and-rice parcels that are everyday street food across Japan but had no dedicated home here.

The place is run by the Sato family, who moved together from Tokyo. Yoshi Sato has lived in Israel for sixteen years; before opening his own spot he cooked at Sushi Bar Basel and in the corporate kitchens of Microsoft and Apple. His wife, Sharona, founded and fronts the shop — locals were struck by the sight of an Israeli woman speaking fluent Japanese in the middle of Florentin — and their son Joey works the small counter. Yoshi’s own calligraphy hangs on the pale wood walls, part of a deliberately spare, minimalist design that mirrors how compact Japanese shops actually look rather than performing a theme.

The menu is short and everything is displayed in the front window, then assembled fresh once you order. There are two fish onigiri — baked salmon (24 NIS) and tuna (21 NIS) — and three vegetarian versions (21 NIS each), including a sweetcorn one and a mozzarella-and-sesame parcel that’s toasted so the cheese turns molten. Beyond the rice balls there’s a bean-noodle salad with tamago, cherry tomatoes and shiitake (35 NIS), Japanese chicken curry with rice and potato salad (54 NIS), a vegetarian curry (42 NIS), and a bento box. Notably, every dish is made gluten-free, and many are vegetarian or vegan — a rare combination that makes the place unusually easy to recommend. Wash it down with the cold butterfly-pea-flower tea.

Seating is minimal, as it is in the small shops Onigiri-ya is modelled on, so most orders go out as takeaway — which suits its location. The restaurant sits on the stretch of Florentin Street recently repainted green and fitted with benches as an emerging pedestrian mall, and Onigiri-ya was one of the first new businesses to bet on that block. Grab your order, find a bench, and eat it in the neighbourhood that has become Tel Aviv’s most restless food district. For the city’s Japanese community it’s a small piece of home; for everyone else it’s an honest introduction to what Japanese people actually eat on the go.

Open Sunday to Thursday; closed Saturday. Call ahead on 03-620-9922, order through Wolt, or follow @onigiri_ya_tlv for daily specials.

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