In a modest shopping center in Ness Ziona, a quiet wine bar called Grand Vin has been operating for about a year with little fanfare. It is owned by Midan Siboni, a well-known sushi chef and Instagram figure with 80,000 followers, who is better known for private dinners and exclusive tasting meals in his intimate Jaffa studio, where a fixed menu can cost 1,300 shekels per diner.
At Grand Vin, Siboni says the experience is meant to be much more accessible. For the first time, he is a partner and owner in a venue of his own, and the format is a small, cheerful wine bar with small plates that accompany the wine. He appears behind the sushi counter only once every few weeks, adding his own sushi and sashimi dishes to the menu. He says, “Here you can eat for 200 shekels, get sparks and fly.”
The kitchen is kosher dairy and not fully Japanese, but combines raw and cooked fish dishes with an easygoing approach that suits the wine list. Regular items include Japanese Caesar salad for 69 shekels, with red tuna added for 36 more, fish tartare for 76, tuna tataki for 69, tuna sashimi with apple and ginger for 78, fish bruschetta, roasted zucchini with crispy rice and creme fraiche for 48, and seabass skewer for 94. During the day, the place also operates as a wine shop.
Siboni says the kosher direction reflects both business and personal reasons, since he comes from a traditional home and knows many diners avoid his food because of kashrut. He also says the war disrupted imported fish supplies and drove up local prices, while climate change has made fish more expensive, saying, “The fish have become as expensive as meat.” Even so, he says the bar aims to be fair, with smaller dishes and high-quality ingredients that are cheaper than a chef restaurant.
Siboni, 38, lives in Yavne with his wife Noa and their three children. About a year ago he also opened an Asian restaurant in a cocktail bar on the 40th floor of the Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, where he is now a partner and visits every month or two. He says the next expansion is already being considered, likely outside Tel Aviv, and that the team has received offers they are now reviewing.
