Half-Meter Sushi Has Arrived in Israel, and Here’s What We Thought

After burger sushi, the hand roll and sushi pulled from a tube-shaped box, the next trend is already here. It’s called Hinoki, and it’s a square sushi roll half a meter long. Where can you eat it, and how much will it cost? We tasted it before anyone else, and we have all the details.

Yin Levi, mako Published: 10.06.26, 10:20

Hinoki, a half-meter roll without seaweed | Photo: Yin Levi, mako food

The dish currently stirring up the sushi world is called Hinoki. It includes three types of fish, salmon, tuna and greater amberjack, as well as salmon skin, spicy tuna, chives, tempura crumbs and tobiko harra. And if you are used to a round roll, here you eat it in a square shape. Most importantly, the Hinoki is not wrapped in seaweed. Instead, it is served with 16 pieces of seaweed on the side, which are used to scoop up pieces of it, with your hands, yes.

In terms of ingredients, the Hinoki is roughly equivalent to 2.5 to 3 regular sushi rolls, and the only place currently serving it is the kosher Nini Hachi restaurant in Tel Aviv. The Hinoki is enough for two diners and costs 149 shekels.

That covers the dry facts, because you are probably already dying to know whether this is a roll worth it.

Hinoki sushi, this is how you eat it | Photo: Yin Levi, mako food

Hinoki sushi. Nini Hachi | Photo: Yin Levi, mako food

"By the second night we served this dish, 12 tables had already come specifically for it," Yoav Vlin, co-owner of Nini Hachi, tells us. "It is a dish that grabs people. At first it took us 40 minutes to make one Hinoki, but within a few days we managed to get down to 20 minutes per dish."

In Japan, each roll is seared by the customer with a burner right at the table. In Israel, they replaced the searing with three different toppings over the fish.

"After we ate the Hinoki in Kyoto, Japan, and then also at a Japanese restaurant in Thailand, we decided to bring it to Israel," says Udi Romnovsky, Vlin’s partner.

It seems to us that was a worthwhile decision. So what did we think of the dish? As expected from Nini Hachi, this is a tasty and high-quality roll, with successful combinations of fish and toppings. If you are expecting a breakthrough in flavor, you will not find one. The point here is mainly the eating experience, no chopsticks, with your hands, the appearance, and the Instagram appeal. Overall, a very fun and highly experiential dish.

Nini Hachi. 228 Ben Yehuda, Tel Aviv

Check yourself, have you tasted all the previous sushi trends?

Sushi cake

The sushi cake was also brought into our lives by the people of Nini Hachi, and it was such a big success that it became a permanent item on the restaurant’s menu. Today it can also be ordered for delivery outside Tel Aviv, and it comes with a bottle of spicy mayo, a bottle of soy sauce and a bottle of teriyaki. Too much for you? You can always make a mini sushi cake at home.

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Sushi cake from Nini Hachi | Photo: Yin Levi, mako food

Sushi burrito

An oversized sushi roll, as thick as a burrito, divided into two halves. Inside are layers of seaweed and fish, and on the outside, rice. This is the oldest trend here, and Shi Shi in Tel Aviv brought it more than a decade ago. A very successful version of the dish can also be found on the menu at San by Mojo.

Sushi burrito from SUN | Photo: Yin Levi, mako food

Hand roll

The hand roll appeared here about three years ago, and we saw it on the menus of the trendiest places, not necessarily Japanese, since this is the ultimate bar dish. But only now, after Eyal Shani opened Bizhou, a wine bar and hand rolls on Har Sinai, did the trend really explode. The concept comes from New York and Los Angeles and focuses on individual crunchy rolls, prepared on the spot and eaten immediately, without chopsticks.

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Hand roll at SUD Jerusalem | Photo: Yin Levi, mako food

Sushi push-pop

The sushi that came in a round, long tube box took off around the world and also reached Israel, but here it faded quite quickly, perhaps because of the unfortunate timing, the start of the second campaign against Iran. A nice gimmick that can still be found here and there today, and we hope it makes a big comeback.

Sushi burger

The fried sushi trend went through the opposite process. It started in home kitchens and only then reached restaurants. We first tasted it at Yumi Sushi in Netanya, and today it can already be found in other places.

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Sushi burger from Yumi Sushi | Photo: Yin Levi, mako food

Know a particularly cool sushi trend? Let us know

Hinoki sushi

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