Chef Eyal Shani Launches Mediterranean Sushi Concept That Divides Diners

Eyal Shani, renowned for pioneering modern Israeli cuisine alongside chefs like Haim Cohen and Erez Komarovsky, has opened a new restaurant called Bijou in Tel Aviv. At Bijou, Shani offers what he calls "Mediterranean sushi," a reinterpretation of sushi rolls using regional ingredients such as fried eggplant fingers reminiscent of sabich and ajja vegetable omelet, replacing traditional fish and rice components. The restaurant experience is highly structured, with customers limited to 50-minute visits and required to quickly select their meals from a menu lacking detailed descriptions.

The venue is a small, elegant space with a young clientele, designed as a bar in a horseshoe shape where two junior chefs serve the dishes. The sushi rolls are larger than typical hand rolls and presented as cigar-shaped seaweed wraps filled with unconventional ingredients like preserved Icelandic fish liver and finger-sized capers instead of rice. While some rolls include raw fish or shrimp, many are described as unusual or even unappetizing in flavor.

Despite Shani's reputation for exceptional culinary achievements and his influential role in Israeli gastronomy, this new concept has received mixed reactions. The reviewer found the Mediterranean sushi to be strange and largely unnecessary, falling short of the delicacy and finesse associated with traditional Japanese sushi and Shani's previous acclaimed dishes. Bijou is located at 108 Allenby Street in Tel Aviv.