Five Standout Raw Fish Dishes From Around Israel

Raw fish has become a fixture in Israel since Japanese sushi bars arrived in the late 1990s, and today nearly every serious kitchen, wine bar, or chef-driven restaurant serves some version of it. The article rounds up five notable dishes from outside the usual Tel Aviv-only list, including several that their creators call “sashimi” even when they are far from the Japanese original.

At Pescado in Ashdod, chef Yehi Zino is preparing to move the restaurant to a new location on Givat Yona facing the lighthouse after a recent fire. The standout dish there is Saigon, which Zino even sent as a home recipe: lettuce leaves are filled with bluefin or yellowfin tuna, then topped with finely chopped red onion, celery, green pepper, green Tabasco, soy sauce, and toasted panko.

In Haifa’s Talpiot Market, Ilan Peron’s Hamarha Talpiot offers several raw-fish dishes, but the boldest is hand-chopped fish tartare that uses not only the fish flesh but also the liquid interior of the backbone. It is finished with chives, lemon zest, chili, crème fraîche, and a little local caviar. The same kitchen also serves sea-fish sashimi with celery and orange salsa, and lightly seared albacore tataki on romesco and fresh herbs.

Jerusalem’s Satyah keeps operating on Saturdays despite the city’s declining demand for non-kosher restaurants, and its Peruvian ceviche comes with black grapes, coriander, chili, and leche de tigre. In Tel Aviv, Yuval Ben Neriah’s upscale a serves red tuna spaghetti, made from bluefin tuna ribbons in white soy sauce, sake, mirin, and browned butter. Another Tel Aviv standout is Santi by Guy Arish, whose raw dishes include amberjack sashimi with brown butter, chicken wing garum, and Urfa pepper, plus toro tuna with irizake, brown butter, and nasturtium flowers.