Onami: Where Sake Meets the Mediterranean Breeze

The first thing that registers is the quiet. For a restaurant tucked inside a hotel lobby, Onami at the Hilton Tel Aviv carries an unexpected stillness, the kind of hush that falls over a room where people are concentrating on their plates. A long sushi counter stretches across the center of the space, its glass cases revealing precise rows of glistening fish. Behind it, a chef draws a blade through a block of tuna with the unhurried confidence of someone who has done this ten thousand times. The scent of warm rice and vinegar drifts across the room, mingling with something deeper: the woody perfume of hot dashi broth arriving at a nearby table. This is Onami on a weeknight, and the silence is the sound of people paying attention.

Chef Roy Soffer, a veteran of more than twenty years in Japanese kitchens across Israel, leads the Hilton outpost with a philosophy rooted in precision rather than spectacle. His training under the late Aya Imanti at Yamatoya in Hod HaSharon instilled a reverence for clean cuts and balanced flavors, and that discipline is visible in every plate that leaves the pass.