To be honest, I stacked the deck against Otoro. When I called about writing a restaurant review, I told owner Otoro Dylan Sliwinski that I had just come back from Japan (a fact I seem to work into every conversation I have) where I ate some . I said I would be in Tel Aviv for a meeting on a Sunday, when it’s usually not possible to get fresh fish.
“No problem,” he answered. “We have a private fish supplier on Sundays.” So I found myself at Otoro, a small restaurant in named for the fattiest and most flavorful part of bluefin tuna.
Diners sit at the 18 seats around the counter and eat freshly made handrolls as soon as the chef makes them. That way the nori seaweed stays crispy. The rolls are small – three or four bites each – so you need several to make a meal.
This is the best I have had in Israel although I have not tried the non-kosher Japanese restaurants here. The fish and the other products were all top-of-the-line, and the combination was delicious. Sliwinski specially imports his rice and nori from China, and all sauces are made in-house.
The fish was very high-quality, perhaps the best I’ve had in Israel. We started with a salmon tartare (NIS 64), consisting of a large portion of fresh chopped salmon on top of rice with a slightly spicy mayonnaise. It was an excellent start.
We then tried the salad (NIS 68), which had chopped fresh salmon, tuna, and yellowtail on top of a heap of cucumber “noodles.” It was served with small nori seaweed rectangles,.
