Japanese Sando Craze Sweeps Israeli Culinary Scene With Creative Twists
The Japanese sando sandwich is rapidly gaining popularity across restaurants in Israel, with Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, and Jerusalem offering creative variations from classic katsu to wagyu burgers.
The sando, a Japanese sandwich made with thick, soft bread and meticulous fillings, is rapidly gaining popularity across Israeli restaurants. After yakitori skewers established themselves on local menus, the turn has come for the sando, featuring shokupan—a soft Japanese bread sliced thickly, typically without crusts. The name itself is an abbreviation of the word sandwich. The star of the trend is the katsu sando, featuring crispy panko-breaded cutlet with finely shredded cabbage and sweet-tangy tonkatsu sauce. Egg salad and sweet fruit-and-cream versions are also widely popular.
While sandos are currently found mostly in Tel Aviv, spots in Petah Tikva and Jerusalem are also embracing the trend. Local versions range from crispy chicken and egg salads to creative fusions with hamburgers. Among the notable spots is Wabi Din Shoshani in Tel Aviv, known for its sando-burger priced at 63 shekels, featuring a 200-gram coarse-ground aged beef patty seared on a plancha with shokupan bread, tonkatsu sauce, and shredded cabbage. Another popular destination is Koko Zen, a Japanese cafe offering options like tofu katsu curry and crispy pullet sandos priced between 46 and 58 shekels.
Other notable culinary stops include OBI on Yavne Street, serving crispy chicken and cheese beef sandos for 68 shekels, and Gaijin on Lilienblum Street, which gained social media fame with its triple egg sando featuring soft scrambled and half-cooked eggs for 68 shekels. In Jaffa, the newly opened Ito serves a wagyu beef and cheddar sando for 78 shekels. Meanwhile, Osaka Bar in the Petah Tikva market offers a crispy chicken sando with teriyaki and pineapple glaze for 62 shekels, and Azia 19 in Jerusalem serves a shio-koji marinated crispy chicken sando for 68 shekels.
