Tane Vegan Izakaya — Restaurant in Berkeley

I come here because only my boyfriend likes the sushi rolls. In the past I've ordered ramen and have tried different ones but all of them were sub-par. The broth is just flat like flavored water with no depth or complexity. Unlike other vegan ramen I've had that make an effort to make a rich, delicious broth, this one is all show. Because I don't like their ramen and I don't really like sushi rolls for dinner, I ordered miso soup, agedashi tofu, and a side of rice thinking that no one could screw this up. The miso soup was pretty good but it's weird that you have to pay for it. The agedashi tofu was simply awful. Agedashi tofu is named as such because it's bathed in a broth. There was no broth just some sauce drizzled on top and some grated radish on the side. They should have just named the dish "fried tofu." The service is consistently inept. When I asked for a side a rice first the server said they only had sushi rice. She told me that it was steamed rice with a little vinegar in it. I asked if there was any sugar because, to my knowledge (and after having lived in Japan) sushi rice typically has rice vinegar and sugar. The server said that the sushi rice only has some vinegar added. But when I got the rice, I could immediately taste sugar, which makes sense but I just didn't want that to go with agedashi tofu since I wasn't having anything else. The server said she would check if it had sugar. After speaking to everyone in the restaurant including the two guys preparing sushi, no one knew the ingredients of the sushi rice so the server came back after ten minutes and said they are trying to call the manager, who prepares the sushi rice, to find out. She also said again that she believed the sushi rice didn't have sugar "because we are a vegan restaurant." When she saw the confused look on my face, she then said, "we just made some plain rice. Can we give this to you instead?" At this point, I just didn't know what to think. Each time I've come here I try to give this place the benefit of the doubt but never again. Some of the food is innovative but overall I feel this place is a pretentious, overpriced restaurant with poor service...

Vegan Japanese, reasonable prices, fun spot (5/5 green stars) I’m glad I took the time to write this review, or I wouldn’t have learned about Tane Vegan Izakaya. I learned that Izakaya is “a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks,” similar to a tapas bar. I also learned that Tane in Berkeley is a sister branch to the original Tane in Honolulu! Also, Tane, means "seed" in Japanese and it embodies the restaurant’s “commitment to sustainable and innovative dining.” The same people are behind Shizen, the popular vegan Japanese restaurant in San Francisco. The founders’ goal is to protect the oceans by showcasing tasty Japanese dishes that are made without fish. I think they have succeeded in delivering a diverse menu of satisfying and interesting dishes. I’ve been there twice now and look forward to going back for a third visit. The second visit was marred a little bit by a loudmouth bore at the next table, but I can hardly hold Tane accountable for that... :D Just bear in mind that it can get a little noisy at night, when it’s busy. Staff members were friendly and efficient both times and the food seems to be quite consistent. The simple grilled mushrooms dish ($12) is a good example of the restaurant’s aesthetic – good ingredients, cooked quite simply so that their inherent qualities are not lost.

I’m also giving Tane Vegan Izakaya 5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact. • Tane is a completely vegan restaurant. Adopting a plant-based diet is the top thing you can do to mitigate climate change, deforestation, animal cruelty, and food scarcity. • Tane strives to support suppliers that use eco-friendly practices (e.g., pesticide-free) and to minimize their carbon footprint “by reducing waste and sourcing seasonal ingredients directly from local farmers.” • The website for the original Honolulu branch of Tane lists some of the produce suppliers, but the Berkeley branch hasn’t done this (yet).

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I had long anticipated trying the food at Tane, as a vegetarian who grew up eating lots of (non-vegetarian) Japanese food at restaurants and at home. However, I was quite disappointed.

First, the positives: the presentation of the food was beautiful, and probably the best part of the meal. The service was also excellent, including by providing information to someone in our party with an allergy.

However, our experience of the food was pretty bad, especially considering Tane's excellent rating. All of us got food poisoning here (though we ordered family style, so it might have just been one bad dish). In general, the food did not taste fresh—the un-submerged parts of the agedashi tofu were soggy, and the rolls tasted and felt like they had been made multiple days prior and then left out to come to room temperature. The rice was, without exaggeration, the worst sushi rice I've ever had at any restaurant, and worse than most supermarket sushi I've had: stale, with hardened dry bits in a mostly mushy texture, and barely any vinegar flavor.

I really hate to criticize a hardworking small business like this, especially one making the unique and creative effort to provide excellent vegan food, but given the incongruity between Tane's rating and our experience, I felt I needed to post this review. It's entirely possible (likely, given the other reviews) that our experience here was an outlier. It's also possible the quality has gone downhill—the restaurant was half-empty at what should have been peak dinner hours, while other reviewers here mention it being hard to get a seat. Either way, I'll probably try coming again another day and see if it was an aberration, and edit this review...