TANE VEGAN IZAKAYA — Restaurant in Honolulu

Our first night and first dinner in Hawaii involve a fabulous vegan meal here at Tane Vegan Izakaya. We had read excellent reviews of the food before making our reservation and we're slightly leary since an earlier review mentioned that a party who claims they had made a reservation was turned away rather harshly when they showed up and no record of their reservation could be found. It didn't help that the party directly in front of us at the host stand also showed up thinking they had made a reservation which the restaurant had no record of, and they weren't able to accommodate them and sent them away. (Looks like there's a problem they should look into with where some folks are making reservations that just aren't showing up in their system...) We got lucky (I guess) and our reservation was in the system, we were seated right away and our meal was excellent.

Vegan sushi is hard to come by and what we received here was beautiful in the eyes and in the mouth. Highlights included the Leahi specialty roll which has a good smoked flavor in the beets and, as best as I can tell, a "fishy" flavor which made it seem really authentic.

The Wedge specialty roll was the absolute highlight for us...reminded me of a vegetarian "salmon" I used to get with some much ore tastiness and textures going on. The Wedge is reason enough to travel to Hawaii.

We had three different nigiri rolls of which the sweet corn was the tastiest.

And for some reason they brought as a plate of brussels at no charge as I guess an extra plate was made. They were good too.

We also tried the Pineapple Sake (I mean when in Rome, right?) It was okay...it tasted a little bit like they added pineapple juice to sake and stirred a little bit, as opposed to a pineapple infused sake that had been carefully distilled. At $30 for the bottle, well, we finished it, but probably wouldn't indulge on that one again.

If we lived in Honolulu we'd be getting this food all the time. (maybe delivered or take-out so we wouldn't be in fear of showing up and having them tell us they have no record of our reservation.

P.S. Special shout out to our server who gave our 12 year old a...

Given the amount of hype around this restaurant, we were really expecting something great. I have been to a couple of all-vegan sushi restaurants, Ma-kin Sushi in Agoura Hills and Beyond Sushi in NYC, and this experience was significantly lower than the other places. We got three specialty rolls (Kewalo, Half-moon, and the Sunset roll), a Philadelphia roll, the Tane Katsu, and the Da Bao. The Sunset was genuinely really good and the highlight of our visit. Katsu was good as well, good taste, crust was great, but the texture of the meat was not good, a bit inconsistent of a dish, but still worth getting in my opinion. The Philadelphia roll was not great, honestly not even good. The smoked tofu does not replicate the flavors of a traditional Philadelphia roll in the slightest. The smoked tofu worked really well in the Da Bao, and pretty well in the Half-moon, but I would genuinely suggest to the kitchen to work on other fish substitutes. Places like Ma-kin did a PHENOMENAL job of replicating the tastes of typical specialty rolls.

If you are looking for a different take on sushi, this may be your spot. But if you’re a vegan who is looking for the taste of non-vegan sushi or looking to impress your non-vegan friends, I cannot recommend this place.

Atmosphere was great, food came out pretty fast, service was decent (took quite some time to get water refills despite them not being packed).

If I could give half stars, I would give them 3.5, rather than 3. I appreciate what they tried to do, but I think they would benefit from expanding their faux-fish products, despite them being “processed”. Veggies and tofu (which is also processed) can only...

We were blessed as our experience was a managed one, so the waitstaff and kitchen staff were on point. Totally didn't know about the Bay area owners but the menu, which I perused, made homage and a connection between Honolulu (the New HNL) and the Bay (California). Hmmm, where is the investment from? Here's the thing: the food was so so. The ideas are creative. But the seaweed and the rice, which are essential, just weren't up to par. The dishes were the same (at each restaurant), lots of mushrooms and brussel sprouts, some miso and some seaweed. But HNL old is probably the way to go when it comes to eating. Nothing was really worth the prices, at Tane as well as other places we were forced to visit. Over time, maybe they'll (old HNL/og HNL) be able to integrate vegan options. Try Shingei. They were delicious.Thanks to the waiter and everyone for even letting me be there and even be able to pay for my meal and for letting me take my elderly mom out in public and see families and couples. Things are expensive. Prohibitively. You really have no choice but to eat out in HNL which sort of takes the Aloha out of the time. I realize how fortunate I am to have been there, how tired I was prior to coming, and fortunate is the key while resting is the door that opens. Mahalo.

Oh! Just to add, it's tricky for Ubers to get you, ask them to meet you in the side Parking Lot. That will avoid any confusion or dangerous situations for drivers and passengers, until the...