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“Vegan sushi” is a term many sushi purists would consider an oxymoron. And regardless of whether the term elicits elation or disgust, it now exists in downtown Palo Alto.
Tane Vegan Izakaya soft opened Aug. 13 along Emerson Street, serving plant-based sushi rolls ($18-21), nigiri ($9), poke ($23) and yakimono ($12-13) featuring ingredients like pumpkin tempura, king oyster mushrooms and pickled pineapple. The vegan restaurant replaces Zadna Bowl (formerly Roost House, which replaced longtime China Delight). A grand opening date has yet to be scheduled, said co-owner Ray Wang.
This is Tane’s third location, with the first established in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2019 and the second in Berkeley in 2022. Tane is a sister restaurant to San Francisco’s Tataki, a sustainable sushi restaurant which opened in 2008, and San Francisco’s Shizen, a vegan sushi restaurant which opened in 2015.
The menu of Tane Palo Alto is 75-80% similar to that of both Shizen and Tane’s other locations, said Wang, business partner of all five restaurants. The main difference between Shizen and Tane is that Tane offers a smaller menu than Shizen, offers more gluten-free options and has different names for the sushi rolls (although the recipes are the same), he said. For example, Tane best-seller The Wedge (a sushi roll with spicy tofu tempura, scallions, Ichimi togarashi, spicy aioli, sweet soy and sesame) is called Body and Soul at Shizen.
Each location of Tane has dishes unique to that location, and Palo Alto specialties include the Hawaiian poke bowl (with king trumpet mushroom and aged tofu), the nasu misoyaki (with grilled eggplant “unagi” and bok choy), the Monterey roll (with seaweed marinated king oyster mushroom, torched spicy aioli, cucumber, grilled asparagus, avocado and habanero pearls) and the Kahala roll (with lomi, kabocha squash, cucumber, avocado, ginger shoyu tomato and gold flakes).
And while Tane’s menu is 100% plant-based, it may come as a surprise that none of its owners (Kin Lui, Raymond Ho, Casson Trenor and Wang) are.
“People asked me when I worked behind the sushi bar at Shizen, ‘Are you plant-based?’ I was like, ‘No, I’m not,’” Wang said. “I was kind of joking about it, like, ‘That’s how I bought all the flavors to the sushi rolls.’ Because … in lots of places plant-based food (is) pretty bland with no flavor.”
From top left, tomato nigiri, mango nigiri, shiitake nigiri, okra nigiri, bell pepper nigiri, inari and the Point Reyes sushi roll from Tane Vegan Izakaya in downtown Palo Alto. Courtesy Tane Vegan Izakaya. 
From left clockwise, nasu misoyaki, kale salad and seasonal salad from Tane Vegan Izakaya in downtown Palo Alto. Courtesy Tane Vegan Izakaya. 
Seasonal salad from Tane Vegan Izakaya in downtown Palo Alto. Courtesy Tane Vegan Izakaya.
Tane Honolulu sous chef Catherine Palazo, who is training the new team at Tane Palo Alto and is a meat-eater herself, said she thinks “vegetables have more flavor than meat.” After graduating from University of Hawaii Maui College with a culinary degree, Palazo wanted to learn the art of sushi making, but she wasn’t able to land an apprenticeship because “traditionally, they’re not gonna take a woman,” she said.
Sushi making has a long history of being exclusionary to women, with excuses ranging from women’s body lotion or perfume destroying the flavor of the fish to women’s higher body temperatures making the sushi too warm. Palazo focused on French and Italian cuisine before landing her first sushi job at Tane Honolulu.
“They took me in,” she said. “They were patient enough to train me like a blank slate, and I’m here now.”
The Tane team hopes to open more locations of their vegan sushi restaurant in the coming years, and the name Tane (which translates to “seed”) is a metaphorical representation of that goal, Palazo said. Shizen, which translates to “nature,” was the company’s original plant-based concept, and from that sprouted the seeds of Tane, which will continue to spread and grow.
Tane Vegan Izakaya, 461 Emerson St., Palo Alto; Instagram: @taneveganpaloalto. Open Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday 4:30-9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4:30-10 p.m.
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