What’s the first thing that comes to your mind with the mention of Honolulu? The breathtaking scenery? Tropical climate? Golden beaches? Or the infamous Pearl Harbor?
While all these are some of the best things Honolulu has to offer, for me, one of its greatest attractions has always been food.
The incredible combination of different cultural influences and regional foods that you find in Honolulu’s cuisine is truly unique and amazing.
Tane Vegan Izakaya is making a great contribution to making it even more incredible.
Tane Vegan Izakaya’s menu is Japanese and 100% plant-based. With this out-of-the-box approach, the restaurant is truly taking the lead in making Honolulu’s food industry more diverse and inclusive.
Interested to find out what’s on the menu? Let’s take a look!
Tane Vegan Izakaya Menu
Japanese cuisine relies quite heavily on seafood. And there are numerous dishes that you can even imagine making with plant-based ingredients. Think sashimi. But, the creative geniuses behind Tane Vegan Izakaya have done it, and how.
Tane Vegan Izakaya offers a 100% plant-based menu including:
- Starters & Salads
- Shared Plates
- Ramen
- Nigiri
- Classic Rolls
- Specialty Rolls
- Desserts
- Beverages
Let’s dig deep into the Tane Vegan Izakaya menu and see what food options are available within each of these categories.
Plant-Based Foods at Tane Vegan Izakaya – A Detailed Overview
Tane Vegan Izakaya’s menu includes:
Starters & Salads
Whether you’re looking to eat healthy or want to kick-start your vegan meal at Tane Vegan Izakaya with some incredibly delicious appetizers, there are quite a few options to choose from. These include:
Miso Soup
The traditional Japanese soup is characterized by its rich umami flavor with salty, sweet, deep savory notes, and tofu adding a soft bite and mild nuttiness to it.
While the restaurant doesn’t tell how exactly it makes its miso soup or what ingredients it contains, I would like to believe (due to the lack of any information) that it’s made the traditional way.
In addition to being vegan, miso soup is also labeled gluten-free on the Tane Vegan Izakaya menu.
Garlic Edamame
Edamame is a staple in many Asian cuisines. And Tane Vegan Izakaya has made sure that you kick off your vegan Japanese meal the right way by adding Garlic Edamame to its menu.
Have it on its own as an appetizer or snack or enjoy it as a side dish to your vegan main, you’ll love this simple and delicious dish made by stir-frying steamed edamame in garlic oil and shoyu reduction.
Gyoza
Can you imagine a Japanese restaurant that doesn’t serve Gyoza? I sure can’t. Crispy on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside, these pan-fried dumplings are as central to Japanese cuisine as ramen or sushi.
At Tane Vegan Izakaya, these feature a vegetable and tofu filling that offers a powerful punch of flavors and textures.
Da Kine Ceviche
This popular spicy, raw fish salad gets a vegan makeover in the kitchen of Tane Vegan Izakaya.
Here, it’s made with tomato, onion, konjac, avocado, jalapeno, and cilantro and comes topped with lime juice and crispy corn tortilla chips on the side. It’s sweet, spicy, herby, citrusy, crispy, refreshing, and light, making it a great option to begin your meal with.
Shiso Summer Roll
Shiso, also often regarded as the breakfast herb, has been used in Japanese cuisine for ages. Its refreshing herby taste is reminiscent of mint and basil with slight citrusy and sweet undernotes and works great in summer rolls.
Tane Vegan Izakaya’s vegan Shiso Summer Rolls star this ancient herb. But, to offer a more robust taste, the chefs pair it up with a bunch of other ingredients imparting a variety of different flavors, aromas, and textures.
These include shredded lettuce, spinach, carrots, takuean, konjac, pineapple-infused vinegar, and sesame soy reduction.
Beet Salad
Offering a perfect combination of slightly sweet, citrusy, earthy, nutty, and refreshing flavors, this vegan salad at Tane Vegan Izakaya is made with mixed greens, roasted beets (red and golden), roasted cauliflower, orange, roasted almonds, and a tangy vinegar salad dressing.
Poke Salad
This Tane Vegan Izakaya salad is a great option for tofu lovers. It features marinated tofu fried to crispy perfection on the outside while still retaining its inside softness and moistness.
The soy protein is tossed with fresh mixed greens, red onions, scallions, cashews, limu, shoyu, and yuzu konbu to present you with a delicious vegan salad.
Zaru Soba Salad
If you’re looking for a more filling salad, this one is a great choice. As the name says, this vegan salad has the classic Japanese buckwheat noodles as the core ingredient.
It’s made with cold soba noodles, carrots, cucumbers, green onions, nori, yuba, yuzu shoyu, rice crackers and offers all the authentic Japanese flavors that you would expect in a salad.
Shared Plates
Tane Vegan Izakaya takes its appetizers a little too seriously. This can be estimated from the fact that they have a shared plates menu in addition to a starter menu.
While it’s named as ‘shared plates’, there’s no one stopping you from ordering a dish from this category just for yourself. Let’s take a look at the available options:
Tempura
Offering the same flavors that you get from classic non-vegan tempura (apart from that of meat), this vegan tempura at Tane Vegan Izakayais made with vegetables.
The chefs use local seasonal vegetables and deep fry them to crispy, golden perfection coated in a traditional Japanese-style tempura batter made the vegan way.
Agedashi Tofu
Featuring crispy fried tofu in a rich, flavorful, umami sauce made with dashi, Agedashi Tofu is a popular Japanese appetizer. At Tane Vegan Izakaya, it also contains light shoyu and vinegar and comes topped with daikon and scallions.
Shizen Shiitake
Tane Vegan Izakaya offers this vegan appetizer made by stuffing fresh shiitake mushrooms with tofu and matcha salt for mushroom fans.
Tane Katsu
Katsu, or fried meat cutlet, is an example of Japanese comfort food at its best. At Tane, it gets a vegan makeover by the esteemed chefs (Raymond Ho, Kin Lui, and Casson Trenor) who laid the foundation of this legendary restaurant.
What you get as a result is a seasoned, panko layered, fried garlic shoyu patty. It’s served with mixed greens and carrots, so you’ll also get some healthy nutrients along with fried goodness.
Chilled Udon
Classic Japanese thick wheat noodles are combined with carrots, scallions, bell peppers, soy stripe, and wasabi to make this delicious vegan appetizer.
At Tane Vegan, they make it with chilled udon noodles and serve the dish with a sweet and sour apple vinegar dipping sauce.
Brussel Sprouts
Featuring crispy Brussel sprouts with agave mustard and wasabi aioli, this vegan appetizer at Tane Vegan Izakaya comes with a spicy warning. If you like a kick of spice in your food, this will make a great option for you.
But, if you have a low spice tolerance, you should think twice before ordering this dish, or perhaps, you can try asking if they can make it less spicy for you.
Grilled Corn
Grilled corn is always a winner. This one’s made with fresh local corn and comes topped with ichimi and olive oil.
Grilled Mushrooms
These are not just plain old grilled mushrooms, but a combination of shiitake, enoki, and eryngii mushrooms marinated with thick, concentrated, sweet, and umami Japanese tare sauce and grilled to perfection.
Grilled Shishito
Those new to Japanese cuisine may hesitate to have peppers as an appetizer. But, those who have tried Shishitos know that they have a beautiful sweet and slightly smoky flavor.
At Tane, these sweet and spicy peppers are marinated in Japanese tare sauce before grilling to further enhance the flavor.
Ramen
Ramen noodles are ubiquitous in Japanese cuisine. But, traditionally, they contain a range of non-vegan ingredients.
But, the founders of Tane Vegan Izakaya made sure that you do not miss out on the delicious goodness of ramen just because you have turned vegan and came up with a range of vegan ramen varieties.
But, the restaurant’s menu doesn’t provide details about what they are made of. It only tells a bit about the flavor profile of each variety.
Here are your vegan ramen options at Tane Vegan Izakaya:
- Shio – Light and delicate
- Shoyu – Earthy and complex. This ramen variety is also gluten-free.
- Roasted Garlic Miso – Rich and savory
- Spicy Garlic Miso – Bold and spicy (comes with the ‘hot’ warning)
Nigiri
Nigiri is a Japanese delicacy. But, it’s not vegan because it is made with fish. But, when made at Tane Vegan Izakaya, these get a vegan makeover.
The restaurant classifies them as the ‘crown jewels of the menu’. However, just like with ramen, it doesn’t provide much details about the components. But, we know that these are made using 100% plant-based ingredients.
Vegan nigiri options at Tane Vegan Izakaya include:
- Enoki – Made with house-made ponzu and garlic oil, this vegan nigiri has citrusy notes to it
- Bean Curd – Smoked nigiri with sweet shoyu glaze
- Gobo – This one features marinated burdock with chili flakes and sweet shyou
- Inari – Made with smoked bean curd, shiitake mushrooms, and sweet shoyu
- Avocado – Starring smoked beet aioli and lemon zest
- Eggplant – Made with shoyu and mirin marinade, it comes with scallions and saikyo miso
- Mango – Contains pickled mango and comes with citrus avocado puree
- Okra – Grilled okra with truffle salt and garlic oil
- Shiitake – Mushrooms braised in Japanese sweet tare sauce and served with shoyu reduction
- Peppers – Marinated bell peppers roasted to perfection and served with mustard shoyu
- Sweet Corn – The dominant flavors in this vegan nigiri come from wasabi and garlic shoyu
- Yuba – Wasabi and yuzy shoyu
- Tomato – Shiso and ginger shoyu
All these vegan nigri varieties are also gluten-free and come in the count of two per serving.
Classic Rolls
Taking a vegan take on some classic uramaki and hosomaki sushi rolls, Tane Vegan Izakaya offers the following options in this category:
- California Roll – Featuring avocado and shredded tofu
- Avocado Roll – Starring creamy avocado with sesame seeds
- Gobomaki – Made with burdock root and spicy-sweet shoyu
- Futomaki – Consists of aged tofu, shiitake, spinach, inari, kanpyo, and pickled radish
- Kappamaki – Containing bottle gourd and sweet shoyu
- Kappamaki – Features cucumber and sesame seeds
- Shiitake Roll – Made with braised shiitake mushrooms and sweet shoyu
- Philadelphia Roll – Creamy vegan sushi roll made with avocado, smoked bean curd, and vegan cream cheese
- Sweet Potato Roll – Features sweet potato tempura and comes with a sweet shoyu reduction
- Spicy Tofuna Roll – Featuring spicy tofu and cucumber, this vegan sushi roll offers a perfect combination of spice and refreshing cucumber coolness.
Specialty Rolls
Do you think the classic roll collection at Tane Vegan Izakaya is too limited?
Don’t worry; the restaurant offers a pretty good variety of specially crafted, uramaki-style vegan sushi rolls providing a delicious combination of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and mushrooms. The options include:
- Pacifica – Made with eggplant tempura, yellow onion, carrot, zucchini, bell pepper, avocado, sweet shoyu sauce, and garlic aioli.
- Manila Dune – This vegan sushi roll offers a powerful combination of flavors and textures with pumpkin tempura, shredded tofu, spiced burdock, renkon chips, avocado crema, and spicy chili.
- Leahi – This one pair smoked beets with creamy tofu, avocado, asparagus, orange, cashews, and sweet mustard.
- The Wedge – A tempura roll made with spicy tofu, shichimi togarashi, scallions, sesame seeds, sweet shoyu, and spicy aioli.
- Kailua – It’s made with pickled mango, ginger shoyu tomato, marinated shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, shiso, sweet mustard shoyu, wasabi mustard, and rice cracker pearls.
- Sunset – Starring spicy tofu, this plant-based sushi roll at Tane Vegan Izakaya also contains seaweed pearls, cucumber, avocado, and ichimi.
- Point Reyes – This vegan sushi roll at Tane Vegan Izakaya features marinated eryngii mushrooms, spicy shredded tofu, avocado, pickled pineapples and jalapenos, habanero sauce, and sweet shoyu.
- Half Moon – This Japanese vegan tempura roll is made with sweet potato, pickled mango, smoked bean curd, onion, tomato, jalapeno, shiso, and yuzu.
- Barbers – It consists of smoked beets, asparagus, spinach, avocado, seaweed pearls, soy stripe, rice crackers, yuba, and spicy aioli.
- Baker – This is made with marinated eggplant, shredded gobo, asparagus, sweet potato crisps, and torched miso.
- Waialua – The star of this vegan Japanese roll in enoki tempura. Other ingredients include shiso, shredded gobo, avocado, cucumber, scallions, rice cracker, seaweed pearls, and lime slices.
- Ewa – Contains enoki tempura seasoned with macha salt, yuzu seaweed pearls, avocado, smoked beet aioli, sliced lemon, and truffle salt.
Desserts
Tane Vegan Izakaya does offer vegan desserts, but the options are not listed on the website. The online menu only tells that the restaurant offers a special plant-based dessert every day.
So, you will have to visit Tane Vegan to find out what sweet treats they have for plant-eaters.
Beverages
Tane Vegan Izakaya doesn’t provide a list of non-alcoholic beverages online. But, I am sure there must be some options available onsite. It does, however, provide the list of alcoholic drinks it offers. The options include:
- Asahi
- Echigo Koshihikari
- Orion Mugi Shokunin
- Kona Brewing Longboard
- Louis Latour, Chardonnay Viognier
- Nishida “Country Squire”
- Masumi “Sleeping Beauty” – Seasonal
- Bourgogne, Point Noir
- Kamoizumi Umeshu (Plum Wine)
- Galerie Naissance, Sauvignon Blanc
- Domaine Schlumberger, Riesling
- Hoyo “Farmer’s Daughter”
- La Chapelle Rose
- Masumi Okuden “Mirror of Truth” Jummai
- Tamagawa “Red Label” Junmai
- Kokuryu “Black Dragon’ Junmai Ginjo
- Dewazakura “Izumi Judan” Junmai Ginjo
- Tamagawa “Heart of Gold” Junmai Daiginjo
- Sohomare “Indigo” Junmai Ginjo
- Kubota Manju Junmai Daiginjo
- Tedorigawa “Lady Luck” Junmai Daigninjo
- Amabuki Yamahai Junmai Cup Sake
- Yukimanman “Snow Country”
- Hot Sake Yaegaki Junmai
- Sho Chiku Bai Nigori
Conclusion
Tane Vegan Izakaya’s menu is a pure delight for Japanese food lovers. If you’re one and live in Honolulu or visiting the city, make sure to stop by and eat your heart out without worrying about compromising on your vegan commitment.
Did you find this article helpful? Interested to learn about other all-vegan restaurants around the country?
Check out the Dining Out section on the website or my article on Sage Vegan Bistro Menu to get started.
