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You won’t find any shellfish or eel at this new Palo Alto sushi spot. That’s because Holy Sushi is a fully kosher restaurant.
Owned by Meira Academy, an Orthodox Jewish school for girls located within the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, Holy Sushi soft opened April 1 next to the Stanford Villa Apartments. The menu is conceptualized by Wilson He, who has over 15 years of kosher sushi-making experience, and it features appetizers like hamachi shots with diced yellowtail, onion, masago and avocado ($7), signature dishes like hamachi carpaccio with ponzu sauce ($22), hand rolls like negitoro with house sauce ($8) and a variety of rolls, sashimi and nigiri.
“Most people who come in here are not actually kosher eating,” said Rabbi Joey Felsen, president of the Meira Academy board. “So we feel like we really did it. We can have a full-on Japanese restaurant even with those limitations.”
Holy Sushi began around 10 years ago as a “side project” of Meira Academy, said Felsen. The JCC’s cafeteria didn’t offer kosher food at the time, and the students wanted to be able to purchase food on campus. Previously, He had catered a few kosher sushi events at the JCC, so Felsen reached out to see if He had an interest in selling sushi rolls at the JCC’s fitness center on a more regular basis.
The pandemic put a halt to this small sushi business, and post-pandemic, Felsen decided to rent out JCC’s cafeteria, creating a more permanent home for Holy Sushi and subleasing the rest of the cafeteria to three other kosher vendors, including The Ma’lawah Bar which opened a brick-and-mortar in Palo Alto last month. After a few years, the JCC decided it no longer wanted to rent out its cafeteria, so Holy Sushi had to search for another location. Holy Sushi began subleasing from TeAmo, a boba shop along El Camino Real in Palo Alto. After about six months, it was time to expand and establish Holy Sushi’s own brick-and-mortar, replacing what was previously All Day Kitchens.
“We couldn’t express Chef Wilson’s creativity in TeAmo because we were literally an over-the-counter,” Felsen said.
Holy Sushi is waiting for a self-ventilating fryer to be shipped from China before its grand opening sometime in May, at which point they’ll introduce additional menu items that require the fryer, like deep-fried tofu ($8), tempura king trumpet mushroom ($8) and salmon skin hand roll with kaiware ($5).
“Holy Sushi was really founded to provide an excellent kosher food option in Palo Alto,” Felsen said. “Before we opened at the JCC, the only restaurant was Izzy’s Bagels on California (Avenue), which is great, but it closes early and it’s the only one.”
He, who is neither kosher observant nor Jewish, grew up in Guangzhou, China, and began sushi making after immigrating to America with his family in 1998. He first learned from his father, who was also a sushi chef, then honed his craft at Minako in San Francisco (now located in San Mateo). He also worked at Tomokazu in Burlingame before making sushi for a kosher catering company.
“I like to make Japanese sushi, and I really like the Japanese culture,” He said. “Last year I was there for two months, and I went to a synagogue in Kobe. I wanted to see how they make the kosher food over there. It was a surprise to me because there were not too many choices. In America, there are more choices of kosher items.”
He said he enjoys having a brick-and-mortar because he’s able to make sushi fresh-to-order in front of customers at the sushi bar.
“My goal is to make people happy,” He said. “If they’re happy, I’m happy too.”
But within a few days of opening, Holy Sushi already experienced antisemitism. A customer left a one-star Yelp review that said: “After ordering and about to pay, the man told me they are Jewish owned and a rabbi owns this restaurant. If I had known that prior, I wouldn’t have even came in. Won’t be returning ever.” StopAntisemitism, a nonprofit combating antisemitism, tweeted the now-deleted review on April 9. The post has over 160,000 views, and Felsen said customers flocked to Holy Sushi in support.
When asked if Holy Sushi plans to open additional locations, Felsen posed a question right back.
“The question would be, ‘Can Wilson replicate himself?’” Felsen said. “If he can, then we could maybe franchise, but he’s really the secret sauce behind this entire place.”
Holy Sushi, 3441 Alma St., Suite 100, Palo Alto, 650-254-6007. Open Sunday to Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30-9 p.m. and Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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