Seattle Fish Guys

I love poke.  My kids love poke.  Heck, Viv loves poke.  There is a dirty joke to had somewhere here, but I'll refrain...  So if we all love poke, then there was no doubt we'd give the Seattle Fish Guys a visit while we were down there.  Now this place isn't a restaurant per se.  It is actually a fish market that also serves to-go items including poke.  They do have a small outdoor dining space, which is generally packed.  We were lucky to grab a table and also a bunch of goodies to eat.

This included a 6 piece order of Prawn Tempura accompanied strangely by unagi sauce.  Who am I to judge as it worked well with the tempura.  As for the tempura, the batter was a bit thick, but wasn't heavy.  Since it was fried and was sitting in a warming display case, it was a little hard and not uniformly crunchy.  Mind you, it wasn't soggy either.  Inside, the ebi was still buttery and had a nice meaty snap.

 

So of course we got the Poke and for this one, we choose salmon and scallop.  It also came with cucumbers, wakame and rice.  We had a choice between raw baby scallops and cooked whole scallops.  As you can see, we picked the latter and these were so appealingly delicious.  There was the hit of sesame oil that complimented the natural sweetness and beautiful chewy texture of the whole thing.

For the other Poke, we had salmon and tuna.  Much like the previous plate, the salmon was in large chunks.  Texturally, it was buttery and soft without being mushy.  However, it was not seasoned properly as it was pretty much bland except for the natural sweetness of the fish.  On the other hand, the tuna was flavourful and slightly creamy.  It was soft and delicate while having the freshness of the sea.

 

To continue with the raw stuff, we got the Sashimi Plate featuring salmon, hamachi and red tuna.  It also came with rice and a boatload of wakame.  We found the fish to be supremely fresh and appetizing.  The hamachi was so buttery soft with a minor bite.  It was sweet with plenty of that hamachi flavor goodness.  Salmon was like in the poke and the tuna was soft with a more robust texture.  Went well with the rice and wakame.  Only wish is that they included wasabi.

One of the most interesting things we got was the Dungeness Crab Sandwich with mac salad and oyster crackers (supposed to be Hawaiian chips, but I guess they ran out?).  I cannot stress how much fluffy crab there was in this sandwich.  So much so, I got the full effect from the crab flavor and texture in each bite.  I wished the bun was a bit softer and smaller, but really, this was a tasty sandwich.  Side of mac salad was solid too.

As if we didn't have enough rice already, I picked up a Miso Black Cod on rice as well.  This was pretty solid for something that was premade and sitting in a warming tray.  The rice was a little on the dry side, but I didn't mind it.  Presented in a generous large piece, the black cod was fatty, soft and flaky.  It was flavorful from the marinade, but could've used a bit more since it was the sole thing flavoring the rice.

 

Lastly, we picked up some Spam Musubis for good measure.  In terms of appearance, they were a bit flat-looking (curiously taking on the shape of the mubushi mould I bought on Amazon...).  I found that the Spam was seared nicely, but a bit thin.  However, with less rice, the ratio was still okay.  Would've liked more of a glaze on one of the musubis though.  Overall, I thought the food was solid given the price and portion size.  I would say I've had much better poke elsewhere, but not again, this was good value and fresh.

The Good:

- Inexpensive

- Large portions

- Fresh

The Bad:

- Food is good but not great

- Usually a long lineup (moves fast though)