Poke Club

Remember that Poke craze from 10 years ago?  It seemed like a new poke spot was opening up every week!  If you've ever been to Hawaii far before that, you'd know that the poke we have here is an interpretation of the original dish.  Save for a few places that serve up authentic poke, most places here make it accessible and as familiar as they can for the local population.  Hey, I don't blame them as restaurants are there to profit and they will serve whatever the masses are willing to pay for.  They are not there to satisfy the 10% who want it a certain way (those who are always complaining something isn't authentic).  This brings me to Poke Club in PoCo.  Sure, they have poke, but they also have some hot classic Hawaiian and Korean dishes.  Yah, that isn't poke, but really great for these never-ending cold and rainy days.

So we didn't have any cold poke bowls but did have something that was in-between in the Aburi Poke Bowl.  This was a pretty good value at $19.45 with 3 scoops of protein.  In this case we found tuna, salmon and bay scallops that were beautifully torched.  Hence there was some textural contrast as well as smokiness.  With the other components such as imitation crab, corn, cucumber, green onion and fried onions, there was plenty of toppings for the amount of chewy sushi rice.

Sticking with the Hawaiian theme (it is a poke joint after all!), we tried the Garlic Butter Shrimp for a reasonable price of $17.95.  These large shrimp (an oxymoron?) were meaty with a sweet snap texture.  They were garlicky and buttery, but I thought they were much more savoury with an intense sweetness from the caramelization.  The rice underneath soaked up all the juices and was delicious as well.   Some pineapple and imitation crab were added to the bowl too.

Now we can't have garlic butter shrimp and not have a Loco Moco on deck right?  Yet another classic Hawaiian dish, we found a house-made beef patty that was fairly lean.  Hence, it wasn't exactly juicy, but we really appreciated the natural beef texture and flavour.  Of course, this was served with a sunny side egg and gravy to go with the rice.  This was hearty and definitely great for the rainy weather we have right now.

So the Seoul Ra-Myun was definitely not Hawaiian but hey, with the large Asian population in Hawaii, I'm sure you'd find this dish somewhere.  This was so comforting and delicious with Nongshim noodles and beautifully seared thinly sliced beef.  This also came with a bowl of rice and kimchi.  Sure, nothing complex about this dish but for $12.99, it isn't any more expensive than typical fast food these days.

Lastly, we tried their Shrimp Burger that could be had in a spicy version as well.  I thought this was on point with a crispy patty that had soft fluffy shrimp paste in the middle.  It was not dense and went well with the soft toasted bun.  Overall, the warm and hot dishes we had at Poke Club were well-portioned, delicious and reasonably-priced.  Something a bit different for these cold and rainy days.  So you can have something other than poke bowls at Poke Club.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Tasty

- Good portions

- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:

- Loved the lean burger patty, but maybe too lean?