Solid Bruddha…
Love a good cheap beer that my beloved Dad would consume, after a hard days work!
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I can almost hear you banging out the jungle beat on congo drums to “Hamm’s - The beer refreshing! Hamm’s - The beer refreshing!”
Here you go – This is what I remember as a kid:
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The best were the Nichols and May ads for Jax. Great ads, awful suds.
Played this on drums yesterday. . .along with Shaggy. .Boombastic. .yeah baby!
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Have not made it here yet, but soft opening has been well received overall with lots of Poke bowls and burrito options to choose from. It’s not cheap, but good seafood never is.
The San Diego I Love Poke Festival is May 24th at the Bali Hai chefs and Restaurant. Lots of great entries for this year with 18 different chefs and restaurants entering for the chance to be crowned the 2016 I Love Poke champions!
Hollywood Casino Jamul – Chef Keoni Simmons
Firefly at The Dana on Mission Bay – Chef Eric Manuel
The Safehouse – Chef Adrian Ishmael
Tom Hams Lighthouse – Chef Kyle Kovar
Bay Park Fish Company – Chef Aaron Obregon
Bali Hai Restaurant – Chef Dion Morales
Blue Wave Bar and Grill – Chef Chris Spayde
ILNLYF Foods – Chef Maui Canosa
The High Dive – Chef RoseAna Peyron
Ocean Pacific Grille – Chef Charles Andres
San Diego Poke Company – Chef Meljeezy Sebastian
JRDN (Tower 23) Pacific Beach – Chef Danilo B. Tangalin Jr
Toronado San Diego – Chef Nate Soroko
Poke Australia – Candy Wu
Union Kitchen & Tap – Chef Mike Levine
Cardiff Seaside Market – Chef James Montejano
Da Hawaiian Poke Company – Mark Oyama
Sushi On A Roll – Austin Roberto
Went to Pokirrito over the weekend. I really enjoyed the poke there. Got a regular bowl size poke with red miso, a scoop of octopus and a scoop of ahi plus all the fixings that were included. Very fresh and tasty with good ratios of ingredients and sauce. Also got the Maui Sunrise with karaage and golden ratio sauce. Very good taste and texture, but didn’t travel all that well and was falling apart towards the end of each half… And even though I really enjoyed the flavor combinations, I thought the ingredient ratios were a little off with just too much red bell pepper. They are still in soft opening, so even though the line moves well enough the system was kind of clunky when wanting to purchase items from both stations (Poke & Buritto). Overall it was an enjoyable and flavorful experience and I will definitely return to try other things.
San Diego Poke Co. has opened its first brick and mortar place in mission valley. Can’t find their website, but Eater SD has their new menu on-line.
I tried Pokirrito today. It was almost full with customers when I was there – and almost all of them were 24 years old. Which is good, because they didn’t seem to be as bothered as I was by the very loud music – sometimes with thumping bass (boom-box style). Plus the excruciating, hard-surface-reflected din of the happy crowd. I think my hearing is finally coming back now.
I like noise sometimes: At a football game. At Liberty Public Market. I didn’t appreciate it here. Not at all. It was almost painful.
Based on your comments, I stayed away from the wrap, and instead just ordered a regular bowl. That was enough food for me anyway. I also chose pretty much what you had – tuna and octopus, with all of the toppings (except those for which there is a charge), and red miso sauce. For the marinade, I chose “spicy”, and for the base I got white rice. I also picked up some packages of ginger (near the water dispenser), which went well with the bowl.
I liked the tuna; the octopus was just ok. All of the toppings were good, and everything seemed fresh, as you also noted.
They do need to get a little more organized, though. One glitch was that they were out of dollar bills when I paid, so part of my change was in quarters!
Yes I was by far the oldest person in there. I also could not abide by the din and got all my stuff to go. Actually just finished one of the pokirritos for lunch yesterday, and it ate better than I thought it would as a leftover. Also agree that the octopus is just ok, but it did add some nice textural contrast… I will try the albacore or the scallops next time.
My issue with the line was that the poke bowl station is first and then there is the roll station. When I was second or third in line the roll station was empty and the guy was yelling “anybody ordering a roll?” I said I was, but also wanted a bowl. But he said to stay in line as I couldn’t get out of the Poke bowl line without losing my place, so I had to wait. Meanwhile the roll guy had nothing to do until I finished with my Poke order. Inefficiencies like this make the lines longer than they need to be.
Sounds like a place I wouldn’t enjoy.
You might want to try it for take-out sometime, but no, I definitely don’t think you’d enjoy it for sit-down dining. The line does move along pretty fast, as RISD said, so for take-out you’d only have to endure the noise for a relatively short time.
Mellennials, Hispsters, and Vapers . . . oh my.
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[Not sure if this thread is about poke and poke burritos and sushi burritos or just fusion burritos]
Visited San Diego Poke Co in Mission Valley. The setup is like a Subway or Chipotle shop, you get choose a combo or go down the line with your protein, starch, and toppings. I went with chips as my base (a mix of restaurant tortilla chips and what I think were Tostitos chips), tuna, and some standard toppings in a sriracha mayonnaise-type sauce (called Oh No Sauce). The fish is not seasoned, marinated, or prepared ahead of time. The fish had good flavor and was very tender, the sauce was ok but Ms. Krispy’s shoyu sauce was much more interesting (slightly sweet & smoky). The standard portion bowls run $10, and you get a very small portion of fish…i think 1/4 cup at best, we were both quite disappointed in the amount of fish.
Personally, I prefer poke that has had time to sit in the sauce to give it character, otherwise I might as well eat sashimi.
Thanks for the report Mr. K. I think I’ll skip and try Poke Go when it opens at the end of the month in RB
This setup sounds very similar to assembly-line arrangement at Pokirrito. As you move down the line, the selected base is put in first, then the selected seafood item(s) are tossed with the marinade of your choice, in a separate container. Then the two are combined. Finally, you choose your toppings at another location and after that you reach the pay station. The marinating time is the time it takes for you to get through the toppings station, pay, and walk to your table. Very short since the line moves quickly.
When I have had poke at several small shacks/shops in Hawaii (various islands), most of them are marinated/mixed in with flavorings (i.e. seaweed, shoyu base, kakui nut, etc). I don’t mean an acid component that would cook it. I am curious why that is not common in San Diego.
After your posts, I was interested in learning exactly what the essential differences were between ceviche, sashimi, and poke. This succinct article spells out those differences:
Basically:
Ceviche = raw fish marinated in strong citrus juice to “cook” it.
Sashimi = sliced raw fish w/o marinating; may or may not have a sauce.
Poke = cubed raw fish with a sauce, in a bowl, sometimes with rice underneath. It’s not necessarily marinated in the sauce like those you’ve had in Hawaii – although marinating would obviously intensify the flavor. The sauces used for poke have no acid, as you mentioned; which is to say, the fish isn’t “cooked”.
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I’ve not been to any of these places, so please consider my comments in the abstract.
I don’t like the assemble-your-own concepts like Subway, Chipotle and even Lemonade. Likely because I’m a simpleton and wish to avoid facing down the myriad of choices.
Again sounding like a place for which I’m not a good fit.
Went to Pokkirito and got a poke bowl. First thought was “obnoxiously loud j-pop” as I walked in. Ugh.
Anyway, fish portions were larger than that of SD Poke Co. Fish cubes actually a bit too large and the tuna didn’t seem as tender. I preferred the sides/toppings at Pokkirito and the brown rice was a bit sweet and tender instead of tough and grainy which was nice. Poke sauce itself had very little flavor. I liked you could do combos of fish/shellfish in a regular bowl (i.e. tuna and salmon, tuna and shrimp, etc) so I will go back to try a few of the combos and sauces. Still searching for someone that even comes somewhat close to Da Poke Shack. Hell, Costco might have the best island poke in SD at this point!