Pass on this
I had Poke once before on the East Coast - it was at this place called PokeStop, and I remember being extremely tired while poking through a bowl of rice covered with some seaweed and fish and thinking that it was kind of like chirashi. Light flowed through the busy shop as hungry New Yorkers flowed in and out of the shop, some giving me the stank eye as I sat in a coveted spot - forcing them to seek a spot elsewhere.
It was Autumn, but the humid New York air stuck to my skin like a koala clinging to a swaying eucalyptus tree. It had just rained, and the ground was covered in little puddles. That's all I remember from that experience.
This time, I went after school with my good friend JD Medlin to check out Pokebar on Castro, which is the Downtown in Mountain View. It was a random half day that we weren't about to spend on homework - the sun's shining and the classic Californian weather has just kicked in. It's time to go outside. So after we secured a parking spot by sheer luck (keep in mind this is during the lunch rush hour, it was a miracle that we found parking), we walked into the supermarket that houses the busy and efficient Pokebar. Before I talk about the actual thing, however, I'd like to address several issues I have with Poke.
Poke bowls are cool - they're aesthetically pleasing, they look cool, and they taste good. But I really wish that they also soaked the rice with sauce. Whenever I go to Poke, they mix the toppings with the sauce and just lay it on top of the rice, so in the end it's just a whole bunch of flavor on top with some rice below. Well, the fact that the rice is some delicious sushi rice helps ease this qualm, but still I really want some more flavor in my rice. Okay, rant over, on to the actual restaurant.
It's not right to call this spot an actual restaurant - it's more like Subway but without places to sit. It's kind of like the deli at the supermarket, where they give you the food but not places to sit. Luckily there was some seating outside and the weather was just great. But before that we were stuck inside in a medium sized line that quickly expanded after JD and I got our food. I was a little intimidated, but I eventually figured out what I wanted. I got some salmon mixed with spicy tuna, octopus, and shrimp with the house sauce and also their green tea. Their green tea was pretty good - but definitely not worth the price ($4.50 if I remember correctly), and the toppings of the Poke bowl were pretty solid too! But the rice. Oh man the rice. It was decent, but it was chunky. So rice is supposed to be at a state where you can form your own chunks, but this rice was dry. That meant there were already chunks in the rice, and that really turned me off on the place. Truth be told, this is the first time I can straight up recommend on this blog to pass a place - it's my first time, and I don't like doing it, but I felt it was necessary in this case. I was actually talking about this place with some friends a few days later, and they said that the big Poke place on Castro to hit up is Pokeworks, so I guess that's where I'm going on Wednesday.
You can find me on Instagram as @stumpyeatsfood and on yelp at theplumpcat.yelp.com. You can also check out more of my photos on Flickr! If you've got a restaurant recommendation or even a recipe that you think I should try, send it to me at ryanjchen2@gmail.com! Thank you for reading!
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