Poki Bowl, I choose you

Poki Bowl, located off Almaden Expressway in San Jose, takes a spin on traditional Hawaiian cuisine. This Instagram-worthy restaurant serves delectable varieties of poke, a dish featuring raw fish.

Poki Bowl was relatively easy to find; a long line of hungry families and excited friends stretched outside into many neighboring stores such as Almaden Donut and Subway. Even though Poki Bowl opened two months ago, I had to wait for a long 20 minutes just to get inside.

After finally escaping the scorching sun and entering the air-conditioned interior, I noticed that the long line outside was due the small space being flooded with customers.

In the restaurant, servers scooping varieties of raw fish into customers’ bowls stood behind a counter. It was similar to the service at Panda Express or Chipotle. The system allows customers to choose  either a large bowl for $10.95 or a regular bowl for $9.50 with a base of rice or salad. This is relatively cheap; many places that sell poke for around $15.

From then on, it’s a mix and match. After choosing the base, I was offered an assortment of fresh fish to pick from: spicy tuna, salmon, octopus, shrimp, tuna and yellowtail. After the mix of raw fish, I was offered miso and mayo sauces with different spice levels and a variety of toppings including avocado, crab meat, green onions, sesame seeds, wasabi and ginger. I was pleasantly surprised that the servers offered generous portions: more than enough for a single person.

I ordered a small bowl with a base of sushi rice with salmon, yellowtail and shrimp with a mild mayo sauce, a miso sauce, cucumbers, crab meat and avocado. The combination of savory fish, creamy avocado and crunchy cucumbers was very satisfying, although the sauce was a bit spicy and overwhelming.

Although I didn’t mind the shop’s small interior, it was irritatingly noisy in the restaurant. People were constantly talking over each other, and I had to repeat my order several times because the servers couldn’t hear me. Other than the noise, the customer service was superb.

Poki Bowl also offers a small variety of drinks and a sweet selection of Maven’s macaron ice cream sandwiches, including their most popular flavor, dark chocolate sea salt.

Unfortunately, after receiving our order, my family and I realized that we had to take our lunch to-go. The cramped restaurant had no tables inside and minimal seating outside, which was already occupied on a busy Saturday afternoon.

Poki Bowl is a great place for seafood and raw fish lovers; it comes at a reasonable price with generous servings. Despite the 20-minute drive and painfully long wait, I was exposed to a whole new world of Hawaiian cuisine — one that I would love to return to in the future.