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| - If you want an authentic Hawaiian poké experience then I recommend North Poké. In case you didn't know, poké is pronunced POH-kay and the word means to cut or slice. Poké is a traditional Hawaiian raw fish salad that is served on rice. North Poké also serves 2 other popular items in Hawaii. They are spam musubi and shave ice. These are 3 of the must eat foods if you are a tourist in Hawaii. I believe if you like eating Japanese sashimi or Mexican ceviche, you will also like eating Hawaiian poké.
Based on my visits to Poke Guys, Pokito and Calii Love, North Poké offers the best and most authentic Hawaiian food experience in Toronto. North Poke serves food only in the classic, traditional way. They do not offer Californized dishes or fusion dishes e.g. sushi burittos, doshi (DOughnut suSHI), food ingredients added in poké bowls that you don't see in Hawaii.
North Poké offers a simple menu of 8 signature poké bowls. They don't offer a build your own poké bowl menu. You do have the option of choosing your base from white rice or salad. I like the limited menu options because I can make my decision faster. It's sort of like omakase in Japanese restaurants where you trust the chef to decide what you get to eat. I trust North Poké to offer me the most authentic Hawaiian food experience that they can.
The reason why I trust North Poké is because they prepare the poké focusing on using the freshest and best sashimi quality fish available and marinating the fish. When you eat poké, the marinated fish cubes matter the most than the toppings and rice. I think knife cutting skills are important. I didn't like the bigger cube like pieces cut at Poke Guys. Bigger pieces means less marinating of the fish. I didn't like the marination of the poké at Calii Love because it tasted like there was none. Another reviewer had the same opinion as me regarding the poké they ate at Calii Love. It felt like you were eating unmarinated, raw fish.
The poké bowls I have tried so far at North Poké are Hawaii Classic, Molokai, Shack Special. In general, I enjoyed eating these poké bowls. The drizzled dressing on top complemented the toppings and fish. The toppings from the green onions to the avacado were fresh. I liked the crispy pieces of taro chips. The marinated fish cubes were delicious. The portions of fish, toppings and rice were good. I didn't find myself with too much rice. The white rice that is served is not really to my liking. One time, I found the white rice hard and probably old. Another North Poké reviewer mentioned the same thing. I like the sushi rice served at Pokito, which was like the rice used to make maki rolls.
After you finish eating your poké, order a shave ice for dessert. This frozen treat is not the same as a snow cone or 7-Eleven slurpee. The correct pronunication is shave ice without a 'd' on the end of shave. In Hawaiian grammar, there is no past tense of a word. Shave Ice can be purchased all over Hawaii. What makes shave ice different is how it is made. The shave ice machine takes ice cubes or ice blocks and basically shaves the ice down into coarse ice chunks about the size of a pin head. The shave ice is filled into a cute flower cup and patted down to create a mound. The shave ice holds the syrup flavours in the ice top to bottom better than crushed ice. This allows you to taste the flavour with each bite of ice. You can order a shave ice with up to 2 syrup flavours added. Condensed milk is added to the top. I ask for no condensed milk so I can taste more of my 2 flavours. I chew the crunchy ice as I taste the flavours. The flavours I have tried are blue raspberry, luscious lime, coconut and mango.The shave ice is eaten with a spoon and you can use a straw to drink the melted shave ice and flavouring. It takes about 15 minutes to eat.
North Poke even provides an authentic shave ice experience! The syrup flavouring is purchased from a Hawaiian shave ice company and the cups provided are the same as the ones I have seen in photos online. As far as I am aware, none of the other Toronto poké shops are serving shave ice.
I have chosen North Poké as my poké shop of choice because of what I wrote above. Where else are can you get poké, spam musubi and shave ice all in one location in Toronto?
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