| rev:text
| - I have lived in Hawaii before moving to Illinois, so I know a good deal about how traditional poke is supposed to look and taste like. And coming to this area near Green Street and seeing that a place called Poke Lab opened, I was extremely excited to try it out.
When I first walked in I noticed an employee cutting what looked like frozen blocks of tuna packaged in plastic. There was nothing else on the menu that looked of that color and size, so my educated guess is that they use frozen fish. This normally wouldn't be a problem for me, as I know a lot of restaurants have struggles with food costs, and raw fish that is safe to consume raw is especially expensive to obtain and maintain freshness for. However, my concern is that the menu clearly states that the fish is fresh - "Fresh Tuna", "Fresh Salmon", and "Fresh Crab Meat", etc. (one look and anyone can tell that the crab meat is imitation flakes) Putting a veil over customers' eyes is frankly disrespectful and cheap.
When you first walk into Poke Lab, an employee greets you and asks what kind of base you want. The standard base costs $3 and you have the option of white or brown rice, a standard spring mix salad, or a mix of whatever you'd like. Next, they ask what sort of protein you would like. From what I can remember, they have salmon, tuna, shrimp, crab meat, crab salad, and spicy tuna, with tofu as an option for vegetarians or those who do not like fish. On first sight the crab and shrimp do not look appetizing (and those meats aren't commonly seen in traditional poke anyway) so I opted for a scoop of salmon. Afterwards they ask if you want any sauces - I tried the Hawaiian Sweet and it tasted like a pretty standard teriyaki sauce with a small fruity kick. Their spicy mayo also tasted pretty good. Next, you have a variety of mix-in toppings to add and mix with your fish before they add it to your bowl. These cost $0.25 cents each and were not bad, but the diced onion looked fairly browned and not too appetizing. Some other noticeable toppings include corn, edamame, cucumber, pickled radish, avocado (also $0.25, which is an excellent deal considering the fact that avocado almost always costs extra in any other establishment), seaweed salad, and masago.
Overall, however, I was disappointed by the bowl. I understand that maybe the bowl is not the same kind of stuff I enjoyed back in Hawaii, but it tasted absolutely nothing of the childhood memories I thoroughly loved. The sauce was of fairly generic taste and was overly sweet, and fish did not taste or look fresh as it was slightly discolored and felt limp - it almost disintegrated, for lack of a better word, when I pressed down my fork down on it, a clear sign that the fish actually came in frozen, or was shipped fresh and then frozen/defrosted.
To be honest, the bowl was not terrible. The avocado tasted fresh (if it was not fresh you would notice browning) and the sauce was not bad. After all, no one walks into a Chipotle to eat authentic, traditional Mexican cuisine. But I do find it disrespectful to advertise fresh seafood, and have customers pay higher prices for frozen fish that you cut right in front of the consumer. Because some customers will know what something is supposed to look/taste like.
If you want better poke in the area I recommend Kung Fu Tea just a block away; though their poke is a bit overpriced, it is still of better quality than Pokelab. The staff at Pokelab, however, was extremely friendly and attentive. They were very kind and helped me through the process of ordering.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)