Pokerrito — Restaurant in Burnaby

Recently, Pokérrito opened up a new location in the Marine Way area of Burnaby. While it’s true that most poke places in the Vancouver area have very little resemblances with the poke places in Hawaii, it’s probably unfair to compare the two. In Hawaii, the best poke spots focus mainly on the freshness of the seafood and the various marinades that they use to accompany them. At most, you’d enjoy the poke in Hawaii with some plain rice to really savour the flavours. In Hawaii, you’d rarely find all of various toppings that accompany “poke bowls” in Vancouver.

Now, with all of that being said, there’s nothing wrong with the poke bowls in Vancouver… especially if it gives the customer what they want. Pokérrito is one such establishment that allows you to either pick from a list of pre-selected bowls or you can go out-of-the-box and fully customize your bowl.

On my first visit during their soft opening in mid-July, there was already a line up inside with hungry customers. I opted for their signature Aburi Bowl ($13.35 for regular size) with flame-seared ahi, miso glaze, green onions, imitation crab meat, lemon, sprouts, furikake, and crispy tempura bits. You have the option to have this served on a bed of brown rice, white rice, or salad and I thought it was pretty good (although I thought it could have used some more sauce).

A couple of days later, I returned to try their Hanauma Bowl ($12.50 for regular size) on a bed of romaine lettuce, cilantro, and kale. Inside the bowl, you get salmon, seaweed salad, imitation crab meat, edamame, ginger, sprouts, masago, and furikake. Again, a very well put together bowl (but it’s difficult to see the seafood underneath all of those toppings).

The following week, I decided to branch out and try to customize my own bowl. This time I picked a Poke Salad with Kale Noodles. The regular size bowls lets you pick 2 proteins and I opted for the Marinated Ahi ($1.50 extra) and Salmon. For my mix-ins, I went with cucumbers, sweet onions, green onions, and cilantro. For my 2 sides, I opted for the avocado ($1 extra) and imitation crab and for my 5 toppings, I picked pineapple, corn, edamame, radish coins, and masago. Topped everything off with some of their signature umami sauce and I was good to go. All in, this bowl came out to $15.75 (think the kale noodles added $0.75 to the price).

On a return visit, I got my Poke Salad to-go ($12.50 for regular size) and upgraded the 2 proteins to Sockeye Salmon (+$1) and Marinated Ahi (+$1.50), with mango and imitation crab as the 2 sides, along with edamame, corn, pineapple, and masago.

Realizing that I actually like the option with their kale noodles, I decided to customize my own bowl and got another Poke Salad with Kale Noodles. This time, I settled on a large size with 3 proteins: spicy tuna, salmon, and octopus. To that, I added some more kale, crunchy cucumbers, sweet onions, green onions, cilantro, spicy seaweed, mango chunks and imitation crab. Then, topped it all off with some edamame, pineapple, radish coins, pineapple, corn, and crunchy onion bits. With all of these items in the bowl, it was a bit difficult to mix everything all up but I somehow managed to do that without spilling it all over myself.

So, while this might not be like the true poke that you’d get in Hawaii, I do like the options that Pokérrito lets you...

Update: After almost a year I decided to reluctantly give them a try again as most of my usual places weren't available. Boy oh boy!!! I'm sure glad I did. Food arrived via Skip and was sealed perfectly. It was sealed in such a way as to ensure food can not be tampered with. Great job Pokerrito. You now have me back as a customer. The food portions are good, the quality and freshness of food was excellent, the preparation and presentation was perfect. This is a strong 4.8 stars in my book which is not an option they get 5 stars from me.

Ordered many times and loved the food until recently. Our most recent order through skip arrived with the paper bag not sealed and their so called safety sticker not put on properly. I inquired with the restaraunt and they said if you order 3 bowls then the bag won't seal properly. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one ordering 3 bowls. Figure it out people. I prefer to order from places that care about food safety and prevent tampering. Pokerrito no longer care about this. Won't be ordering again. Throwing the food out as the delivery driver seemed shady and the food was either tossed around or someone messed with it. YUCK!!!....

Today, I am dissatisfied with not being able to obtain the free tote bag that was advertised, despite ordering over $40 online.

When I picked up my order at the market crossing location in Burnaby, I asked about my free tote bag. Employee A responded by saying I should have entered the code during my order, so I will not be getting the bag. I responded by saying I tried entering the code, but it didn't work. Another employee, Employee B, said they ran out of bags. Then, employee A said the bags will arrive later in the day, and I will need to purchase again to get the bag when they are available.

Why do I need to make the order again to get the free bag? If the bag arrives later in the day, couldn't I come back with the receipt to get the free bag? A $40+ food order is no small amount, and it is distasteful to ask me to order $40+ again to get something I should have gotten the first time.

Update: Thank you to the Pokerrito team. I was able to get my...