Poke Guys Markham — Restaurant in Markham

Quality is getting worse and worse every time I go. The fish is not fresh and the white rice was hard and dry. I used to come here when I craved poke, but the last few times I came, the poke was tasteless.

I would have given 2 stars however, the last time I went, I had the most confusing and unpleasant service by a short asian girl so allow me to vent my anger. I’m aware that the service you get here is mediocre at best as their job is merely scooping food into a bowl, but the girl who served me (pictured in the black shirt) was extremely stingy with substitutions and their policies. When I usually come here, I get the PG and ask for spicy shoyu salmon instead of the classic and they kindly accept my request for a $2 extra charge. The next time I went, I decided to mix it up and ask for half spicy shoyu salmon and half classic shoyu salmon and the employee also accepted my request for a $2 extra charge. The poke wasn’t very good and I stopped going there for a while. A few weeks later, I was in the area and decided to go there again while thinking last time was just a bad day, and now comes the day where I unfortunately ran into the most miserable employee there (girl with the black shirt). I ask for half spicy and half classic, she said: “you can’t do that” as she points to the menu I said: “I do it all the time and I know it’s a $2 extra charge which I’m okay with,” Girl: “okay so how many scoops do you want?” Me: “how many scoops does a large come with?” Girl: “3” I was confused. Usually a large size poke comes with 2 scoops… I wasn’t sure either so I proceeded to tell her that I wanted 2 scoops of the spicy salmon and 1 scoop of the classic. She proceeds to scoop and after she finishes, she said that it would be a $4 extra charge. I was baffled. I told her they usually charge me $2 for any kind of substitution I wanted to make for the protein and she bluntly said while shaking her head “it doesn’t work that way”. She proceeded to explain that every scoop you substitute is $2, so is she saying that for all the times I changed the protein to all spicy salmon, I should be charged $6 because I substituted 3 scoops, or even if a large size is actually 2 scoops of protein, which I’m probably sure of, I should be charged $4 based on her theory? I’m not sure if she’s new to the job but if you’re going to charge me $4 for one substitution, than at least tell me before you scoop it. She then asked if I still wanted it, and if I didn’t want it she would throw the whole thing away. Of course I’m not going to waste perfectly good food (good as in edible) just because she charged me $2 more than usual, but I told her that if you’re going to charge $4 than at least tell me beforehand and she just completely ignored me. The extra charge wasn’t the issue here, it was her communication skills and ignorant attitude that made me regret I came, little did I know their food quality is getting worse and...

Been to this location several times and while I enjoy the food the portions are pretty inconsistent. Depending on who’s making the bowls will determine the portion you receive. For example a large seems to come with two scoops of protein. But there’s a taller dude with shorter hair that gives decent scoops with a small mound on the scoop. But another time a smaller Asian girl with glasses gave like a scoop that barely filled the scoop but gave a huge portion of the crabmeat slaw. The girl made my large while the guy made a regular for another customer and the regular looked as though it had the same amount of protein. Secondly, the service at this location also differs. Sometimes it’s very friendly and other times it looks like staff is just waiting for closing time so they can go home. Would I go again? Yeah bc there’s no other poke but they gotta work on the portion consistency.

There seems to be more lax for managers and their family members regarding food safety and handling. For example: maybe she was the wife of the owner or another worker but she helped herself to the poke (salmon specifically) and served herself toppings without wearing gloves and wearing her winter coat. The other staff members wear gloves and tie their hair up and wear hats so I’m not sure why she doesn’t have to. Another example was this one guy, manager maybe was carrying boxes out from the store, came back and I figure he would wash his hands before working again. He didn’t!! He touched his face twice, then wiped his hands on his pants then touched the serving spoons then began wiping the counter down. It’s still flu season please...

As someone who frequents Poke Guys, I have to say that it's my favorite place to get poke. The quality of the ingredients is top-notch and always fresh, which is a huge plus for me. The variety of toppings and sauces is also impressive and I love the creative options they offer.

However, lately, I've noticed that the portion sizes seem to have gotten smaller. Before, the bowls used to be packed to the brim with toppings and fish, but now they look just barely over halfway full. This is disappointing because I always enjoyed the generous portions that they used to serve.

Additionally, after my most recent visit, I felt unwell the next day and was having bowel movements. Poke Guys was the only thing I had eaten the previous day, so I can't help but wonder if it was related. I did notice that the avocado in my Cali bowl looked very brown and aged. While this may have been a one-off experience, it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, while Poke Guys remains my favorite poke place due to the quality of their ingredients and creative options, the recent decrease in portion sizes and my negative experience with food poisoning give me pause. I hope they address these issues because I would hate to have to find a new...