Izna Poke Plus — Restaurant in Waterloo

I’ve previously ordered takeout from this place and I was surprised at how little toppings they included. Based off the pictures online, I expected more vegetables. But I just assumed I didn’t order properly and ate it. It was alright, nothing special but it would’ve been much better with the toppings I expected.

Today I went to order in person for take out and I got the bibimbap and hoedeopbap bowls, and I noticed the employee who was preparing the bowls skipped some of the toppings, even though I distinctly recall reading on the menus displayed both outside and inside the store that there were default toppings, and they would be included in each bowl (unless specifically requested to remove them). In this case, avocado, edamame, and corn were default toppings and she didn’t add any. Initially I asked about avocado, and she told me I had to pay $1 extra for it. I was confused because on the menus that I saw, it only said if you want EXTRA avocado you have to pay extra, but otherwise it was a default topping. So I mentioned this to her and she told me that it’s not something that comes with the bowls I ordered but there was nothing on the menu stating that those bowls would be exempt from the default toppings. I decided to just let it go and not get the avocado (I had already paid). But then she also didn’t include the edamame and corn, which I mentioned to her that I’d like some and again, she said it doesn’t come with the bowls. At this point I was pretty frustrated and told her it’s literally shown in the pictures for those bowls that they have edamame and corn in them, and after that she added them in. I was annoyed considering I know what I saw and read and I just didn’t feel like arguing with her or leaving the store to take a picture of the menu I saw outside to show her. So I got my food and left.

After I came back home and ate my meal, which was decent at most (the rice was a bit stale though), I checked the website menu out of curiosity to see what it says on there. It seems like there’s major inconsistencies on their menus. The one on their website specified the toppings in each bowl, and the ones I ordered did not have any avocado, edamame, or corn in them. HOWEVER, this was NOT the same menu as the ones I saw in person (I’ve included pictures of all the menus so you can see the inconsistencies). Even the pictures of the bowls were different!

So I’m guessing what happened is that the employee was going based off of the online menu, but the other menus hadn’t been updated or altered based on what she was trained on.

It’s bad business practice to not be transparent with your customers about what’s included in your products (whether intentional or not). So I highly suggest whoever goes there to ask them what comes with the food before ordering (which is tedious cause who wants to do all that extra work when they can just read the accurate information off the menu???). My feedback for this store would be to PLEASE CREATE CONSISTENT MENUS so customers don’t get confused and know what they’re getting before they pay for it!!! This would lead to less disappointment and hassle for everyone. And if I knew those bowls didn’t come with those toppings, I would've just ordered something else...

Lied about included ingredients, I would never trust them, recommend them, or go back. I specifically asked for the ingredients in the dish, and they were nicely listed on the menu display. Easy to look at, and view. Easy to order.

The bowl looked amazing, and parts of it were great! But, it was served with green and red peppers, which I found to overpower all the other flavors with a plasticky, bitterness.

On the Menu, on the paper displays, on the TV's, on the chalkboard - they list the dishes and the ingredients, and extra options. They have the exact ingredients of the S1 - Salmon Poke bowl listed. But the food preparer added red and green peppers. They claimed this is standard and listed in the menus, so I channeled my inner Karen, and made them go through each display of dishes/ingredients and no where did it say green and red peppers. They apologized, but did not make any attempt to remedy the situation (adding peppers to the description), brushing it off.

I did not enjoy ordering something, and getting ingredients added that were not listed. Ruined the flavor of the dish, without fairly identifying an ingredient that was about 1/8th of the entire dish.

So, check it out, but beware, what they list/show pictures of/describe their dishes is NOT what you will be served - you get served surprise ingredients in your dish.

**note - the online menu says it has red peppers, but the in person store (as mentioned, chalk board/paper menu/tv menu/verbal menu from the clerk) did not list bell peppers as an ingredient. The picture did not show...

Went in and ordered a salmon poke bowl for take out today. The salmon itself tasted pretty fresh and the slight coating of spicy mayo on the fish was a good touch. Overall, felt like the portion of toppings were a little less than what I'm used to seeing at other places but the pricing is reasonable.

However, service was very disappointing. The girl working there was very efficient but I found her tone to both myself and the other customer in front of me to be rather rude. The customer in front of me completed their promo where you can receive a free pop for posting a review and even I thought that the server's tone and attitude toward that customer throughout the process wasn't the best.

I also am used to poke stores letting the customer choose the sauces but I just managed to stop her before she added mayo, which isn't my preference. It's totally understandable if the sauced included are clearly listed under each menu item but if you look at their overhead menu boards, none of the menu items have descriptions of what they actually include so I felt like I had to look around their serving counter and figure it out.

Overall, not horrible and I would eat the food again but the staff definitely need...