ONA POKÉ — Restaurant in Zurich

Ona Poke was possibly my favorite place in all Zurich when it comes to lunch breaks. As a "constantly-on-a-gym-diet" person, ona poke was always the best cheat meal option providing your portion of protein, carbs and veggies and still some pleasure with it. Sadly since a couple months, they increased all prices by about 3 francs. This on an average bowl price of 25 CHF, means that they increased their prices by over 10% overnight. Funny enough quality or quantity didn't increase by 10% nor I could find any indication in any "inflation surge" across all Switzerland that indicates that an increase of over 10% can be acceptable. As I am a curious person, I asked the reason behind such an outrageous price increase, and they could not answer me. I understand that in Switzerland prices follow the same rules of Hermes or Chanel, i.e: non-sense; however we are still talking about poke bowls, not Michelin star dining experience and an increase of this entity should come with at least an improvement in the service, quality or quantity. As poke trends are taking over Switzerland, like it did in the rest of Europe, I hope competition in the market will make them rethink their price choices, but I am very discouraged as I never really saw normal competition rules of market applying on the peculiar Swiss market. Although I am sure for one lost customer, there will be three more non-questioning customers coming in, I decreased my weekly visits to Ona poke to monthly, and only if it's the only option...

Let's start with the positives: Beautiful décor and ambiance. Also impeccable service, the line moves fairly quickly so don't worry about the queue going out the door. All the ingredients were fresh and you get a good variety to choose from. They have alot of healthy choices if you want to avoid carbs and sugars. For a regular sized bowl it's between CHF 22-32 and for small size it's between CHF 20-31.

Now the negatives and why it only gets 3 Stars: The white rice they used was basmati rice. Eek! With raw fish, Japanese rice definitely goes way better and the nice moist and bouncy bite to Japanese rice adds to the overall taste. Second, the avocado wasn't ripe enough unfortunately. It was a tad sour and not the smooth creamy texture you would hope for.

Lastly, this is just a personal preference so doesn't take away from their rating. I would recommend them having an option of salad for the base in addition to their current rice (white and purple), quinoa and zucchini noodles. In the US, I've been to some really good poke bowl places and they have that option since the sauces usually go really well with a basic salad.

Overall, decent option in Zurich since you can't really find good poke bowls and the pricing is not bad. (Don't compare to other countries but for swiss standards it...

Nice ambiance, fresh, new but that's about it.

First time I've had poke, which has not been marinated, but just mixed with a sauce of your preference upon order.

They use regular thin long grain rice (I assume basmati) which when I was there had already formed lumps.

The avocado I received was more brown spots than avocado and unfortunately all of the avocados out there were in a similar condition, probably because they had been cut up and left in the air waiting.

After having eaten I looked around if there's a place I should take my dish, not seeing one I started leaving, and got scolded for not taking it away as there's supposedly self service - the tray collection rack was in the back hidden away around a corner (you never see it when regularly placing an order and sitting down)

2 stars for the fish and other toppings being fresh, but for 25+ CHF you'd expect more..

Shame, as I really love poke and was so excited finding out...