Hello Poke (Augusta) — Restaurant in Augusta

It is unfortunate that the excellent food from Hello Poke was soured by the atrocious customer service experienced at restaurant located at 1141 Agerton Lane Augusta, GA 30909. My experience was as follows. I placed an online order at what I thought was the Grovetown location. Once I arrived at the Grovetown located the manager told me I ordered from the Augusta location. I said no problem and headed to the Augusta location to pick up my order. While in route, I called that Agerton Lane location to alert them that I was enroute as it would likely seem strange that my order hadn’t been picked up for over 30 minutes. When I called, I said the following “Hi, I placed an online order and mistakenly ordered from the wrong location….” The women who answered the phone at 5:31pm on 4/16/23 responded did not allow me to finish my sentence and responded “THAT’S TOO BAD” I said “excuse me? I was just calling to let you know that I am enroute.” The women on the phone responded “ohhhhhhhhhh.” I told her “Don’t be so quick” and continued on my way to the Augusta Hello Poke. Upon my arrival at the resturant, I was not greeted. The women who answered the phone had her back to the counter and was fiddling under the rear counter for what seemed to be 2 minutes before acknowledging a customer. Once she recognized that a customer was at the counter, she asked “how may I help you.” I responded, “I have the That’s too bad.” She was confused so I repeated “I have the that’s too bad.” She said “Ohhhhh, you have the two-pork ramen” which I stated, “That is correct.” I explained to the women behind the counter (whom I do not know her name) that she should not talk to customers on the phone in the manner that she did. I further explained that if she would have allowed me to finish my sentence, she would have understood that I was simply alerting the restaurant to my tardiness. She just stared at me with a glazed look of confusion. At this time her coworker came out from the back, surely because he heard our conversation. Since he was coming to her aide, I explained the encounter to him. Not once did the women behind the counter apologize for the way she responded, she ONLY apologized for how I received what she said. She further explained that if I didn’t pick up my order, it would come out of her (the cashier’s) pay. I told her that I placed an online order, which I paid in full and left a tip. I say all that, to say this: 1. I will NEVER be a patron of the Augusta Hello Poke again. 2. I recommend that the woman behind the counter receives ongoing training surrounding customer service, interacting with patrons via phone and comprehension. I hope the next customers have a better experience with this woman going forward. I also hope that she takes from this experience her fault in the situation recognizes where she has needed...

Pre-vist/outside:

The restaurant is located in a small strip mall type shopping center across from the movie theater. Parking is shared between all the places in the shopping center, so it can get a little tight at peak hours. You might not be able to find a spot right outside the restaurant, but it should be close enough.

Service:

I'm not sure if the two workers who were there when we visited were just having a bad day, or are normally like this, but they were not very friendly. My party didn't know what we wanted and had to look over the menu a bit, and we felt quite rushed to make a choice. Additionally, I felt looked down upon when I didn't realize I had to order a base (white/brown rice, noodles, etc) in addition to my bowl. A little explanation of the menu would have been nice, especially since we were the only party in the restaurant at the time of our visit.

Food:

I ordered the Aloha bowl (chicken, pineapple, cucumber, green onion, jalapeno, sweet onion, and sesame oil, see attached picture) and enjoyed it. I thought all the veggies and pineapple provided a fresh taste to the bowl. Portion was plentiful and was plenty (if not a little too much) for a lunch. I would recommend substituting the sesame oil for the spicy aioli or another sauce. I thought that would have provided a little more flavor to the chicken. There are also plenty of other toppings that can be added to the bowl,...

I don't know if Augusta has another poké place but it frankly doesn't need one. I've been here 3 times and it's been fantastic each time. I tried their Amazing Bowl and it lives up to its name, you get your choice of white, brown, or sushi rice and very fresh sushi-grade fish that you can have topped with a preset combination of ingredients or pick and choose what you want on it. The portion sizes are also extremely generous, I've never felt like there wasn't enough meat or enough food in general. Most of the time I can't even finish the whole thing. Service is also great and even when it's been busy I've never had a long wait, they're very quick about preparing everything and do it right in front of you so you see it being made from start to finish. Overall I highly recommend this place to anyone who's a fan of sushi/sashimi or poké, or even if you've never tired it before. There's a strong chance...