I had been a big fan of this place - I was initially a bit elitist about poke in Austin, but this place gets the ingredients and the pricing right for poke in Texas. I made several return trips with my gf and they still held up solid, food-wise.

However, I visited this past weekend and had a very sour experience that has me questioning whether to go back. We walked in, no one was manning the food counter, and 3 employees in the front area were doing other things and casually glanced at us, continuing to do whatever they were doing. We waited for a while before someone walked up...but didn’t say anything. No hello, no greeting whatsoever, he just stood there and stared at us. I asked him if he was ready for us, and he just nodded with a straight face and a look of discontent, again without any words. As we went through our respective orders, he continued with just hand gestures and he appeared to be throwing food onto the bowl, as you could see food flying off the bowl. He seemed to be annoyed and a bit passive aggressive.

At the end, he took our payment, again, not saying anything, and then walked away without a word before I even completed my payment. Not that I expect to be thanked upon payment by a restaurant, but coming from that kind of background, it’s one of the basic givens of food service. Needless to say, we were shocked considering the pleasant, welcoming experiences we had had previously.

We chose to eat outside because there was an air of unwelcome inside (no other customers were inside) not only from the food prepper, but the other employees as well. We still liked the food, but it didn’t taste as good given the sour experience we had. I can’t say I’m going to be rushing to come back next time I crave poke.