Aloha — Restaurant in Bar Harbor

I don’t know if we just had an unusually bad experience or something, but we had been SO excited to try this Poke place, and we were so disappointed. Went inside and the guy at the register didn’t seem to even notice someone had come in. We both grabbed build-your-own bowl sheets, which had a few items crossed off. I handed mine back to the employee and he said he didn’t know where the button to add lobster was (it is literally one of the protein options on the sheet) and I suggested maybe hit the button for something that’s a comparable price?? It took him a really long time to ring the 2 bowls up, and when he told us the total, it was suspiciously high. I just said hey whatever, we just hiked all morning & we’re starving, so I paid the nearly $80 for 2 poke bowls and canned boba drink. A guy came in for a pickup order as we were paying, and the employee STARTED making that guy’s food then and there. And he moved SO slowly... By the time our bowls were done, it was 30 minutes later. The guy told us at the table that they don’t have the salmon my husband ordered, and he could do a substitute. He specifically wanted the salmon, why were we finding out about this SO far after I paid for everything? We also discovered our bowls were missing a couple of other items that were an additional cost, like avocado. And the shrimp protein that was not cheap? Tiny shrimp, the fingernail sized ones that come from a can. The nail in the coffin is that I feel nauseous soon after eating, and I continued to feel sick into the evening. Maybe it’s not always like this? Who knows, but we had such a disappointing experience, I don’t really want to go back...

The 5 star reviews must be friends of the owner. Started off with a bad vibe as I greeted the girl up front and she seemed totally uninterested in being there and kept eyeballing me as if silently judging. Airpod in one ear the whole time, talking on the phone, you know, millennial stuff. Now the food, poke bowls are absurdly overpriced - $16 to START and that's without any protein! $4 charge for salmon...at a poke place? Then the poke finally arrived. Rice was plentiful and warm, that's about it. The portions of protein and everything else for that matter were insanely small. $4 charge for salmon and I only got about 5-6 small pieces. I added mango and I swear they were tiny cubes of mango, could barely taste it. Hardly any spicy mayo. I was literally digging to get any substantial combination of any ingredients. My girlfriend's bowl didn't have the cucumber she asked for. We both asked for avocado, which is an extra $1 charge each, only to be told after paying that they didn't have it. We had to remind the girl that we already paid for the avocado because she didn't have the initiative to offer any kind of compensation. After reminding her, she had an attitude. My girlfriend got up to get a fork (which are located next to the drinks) and the girl up front gets up from her chair and stares my girlfriend down as if she was going to steal a water after we just paid for 4 drinks. Unreal.

UPDATE 8/1/2023 - I called the owner the next day since he replied to this review. He offered me a full refund, and said he would call me back the same day once he has confirmed my order at the store. A week has passed and he has not...

Will never deal with this business again. I am local and was sad when they moved further from downtown, as I use to frequent them for lunch. One day I decided to check out the website and saw they did online orders and delivered. An hour after I ordered my food I called to check on status. The person that answered said they did not deliver and that they were not even open yet for the day. So, I asked for a refund. I was told I would get one. I did not. So, I called again and left a message. No response. So, tried email. Bad email. So, I tried FB msg. This time I got a reply and was told I would be refunded. Still no refund. Contact through FB again. Told again I would get a refund. It has been 3 weeks, going on a month since this started. I am very sad that they have bad business practices and my money was never refunded. This is theft. The owner should be ashamed.

Update: The owner got the refund to me. Sad that it took a month to get it. However, the owner called personally to apologize and informed me that their POS company they work with has been a nightmare and they have had many issues with them and he plans on switching companies for...