SUKA'S Polynesian Cuisine — Restaurant in Fairbanks

I’ve gone to Suka’s several times and as Polynesian food admirers we made sure to get a variety of different foods. We got the tuna poke bowl, spam musubi, as well as the chicken katsu and teriyaki rib plates, in addition to other appetizers and desserts. At first our family got very excited that there is Polynesian place in a city like Fairbanks but we quickly became disappointed by the quality of the food and how extremely overpriced it is. The chicken katsu was flavorless and the ribs were way overcooked and dry. The portions are pretty small too. I have a severe tomato allergy so I requested for the tuna poke bowl to be made without tomatoes for my pick up order. After we got to the cafe to pick up our order and found out that it was never made because they were “confused what we meant by no tomatoes” we decided to never eat at this place again as the cashier was extremely disrespectful and inconsiderate, given that I left my name and phone number to call back in case there was an issue with the order. The cafe also seems to use tomatoes as a filler to make up for the tiny amount of tuna that they put into the poke bowls so I’m sure they were unhappy with our request and simply didn’t want to accommodate my food allergy. I don’t understand why it wasn’t possible to call us back and clarify our order or just let me know when I called that they can’t remove the tomatoes from the tuna. As a professional chef I usually love to support local family businesses, but I will continue to make my own Polynesian dishes that I make much better and delicious while not paying an unreasonable price for something that tastes mediocre at best. EDIT: after the owner's response it became clear to me that this cafe clearly doesn't care about the customer's experience, which makes everything else like the low quality of food and high prices make sense. Maybe the military people are fine eating this and those who have never had authentic Polynesian cuisine before, but I will gladly never step foot into this...

It's wonderful to see how the building has been remodeled to house SUKA'S. The new paint and decorations are a nice touch. The wall with family photos is a wonderful touch to the atmosphere.

I personally enjoyed the food, you can't go wrong with chicken katsu. SUKA'S did a wonderful job, the chicken was tender and juicy and the breading was wonderfully crunchy. I was enlightened to see the incorporation of chamoy and tajin in the fruit smoothies, I would say they may even be under-hyped. I was offered to try the papaya soup special, I enjoyed it. I would describe it as a mildly sweet and refreshing tapioca pudding. It was a great pallet cleanser. Service was very attentive, there was very little wait for food and employees were very kind and pleasant.

Some things to note, when receiving garlic shrimp the shrimp was still shelled, I'm unsure if this was intentional or unintentional and I personally feel ambivalent to it. The shrimp itself was delicious, and the napkins on the table were very appreciated when de-shelling them. On another note I think SUKA'S would bring it from clarifying more about the difference between a bowl and a plate on their menu. From what I understand bowls are smaller servings that cost less compared to plates. The last thing I would mention is the service staff were slightly too attentive, but as someone who has worked in the restaurant industry I don't hold this against them at all. I'm sure SUKA'S is still figuring out a flow and with time things will be running even more...

This was our first visit to this restaurant as it came highly recommended. We ordered a combo plate which included chicken katsu, pulled pork & chicken teriyaki and a poke bowl which we chose the “808” poke. The food actually looked amazing when it was served! Unfortunately to our disappointment on the very first bite of the chicken katsu… it was COLD! I got the attention of the server and inquired if that is how the chicken katsu is normally served? She did not know and had to inquire in the back nor did she get back to us on our inquiry. On a good note, the pulled pork was very good! The second issue we had was with the poke bowl. The “808” poke bowl we received did not have any imitation crab meat. Upon inquiring with the server, she checked in the back and came back stating they were running low on imitation crab meat and put very little. The poke bowl we ordered did not have any imitation crab meat at all. The employees working at this business definitely did not represent the mission of this business and completely failed in...