Poke Bros. — Restaurant in Greer

Coming from north shore and having an extreme poke addiction, I searched high and low to find something reminiscent of home and found these guys listed online. I was stoked and once they opened I dragged family with me to share what I’ve been telling them about for years.

Upon arriving, purchasing, and partaking, my enjoyment and level of enthusiasm suffered greatly.

Now, dont get me wrong-I don’t by any means expect the ahi in South Carolina to compare to that of Hawai’i but the truth is, at this place it doesn’t come close-especially considering how highly regarded the overpriced Poke Bros are.

I’ve gone three times, each time the quality has been worse than the time before, totaling around $70 in sub par poke bowl purchases.

Each time the Ahi was dark, tough, and the servings of it were minimal, I was skimped on the portions or veggies, seaweed, and pineapple, and given more than enough rice and sauce to offset the lack of ahi. While friendly-the staff failed to listen and added ingredients I hadn’t asked for (Fish eggs, sauces, etc.) at all.

At $11-16 a bowl I would expect my purchase to be fresh and appropriately portioned. From what I’ve observed at the Poke Bros. you’re not paying for legit poke bowls-you're paying for the extras like the calamari, the shrimp, the fish eggs, the incorrect seaweed, the “original sauces” and the overall Pelham Rd hipster vibe. I don’t mind paying more for my poke bowls, but give me what I’m paying for.

Amazon sells killer poke recipe books for cheap, and for a family of 4-6 the ingredients come to $28-35.

Shoots...

When my fiancee and I first entered the restaurant we noticed how crazy loud it was. There was a somewhat large group of people in for dinner, but it's not like every seat was taken. I think the volume has to do with how they have their restaurant setup, there's nothing in the way to break up the sound and the walls/ceiling/floor are all super flat smooth surfaces. It becomes an echo chamber. It was loud enough that we struggled to order our food and I could tell the people taking our orders were struggling with the volume as well.

BUT! The food and service was great. I got The Duke which had all kinds of stuff in the bowl as well as gochujang which gave it a wonderfully spicy zip. The amount of food in the bowl was also the perfect amount. I've had poke bowl at other restaurants and I felt hungry immediately after, but not here.

Only thing keeping you from 5 stars is how uncomfortably...

It presents itself as a healthy alternative, but our experience left us feeling somewhat sick to our stomachs. Since it was our 1st time, we chose a couple bowls from the list. The amount of sauce put on was insane. The servings were bigger than we could eat and raw fish isn't something you can really save for later so half our dinner went into the bin when we got sick of the sauce flavors. The restaurant itself was a small, mostly empty, echoing room with limited seating, all of it fairly uncomfortable. If we ever return, we'll split a bowl and get sauces on the side. I wanted to like this place. The concept is good and there's some chance I'd give it another chance, but I'm never in...