Poke Dot — Restaurant in Irvine

Chipoke. Build a bowl, whatever you call it is about as Poke as a Mai Tai (invented in Oakland).I could go on and on about how 99.9% of Poke here in socal is not how Hawaiians eat it, but you can ready my other poke reviews for bits and pieces of that. No kukui nuts, no ago, no limu, no ponzu, no yuzu, no citrus, no sushi rice. It’s 2 star for poke, but I added a 3rd for a few small highlights.

I can’t say for sure if they are just latching onto the tail end of the Poke phase here in Socal, but they certainly could have done it better. At least 2 dozen places have been open that made mistakes which they fell into.

Sizes are great, the large is large and the regular is, well regular. I always get the L because if you get white rice it’s perfect, but anything but that makes it less filling. Small is small and what most people get because they are buying by price point rather than stomach point. The wrap to me is not worth the ingenuity as it’s messy and not a real value. Décor is clean, uncluttered, open, but also a little bland. Imagine Tapioca Express mixed with Chipotle. They are in a wildly popular and jam packed busy shopping center with Flame broiler, starbucks, tokio grill, croutons, etc so parking sucks, but they have some seclusion being in the corner with less than popular outdoor seating behind the shops. Go half rice half salad or half chips in any combination. Those tiny ball scoopers moosh everything.

They do not use sushi rice which sucks if you go white, both that and brown rice are dry, I like the chip option, but you have to plan it out well to really make proper use of that. Crab meat is dry, but at least they give you avo free fo charge. Cucumber is too thin and cilantro makes it taste like ceviche (not bad if you go shrimp, octopus, scallops). Shrimp is small and looks like grocery store thawed, tastes only slightly better, Spicy tuna is smooshed with little to no spice, tuna is nice and firm, fresh, chilled, salmon is a little soft and fatty, slightly less fresh. Yellowtail is like smaller, less firm tuna, octopus is thin, but not chewy (shape bears no cause on chewiness), scallops are meh.

Staff is nice, helpful and service is fast, though at lunch it cane get backed up. I generally don’t take my lunch until the 6 hour worked mark so beat the rushes. Soy and Sriracha have cups to fill up to go. The ventilation kind of sucks as it’s always hot in there, I doubt they are properly using the overhead vents seeing as they have huge pots of rice going.

Mild and medium have no heat, spicy barely has any, but at least you can tell their oil blends mix at least some sesame seed oil in there. Volcano and Spicy gives you creaminess and heat, but I’m looking for citrus at this point. Tempura flakes are weird here, but I get everything else. Musubi is boring and needs to be dipped in sauce. I mean I love spam, but this is pretty blah, no real char, no sauce, dry rice, not tightly wrapped. Seaweed salad is like 2 bites for $2.25 and not worth it.

Value is so so, freshness is good, authenticity just shows how many people have actually been to Hawaii to consider this poke and those that have went as tourists and wouldn’t know authentic if it bit them. It’s convenient for A missing segment in Irvine....

Ordered 2 Large Poke Bowls tonight (5/28/22) to go. This is my last trip to Poke Dot. Wife and I are both frequent customers of this location but it continues to go further and further downhill since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020.

Tonight’s order: In both bowls the rice base was mushy, while at the same time, contained hard undercooked/dry grains of rice. I’ve never experienced a consistency like this with any rice before, but my best guess is that the Poke Dot team unsuccessfully tried to rehydrate old rice instead of just making a new batch. Being the base of the Poke Bowl, it completely Ruined the whole bowl. The crab has gotten to the point of way too much mayonnaise in the mix. The fish (salmon, tuna) is mushy and not fresh as well. The avocado is good and has nice full chunks of Avocado still in the mix. The seaweed salad is good and masago portion size is fair. Overall the portion size of the bowl remains great, even considering the price increase to $19 for a large.

Overall, the past 3 consecutive trips to Poke Dot have been very disappointing, as substantial issues with Poke Dot continue to arise. The last last time being that they had no rice available, only salad greens, two hours before closing and were not going to make more for the day. The time before that no avocado available, which is included for free in bowls (and no make-good substitute which must have resulted in a nice boosted margin for the establishment).

All in all there are much better Poke spots in Irvine and the border OC area for the price point of poke dot. Frankly, even at a lower price point, I’d visit another establishment given how bad...

If your looking for delicious fresh poke with a good selection of mixin’s/topping then Poke Dot has you covered.

I have been only eating fish for over a year and have spent a lot of time “experimenting” with other Poke places and when I say “experimenting” I mean it.

Some places may look good yet the quality of fish you receive is subpar and really based on that locations volume of business.

The more fish they serve the fresher the Poke bowl is as raw fish has a short shelf life.

This place is always serving fresh fish and ingredients, EVEN right NOW during the current state of change.

Which speak to how many deliveries and take out orders they are preparing to keep us fed with good fresh food.

Please come buy and support them TODAY or place an order online NOW, I promise it will be your new favorite place to get Poke.

If your vegetarian or only eat leaves they have a great veggie bowl too. (I’ve done this for a couple weeks.)

Side note they have good chopsticks too.

Unlike Poke places have those cheap chopsticks that break and leave splinters of wood everywhere,

Also shouts out to the whole team for the great service and remembering me and my dog!

Speaking of my dog Layla loves their fresh salmon and rice as much as I do!!

Keep up the good work everyone!! ...