Proven Poke Co — Restaurant in Montclair

This was the most abysmal experience I’ve ever had ordering from a restaurant literally in my entire life. I cannot believe the way this business is run, I am appalled by it. Thank goodness for ezCater’s support staff constantly helping me find the next step forward, but this restaurant is really horribly run.

I placed an order for pickup, the order was confirmed by the restaurant, and when my pickup person arrived at the restaurant they didn’t even believe we had an order. We show it to them, they call the owner, and apparently the owner forgot to bring the printed order from home(???) so the staff had no idea. Mind you, I placed this order days in advance— the owner had plenty of time to do this, and really should just have a printer/ tablet in the restaurant maybe??? They say the order will take 30 minutes. Fine. I let ezCater know, we get a partial refund. 40 minutes later I call my pickup person and find out they JUST started making the order and need another 30 minutes, over an hour after the agreed upon time. By this point it’s just gonna be late and seriously had the potential to cost our company THOUSANDS of dollars. I’m furious, call ezCater, and the incredible support person says they’ll handle it. My onsite contact tells me that they’re putting the food away and won’t make the order— the ORDER that was placed DAYS IN ADVANCE and CONFIRMED BY THE RESTAURANT. So all that time I could have spent looking for an alternative I spent WAITING on an order I NEVER RECEIVED. I demanded to speak to the owner, no one would connect us. I called ezCater again, they tried to reach the owner— he’s ducking their calls too. What a weak person, to leave the young wage working employees to deal with a mistake that was ENTIRELY his own fault. Weak character; beyond embarrassing. I’ve had restaurants forget things and then when we go back for it they’d give us a complimentary voucher of sorts— just something to acknowledge their mistake and attempt to reconcile it. The owner here did nothing. Absolutely nothing. The worst part? — we’ve ordered from here for years. We loved Proven Poke. Now it’s just an embarrassment. Utterly unforgivable.

If I could give this half a star it would still be more than this restaurant deserves. My heart goes out to the employees who have to deal with this...

We ordered three different types of poke bowls. Reel Love, Build Your Own Poke Salad Bowl, and Rainbow Love. Hubby and I were an hour late due to traffic and the poke bowls all held up brilliantly. The toppings were still crunchy and all of us enjoyed our bowls very much. All three bowls were very filling and the cubed fishes were very generous. Ordering was a breeze using Grubhub.

I had the regular-sized Build Your Own Poke Salad Bowl which consisted of 1 base (zoodles), 2 proteins, 4 mix-ins, spicy mayo sauce on the side (which accidentally was not included), and 4 toppings. I spied hot Cheetos and that was why I choose the BYOPSB.

Between the thick cuts of zoodles, the spice marinated salmon, and the hot Cheetos, to the crunch of the fried garlic slices. There were so many textures happening here in the best way. The star of the bowl was the wonderful balance between the spiciness of the marinated salmon "Slammin Salmon" to the smoothness of their regular salmon. All the flavors and textures came together. It's heaven in a bowl.

All the bowls were delicious and we all felt the fish was exceptionally fresh and perfectly marinated. We did not need to add any of the sauces that came with, albeit, mine was...

I may have found heaven in a bowl!! There’s so many reasons why Proven Poke stands out from the rest !!

For starters, OPTIONS!! Proven Poke not only offers your typical proteins but also a cooked option for those who aren’t yet a fan of raw fish and a vegan option as well! EVERYONE WINS !

Speaking of options, they have a variety of sauces that are made in house ! I had trouble picking out which one I loved most ! But that’s not it! You have the choice to enjoy your poke in a bowl, burrito, or even in nachos!

If you’d like to add a side, there’s options of miso soup, salad, and hummus. I HIGHLY recommend the edamame hummus, WOW! & For those with a sweet tooth, mochi ice cream for dessert!

Now don’t let all these options scare you! The staff is more than resourceful! They’ll happily walk you through the process and make suggestions along the way!

Lastly, if you enjoy taking pictures like I do, the decor is perfect! It’s so bright and inviting! Makes it much more...