Poke Salad Bar — Restaurant in Pasadena

Did a new poke place really open up around the corner from the ever popular Spinfish? Yep. And it's been doing pretty well that I ended up giving PSB a try before trying Spinfish. My friends and I were craving poke awhile back, so we decided to try PSB since one of my friends had already tried Spinfish.

Since it is located in Old Town Pasadena, expect parking to be difficult if you're coming on a Friday or Saturday night. There are plenty of parking structures, but I've had to circle the block several times before finding an open structure with parking available.

The restaurant itself is not too big, but I found that people were in and out of the place fairly quickly. So if you're waiting in line and see that the tables are pretty packed, chances are by the time you get your bowl, there will be a few empty spots scattered here and there.

The menu is fairly simple: 5 different steps in customizing your bowl

Step 1: Choose your base and size. A small is $8.99, medium is $10.50 and a large is $11.99. You're able to get white or brown rice, salad, half and half of the three mentioned before, or a poke roll. I usually like to stick with white rice just because I like the combination of sushi with white rice, but my friends tried salad and brown rice those bases, too.

Step 2: Toppings. From a selection of crabmeat, cucumbers, onions, seaweed, pineapples, and corn, you can choose whatever you want to make that bowl your own. I was a little sad that they didn't have sour cream as an option. I know - most people don't like sour cream, but I do! Personally not a fan of onions or pineapples in my poke bowl, but the other ingredients were tasty.

Step 3: Choosing your fish. A small gives you 2 scoops of fish, a medium 3, and a large 4. The selection of fish includes ahi tuna, salmon, scallop, octopus, spicy tuna, yellow tail, albacore, and shrimp. I tried the salmon and ahi tuna, and both were really fresh. I also thought they gave me a decent amount of fish, which I thought was nice. You can also double up on fish - I ended up choosing tuna and two scoops of salmon since the other fish choices weren't too appealing to me.

Step 4: Choosing the right sauce. You can add more than 1, too! Chipotle mayo, yuzu ponzu, sesame shoyu, and wasabi mayo. I tried the yuzu ponzu, which I really liked. I really like tart sauces, and found that when added to the bowl, the yuzu ponzu made the rice taste like authentic sushi rice. It also gave that extra tangy kick to the rest of the items in the bowl. My friends tried the chipotle mayo and sesame shoyu and told me that they liked it. I think one of my friends preferred the chipotle mayo just because it had that extra kick of spiciness in it.

Step 5: Topping off the bowl with any extra ingredients such as masago, peanuts, green onions, ginger, wasabi, sesame seeds, hurikake, or crunch garlic. I put everything on there I believe. I just wanted the most out of my money.

And they were offering a Yelp check-in deal for a free fountain drink, which I thought was a pretty generous offer.

Overall, I found that I enjoyed PSB. The prices were decent, and the amount of food they gave me was enough to last me two meals. The quality of the ingredients were fresh, and everything tasted really good. I would have liked it if they had cream cheese as an ingredient, but I get that most people prefer to stay away from that ingredient, especially in relation to sushi. After paying, you're able to seat yourself and chow down on the bowl you created. Definitely would return if I'm in the area and...

Good fresh food, but the service is lacking severely. I've been coming to this place for years and lately the servers have literally become a joke. They hire teenagers with zero experience who for the most part have no idea what they are doing, and in addition to that smother you in their teen attitude and you end up paying for all the things that are wrong in this world. A couple of servers are good, but sadly they're never around. So, 80% of the time you can count on getting your order completely wrong with only traces of the actual food in it. (DO NOT order online. Always watch them prepare your order. I've been burnt many times for trusting them to do it right). Their miso soup half the time tastes like water, so you have to ask them to open up the machine to make sure the bag with miso paste is not empty, which it very often is. And then you have to tell them how to work the machine, because they have no clue and you end up with a bowl that's only a quarter full.

The worst of them all is Erin. This teen is clearly on a mission to NOT feed the world so she puts barely anything in your order and if you ask to correct it, you get an eye roll and maybe one more leaf of salad. God forbid you ask for something else. That literally initiates a tantrum in her and all the other servers in the shop run to hide in the back. I asked to talk to the manager once, which she refused to do for solid 10 minutes. Eventually one of the teen-managers came out (Macy Silver), who sadly wasn't that much better. She essentially just refused to look into the issue and told me to take my order and get lost.

I've also noticed that nobody goes there anymore. This place used to be packed. Now, not so much. Barely any people there, even during peak lunch hours. One time I came during lunch, but the door was closed and no customers were inside. I knocked on the window and Erin (surprise!) and another teen were inside and ignored me for 15 minutes. Eventually Erin came out and acted like she had just heard me. So apparently, when there's no one senior in the store, she just locks the door to deter anyone from coming inside.

Anyway, I'll be looking elsewhere for my lunch needs from now on, too. Clearly, this shop is gonna get closed up soon. Too bad, but even good food can't save atrocious...

This place is great. The food is yummy and the staff is friendly and efficient. To order, there is a multi step process. First, you select your size and base. Then your toppings that are mixed in. Next you choose your proteins - you can mix and match. After that, you select your tops that actually go on top. Finally, you pick your sauce(s) and the finishing touches.

Bowls start at 13.99 and include 2 scoops of protein. Each scoop is about 2+ ounces. A medium has 3 scoops and costs $2 more. A large has 4 scoops and cost $4.

Bases include: white rice, quinoa/brown rice, salad, half & half, or chips.

Mix ins include: crabmeat, cucumber, onions, seaweed, pineapples, sweet corn, jalapeños, cilantro, or everything.

Proteins include: ahi tuna, spicy tuna, salmon, tofu&avocado, scallop, albacore (seared), scallops (small ones appear to be in a mayo), octopus, or shrimp.

Sauces include: chipotle mayo, yuzu ponzu, sesame shoyu, wasabi mayo, sweet chili, or sweet eel.

Tops include: edamame, green onion, ginger, wasabi, sesame seed, furikake (seaweed and seed mix), crunchy onion, or everything.

You can also add spice level.

I ordered: Large bowl, white rice, cucumber, cilantro, extra pineapple, and seaweed salad, ahi as well as tofu&avocado, yuzu ponzu, ginger, and furikake. It was $17.99.

The fish was fresh. I was actually concerned about this at first because upon entering, I could smell the seafood. But, I’m happy to note that the fish was very mild- not strong at all.

The toppings were also fresh, and you can ask for extra if you want more than usual. The cilantro was all green, nothing was wilted. The avocado was perfectly ripe.

The sizing is really good. I mean- I barely ate 1/4 of my rice and I still have some cucumber, seaweed, and avocado to much on later as a second meal.

My one complaint is the yuzu ponzu. I don’t taste anything citrus, so I’m not sure what happened. I saw her mix the sauce in with my fish, but it isn’t very flavorful. I taste very mild, almost like watered down low sodium soy. It may just be that today’s sauce wasn’t made well, since I’ve never been there before I have nothing to compare it to. I will definitely be back to try it again and see if there is more citrusy flavor.

My rating is actually a 4+/5- purely because...