Pokeworks — Restaurant in Richardson

Fast casual Poke dining similar to Freebirds and Chipotle. Pokeworks is located off the southbound service road off 75 Central Expressway on the Spring Valley exit grouped in a strip complex with several other dining options.

The store was clean and well lit similar to other modern day fast casual dinners. Similar to Chipotle and Freebirds, the individual accompaniments are laid out neatly in the front counter for customers to pick and choose their Poke Bowl. For the initiated, there is a display board listing some popular combinations.

For myself during lunch, I order a large bowl, which allows me three choices of protein. For my base, I selected salad. For the protein, I selected spicy tuna, spicy salmon, and regular salmon. Included were various choices of toppings such as edamame, cucumber, pineapple, nori, etc...

Overall, my Poke bowl was a solid lunch choice. The raw fish was fresh. The salad was average. It was not the freshest as there were a few pieces that had bruising, but nothing inedible. The sauce I selected, shoyu umami was tasty, a great blend of sweet and savory. I enjoyed my bowl and since it is close to work, I would definitely make future return visits here. This place is a well above average...

I will not be back. Upon entering, there’s a one way lane where you order behind a glass counter (much like Subway where you can choose your ingredients). I ordered a salmon bowl with a few add ins, although I would say their options were very limited. I honestly hesitated at first as I could already see the salmon out behind the counter and it didn’t look very appetizing, but I thought I would still give it a try. When I got home, the very first bite I could tell something was off. Upon closer inspection, I can tell the salmon does not look fresh. The color was that pale-ish grey and it honestly just looks old like it’s been sitting out for a while. My first bite of the salmon had a very fishy smell and after taste. It was a little pungent. There were a few pieces that I thought tasted okay and looked the freshest in the bowl but after a few bites, I just had to throw it away. I hate wasting food and of course money but it wasn’t worth it to me for the chance of getting food poisoning or something worse from eating bad fish. One positive I would say is the customer service. When I arrived, there was only one person working behind the counter and you can tell she’s busy fulfilling online orders. Too bad the food...

Came in for lunch with my wife and we both ordered poke bowls and a drink. They put it all on one tray and when we put the tray on the table, one of the bowls accidently tipped over dumping 3/4 of the bowl onto the tray and some onto the table. I looked up and she quickly looked away and tried not to notice as I said something to her about it. As my wife is now trying to clean the table in embarrassment, the worker made no attempt to come help clean. I'm sure she was just trying to avoid the whole "meal replacement" which is fine. But she could've offered more salad at least, but she did offer a soup which ended up having a hair in it. So now my wife is eating poke off a tray and I'm eating my bowl without a tray on a semi sticky table. We were the only customers in there so it wasn't like they were too busy to assist.

Next time maybe put 1 bowl per tray like it is designed for. Our lunch was $40+ (with 20% tip) and I felt like fast food customer service would've...