Poki Bowl — Restaurant in San Jose

Poki Bowl takes the now tried-and-true assembly line method of making food (see Chipotle or other taquerias) and applies it to Hawaiian poke, a mixture of fresh, sushi-grade fish, onions and cucumbers, and sauce with a selection of toppings.

The shop is small, with an occasional table set up inside on cold days, and is better suited for those grabbing food to go rather than dining there, as all the outside tables are comparable to that you can find at a local park. This makes the ambiance feel much closer to how you'd get poke if you were in Hawaii, as it feels like something you picked up with a bottle of pog at a local market.

The line, while usually long enough to extend out the door and along the walkway, moves very fast as the only food that needs to be 'cooked' is the rice. The speed of the preparers is impressive as you can get from rice to register in about five to six minutes.

The food is broken down into the bowl's base, a choice of brown rice, sushi rice or salad mix (you can mix these as well, I personally prefer rice on the salad for a well-rounded bowl!) the fish mix and the toppings. The fish mix has cubed bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna and salmon (all raw) along with cooked shrimp and octopus. There is also an option for spicy tuna, but that's spooned on top of the rice without the sauce mix. From there you can get onions and cucumbers added before the sauce station. A mixture of sauces including some sweet soy and chili oil ranges from mild to spicy and is mixed with the fish and poured on top of the base. Then toppings are added including a shredded imitation crab, avocado and more.

All in all it's a cheap meal, coming out to about $12 per person with bowl, drink and tax, and provides a great fast meal for those willing to eat something raw...

Finally all the hype down in socal is finally coming up!

Poke is huge down in LA, there's so many poki places... it's amazing. Poki Bowl is the first poki restaurant I've encountered up in the bay area. It's fairly small with only 4-5 tables outside and no seating inside. It's located pretty deep in SJ so it's not the closest but I think fresh fish is always worth the drive :D

I think the prices are what you would expect for sushi but cheaper! yay! A bowl is about $9-$11 dollars. You can select what type of fish and how much of it you want and add whatever toppings you desire that they provide. The concept is awesome.. it's a chipotle but with fresh fish.. yum!

Why did it not get 5 stars?

1.I thought the portion was a bit small in comparison to what I've gotten in LA but it's not too small that I wasn't full, it just wasn't enough. I also think they put too little fish, just with it was a bit more. I ended up getting way too much rice and ginger OMG maybe this was a one time thing but my friend experienced the same thing on another visit so not sure if it is an ongoing problem. But they put way too much sesame oil... a lot that I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth and it was all I tasted. Nowhere to dine...You're lucky if you get a table otherwise stick with your car.

I did like the staff, they were friendly and the line moves pretty fast. I think there's some stuff that can be improved but I will definitely come back again to give it...

I've been waitingggg for a Poke place that specializes in poke and I'm super happy that this place popped up!

So the concept of this place is a build your own poke bowl. Similar to the assembly line that you'll find at a Chipotle and Subway :)

They have an assortment of fishes from spicy tuna, salmon, yellow tail, regular tuna, octopus, and shrimp! You can make it as spicy as you want and have either greens, brown rice, or sushi rice as your base.

The staff is very friendly and try to get you your food as quickly as they can.

Since this is a concept that all of NorCal has been waiting for it does get crowded, and the lines are out the door! If this is the case, you can expect it to take about 20 minutes to get from the end of the line to payment (depending of course if the people in front of you are ordering for themselves or are ordering for multiple people)

There is limited seating and all the seating is actually outside of the restaurant.

The quality of the food was decent, but I've had better, but I will say that this is the best since it's one of the very few in the area that specializes in this.

I...