Poke Alice 2 — Restaurant in Seattle

Read reviews on YELP. Came in around 12:45 for mealpal. Told them last time I came in my Poke was warm. They blamed it on the rice. Well this time I came in and I saw a large pre made stack on the counter. Granted this is the end of the lunch hour, so i always get a little suspicious when I see a bunch of containers left over sitting out. I asked the cashier when the meal pal lunches were made, she said around 10:15. So I clarified and asked, have those containers, and the one you gave me been sitting out on the counter since 10:15? You're about to give me poke that have been sitting out on the counter for 3 hours? she said yes. And then changed her answer to well, we rotate them (whatever that means) Normally the other meal pal restaurants i know make the lunches in batches, and when they are down to the last few they make more. So when i saw the stack of 10 or so, I had a feeling they just made a bunch of them at the start of the day and just left them out. I tried some of the crab salad and it was warm. I requested a new and fresh one, and the manager refused, i literally said all i want is one that has not been sitting out, and his response over and over again was that it was warm because of the rice, and then he goes , "what do you want". Not sure how my repeated request of a new poke bowl went above his head but his temperament and confusion from easily fixing this was profound. Brought it back to my office and Well to say the least, the octopus was slimy and def not fresh. Contacted mealpal for a refund and tossed the lunch. SOOO many other poke places in Seattle to visit or Hawaii if you have the $$. I've even been to the Poke Alice on 2nd ave that would make the meal pal when i came in so i knew they didn't make large batches at a time cause they would occasionally run out.

Save yourself a stomach ache and go somewhere else. Also portion wise, poke serving was tiny here. They LITERALLY gave me 3...

The owner (older man with glasses) who works here lacks customer service which tells me… are you OK? Everyone has bad days but based on past reviews, it seems like a pattern… Unfortunately in the food industry, customer service matters. Your reputation matters. By making customer wait out in front multiple times, that’s something to improve on. What he serves isn’t consistently fresh and I don’t blame them—everything costs in a business and without customers—you’re losing money. Again, something to improve on. I’m not saying this to criticize the business but to point out areas of improvement and increase sales.

As someone who has successful restaurant owners in the family, I felt sorry for this business that was empty or had few customers during lunch hour (I’m a child of immigrants so I know how hard it is to be a minority running a small business). But to be successful, you have to listen to customers, learn, and adapt. By outwardly showing negative emotions in front of customers or treating customers poorly tells me you don’t care about what you serve and your ego is too involved. People like to support people and businesses that care. I’m sorry but maybe this line of business wasn’t the right fit, or better suited doing back office instead of customer-facing roles.

FYI I was coming from the hospital and poke was supposed to be something to look forward to. So as an owner, please be mindful how your behavior can affect another person.

At the same time, I hope you find peace and happiness. If you’re happy, it will show in everything you do and you can draw more success. Happy customers mean repeat sales. Hard to be happy around grumpy people in customer service role (and customers will remember). Something to be mindful of. Your poke is actually...

I’m rating 1/5 purely because of a recent experience. They have a loyalty card where if you buy 10 bowls the 11th is free. It doesn’t mention anything about bowl size, nor was it mentioned when I received the card. Whenever I’m in the store I buy a medium with avocado, and this time I had a free bowl. When I went to pay I was getting charged with an upsize and the additional avocado because apparently the card only covers a small bowl. After raising the concern of the false messaging on the card, the manager didn’t budge and said they would charge me the difference next time I was in. All they had to do was acknowledge the failing of their loyalty card, and give me my bowl for free without trying to get extra money from me. But instead they may have lost a loyal customer that came in enough times to fill out a full price loyalty card.

The food is very...