Yummy Poki — Restaurant in Smyrna

We looked at the menu and the pictures prior to deciding to come to this space. We were looking forward to poke bowls and our usual assortment of other shared items, as this was my monthly dinner with my buffet friend. There is ample parking, though the lines are not really present. The vibe in the space is ... well, it's wild and unpredictable. The music is some very diverse playlist that was all over the place and fun. Our server was very kind and refilled our waters multiple times, so no complaints there.

The part that is sad is really the food. We started with steamed buns, takoyaki, and sushi tacos. For me, the takoyaki was the winner... even though it was not fabulous. Never in my life did I expect to meet a Pringle in an Asian restaurant, but I am pretty sure that the sushi tacos were sushi a top a Pringle. The steamed buns were kind of boring without chili oil and the sauce that they provided but not bad. Nothing to write home about as far as appetizers.

For our meals, we got poke bowls and a sweetheart roll. The pictures of the poke bowls they have posted on the wall are not their poke bowls. If they are, they are build your own versions instead of the specialty bowls on the menu. The ones on the wall would have been a welcome dish filled with crisp and fresh ingredients. The bowls we received were so filled with sauces that the ingredients themselves were undetectable. Everything blended together in this... sweet and creamy blob. The sauce completely covered everything, and all I could do was add chili oil (another sauce) to add some other dynamic than creamy and sweet. In the end, we both picked out the meat and cucumbers and left the rest. The sweetheart roll was okay, but it was not as appetizing as it seemed from the description. It was missing something.

Overall (and this may be the specific items and choices we made on which bowls), The meal was really heavy, sauce laden, and creamy. We picked this restaurant over another because the other looks like the meal would be heavy... But it turns out this meal was heavy. We were dying for some acid, some heat with the meal to break it up and wake up our taste buds.

I will say that there was a specific type of clientele in the restaurant, and it may be that they are catering all of their items to this specific clientele. They do appear to have plenty of fans, as many people came to order or pick up takeout or sit to eat. We arrived early, so I'm sure they had even more after we left.

For us though, this is not going to be a repeat. I have had poke bowls before, so I told my dining companion to please not use this as a benchmark for poke bowls.

I wish them all the best and you should definitely give them a try, especially if you really enjoy...

Omg, yum! Super yummy stop, very quaint. Stopped in with my teen daughter for some sushi while out Christmas shopping. Service was quick, sat down right away. Ordered a few rolls along with a custom sushi bowl and a beef and chicken dinner plate. Food was super delicious. I went all out in ordering my custom sushi bowl… literally extra protein and truly everything. The sushi bowl prices allow so many add ins of each grouping. Was a little odd that they didn’t have sauces readily available on the table, instead you had to order them in little dishes… and pay extra for them, too. Going all out for a custom sushi bowl isn’t cheap… which I wasn’t in the mood for caring at that moment in time… but, especially with all the added proteins… was a bit put off that I ordered sriracha sauce… paid for it… and received a little squirt in a side bowl. Like wowzers… was my bill of $80, for my daughter and I… not enough to hook us up with some sauces. ? In that sense… I was truly put off…. But the food was amazing. So I can honestly say I’ll be back to eat, but I’ll bring my own sauces in my purse. Note… there is soy sauce, reg and low sodium on the table. Again,...

The good: the poki bowls are great, waitstaff is friendly for dining in.

The bad: the to-go situation. New owners have rolled out an in-store kiosk for placing to-go orders, which aren't descriptive or intuitive for customizing items. Ex. you click on a bowl and instead of listing included items for you to eliminate or ask for extra, it's just a list of EVERY possible ingredient to add. I'm pretty tech savvy but still found the website provided better description and ordering format than the kiosk. Worse, with the in-store kiosk addition, the online web ordering doesn't process correctly. Online will take your order AND money, but doesn't send the order to the store. It took between 30-45 min to get my order of 2 poke bowls because the order got lost in cyberspace. Plan to order in the store and he prepared to wait. Both ordering methods, kiosk and online, still have the nerve to ask for a tip despite removing servers from the equation and increasing customer inconvenience.

Soooo, good food but increased prices ($35+ for 2 poking bowls) can't order ahead, have to come in store to use kiosk,...