Ahipoki Bowl — Restaurant in Temple City

This poke place is located in the Daiso/Guppy plaza in Temple City and although this place just opened, there is already a steady stream of customers. Word travels fast, especially in terms of poke! There are only 2 sizes: regular for $7.99 (2 scoops of fish) and large for $8.99 (3 scoops of fish). The sizes seem to look significantly different when it's just $1 in price difference.

The customization of the bowl is pretty similar to most other poke stores: Step 1: Base - white or brown rice, organic salad, or half and half Step 2: Sides - avocado, crab meat, onion Step 3: FISH! Tuna, spicy tuna, salmon, albacore, shrimp, octopus, cucumber, jicama, or yellowtail (for additional $1) Step 4: Sauce - house, house spicy, spicy creamy, or sweet citrus Step 5: Toppings - sesame seed, crispy onion, green onion, roasted seaweed, masago, ginger, wasabi ... or everything

Despite only visiting one time, I already see myself coming back often. I ordered the large poke bowl with white rice since they were out of brown rice. The rice was cooked well and they use sushi rice (I believe), which is a MUST in poke places! It was a little on the soft side, but not too bad. I also really liked that you could add avocado and crab meat as a complimentary side to the bowl. And I definitely like their sweet citrus! After failing to find a good citrus-y sauce from Poke Bar and North Shore Poke Co., I was pretty disappointed. But the one here is really good if you're craving a more sour taste to your bowl. And the toppings - of course I got everything. Everything was tasty and added to the overall quality of the bowl.

But the star of the bowl is always the FISH! I was so surprised to see the huge chunks of fish that they offered, especially the huge cubes of tuna. And the worker helping me packed a lot of fish onto my bowl! I tried the tuna, salmon, and albacore and all of them tasted really fresh. My dad did mention that the albacore was a little fishy, but I liked it. I normally like salmon a lot more than tuna, but ahipoke's tuna was REALLY fresh and succulent. Melted in my mouth and the colors were so vibrant! I came back and tried octopus and really liked that, too!

They offer macaron ice cream for $3.50 each as well as sodas and bottled water for $1.99 and iced green tea for $2.99. As this is a place for people to come and go, there are plenty of tables in the restaurant. The ambience definitely feels casual and laid-back, a good place to grab a bite with friends.

tl;dr - This place is definitely in my top 3 poke places. Unfortunately they don't have sour cream as a side, but I can't fault them as most of my friends think I'm crazy for liking sour cream with sushi. The fish is super fresh, the bowls are a good size (although I feel like large is more worth it), and the toppings help add more flavor to everything. I will definitely be coming here more often!

TIPS: Credit cards accepted. Don't forget to check their website for special...

Update (Aug '25): I'll leave the previous review for reference below. I came across this review and felt like it needed an update. Some people changed and service became better. The portions for protein and salad are a bit smaller than I hoped for but sometimes it depends on who is doing it. The people that also do meal pick-ups have commented that they were acknowledged and was given courteous service with a smile. So, things turned around and I wanted to make an update to say that it's noticed. Kudos.

Previous ** (Jun '24): I liked going here before. I used to tell people about it and even had someone pick up for me before but I warn people about it too.

There is a youngish girl, shorter, and a bit heavy-set who works at night. She already looks like she wants to leave before she even starts to get your order. I get it, I worked in the food and service industry for a long time. But, what she passes on will be reflected to others. I dreaded seeing her. She's so unaware to things and was not the behavior or someone who wants to do/be better. She puts on the gloves but handles everything AND cash and goes back to doing another order. She constantly drops food on the counter (where the bottom of containers slid that touched other surfaces) and scraps it up to put back in a order OR the containers. I hope she learns the gloves used are for the customer's safety and their food not to keep your hands from being washed.

I told her I had three orders one time and she wanted to handle it at the same time doing all the sections and phases together. She couldn't, I had to repeat it and finally just be adamant in giving her one order at a time after she kept missing up what ingredients went with what.

Just because the managers aren't there or watching you, doesn't mean to act in the poorest form. They need to do something about her because I've gone through a couple months of this and now I think need to just avoid her. I suggest the...

I'm amazed at how BAD they messed up my order.. see the pics for yourself.

Ordered pickup through Grubhub. Staff started making the food when I told them I was there for pickup.

Staff was short, rude, and looked annoyed every time I tried to speak to them.

They kept asking me to repeat the name that it was under, and when I would say "Elaine" they'd say "ok, Helen!" and I would correct them multiple times even spelling it out for them!!! but they would insist the order is under Helen. I tried to show them the receipt of the order, just so they knew what to make and didn't try to give me Helen's order but I was waved off and told that they had my order on the screen.

When I got handed the food I asked one more time if it was "Elaine" and they said "Helen, Elaine, yeah yeah". at that point, I was in a rush and I just wanted to get out of there.

no receipt, no confirmation of what was in the food they handed me.

I ordered a regular rice bowl with salmon and toppings, nothing special; they gave me cooked salmon filets on top of salad with a soy sauce and sriracha packet and nothing else and it...