Cherylynn N.
Yelp
Those who've worked in the Civic Center area in the pre-Twitterfication and pre-tech bro era had very few healthy lunch options in the area. Oh, but the free detox diet was readily available at Iron Wok (now Alta Ca) for $6. My co-workers can vouch for my anal acoustics in the office.
Since last year, I've been anxiously awaiting the opening of Poke Bar in The Market and it's finally here!!!
Poke Bar is a SoCal based franchise. It's located inside The Market (Twitter building) and is their second Bay Area location. The grand opening was Monday, June 6th.
The fast casual, chipotle-style poke bar has the same set-up and ordering process as all the other poke eateries:
(1) Choose your BASE: white rice, brown rice, salad, or tortilla chips;
(2) Choose your PROTEIN: tuna, spicy tuna, salmon, albacore, shrimp, scallop, octopus, and/or tofu;
(3) Choose your SAUCE: house, shoyu, ponzu, sweet chili, wasabi mayo, or spicy mayo; and
(4) Choose your MIX-INS/TOPPINGS: cucumber, kale, green onion, sweet onion, jalapeno, cilantro, edamame, corn, pineapple, masago, ginger, crispy garlic, crispy onion, macadamia nuts, ogo (seaweed), and wasabi.
**avocado, tamago (+$1 each) were listed on the menu but not available
For BYO poke bowl, there's 3 sizes: small (2 scoops - $11), medium (3 scoops - $13), and large (4 scoops - $15). Size corresponds to amount of protein scoops and you get the same amount of rice, salad, or chips. There's also six signature "Be Lucky" poke bowls each with pre-chosen protein(s), mix-ins/toppings, and sauces (all $12.50 each). Cc's accepted.
I ordered a Medium Poke Bowl w/ brown rice, all salmon, all mix-ins and toppings except pineapple, and spicy mayo since I don't like overly salty foods. It was highly recommended to add some of their house mix sauce too which I agreed to ($14.14 including tax): http://bit.ly/1UAcGqa.
P R O S
(+) Very friendly employees.
(+) Fresh, meaty chunks of salmon.
(+) Brown rice was perfectly cooked; not too al-dente and not mushy.
(+) Great rice: protein ratio - they don't skimp on the fish (yay!) and it was very filling.
(+) Surimi (faux crab) is a free topping that's not counted as a protein.
(+) Uniformly cut fish and veggies.
(+) Spicy mayo has a good kick (mixing it with the house mix [soy blend] sauce made it too salty for my tastes though).
(+) Toppings like crispy garlic, onions, and macadamia nuts give the bowl a great crunchy texture contrast.
C O N S
(-) Prices are 25-35% high than other poke eateries (price for small poke bowl here is more expensive than the large poke bowl at their competitors). This makes Poke Bar the most expensive poke bar in SF, especially since it's a food stall, not a brick and mortar.
(-) Instead of using metal bowls for mixing, they use disposable tin foil to-go containers and gloves for each customer to mix which seems very wasteful.
(-) Brown rice was steaming which ends up warming the fish if you don't eat your bowl immediately.
(-) Kale is minced so you can barely detect the texture.
Poke Bar ranks in the my Top 4 Poke Bars in San Francisco but after Lazy Fish (Outer Sunset), I'a Poke (Castro), and Poki Time (Inner Sunset) because of the higher price point. I know it's ridiculously expensive to open a business in San Francisco but I hope Poke Bar considers lowering their prices a bit to be more in line with other poke eateries in the city.
I would love to make Poke Bar a regular lunch rotation though because it's healthy and delicious. Hmmm, maybe I just need to find me a 21 year-old Twitter Intern (repost): http://bit.ly/1T1owPJ.