Daniel B.
Yelp
Poke Burri, originally known as Sushi Burri, opened September/October 2016 inside the We Suki Suki food hall in East Atlanta Village (EAV). This food stand serves very good Hawaiian poke bowls (raw fish salad), sushi burritos, and sushi donuts.
At the time of writing this review, the stand is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30am to 9:30pm. It's one of several stands/stalls inside what's essentially a food court. However, don't expect this food court to be like one you might find inside a traditional shopping mall. This is EAV and We Suki Suki is described as a "global grub collective" and "neighborhood food hall."
The space is small and feels very local and independent with what seems like a bunch of food start-ups or pop-up restaurants. Seating is communal and during peak times (e.g. Saturday lunch), seats can be hard to find. The food hall has three four-top tables in the back, three picnic tables (where you can squeeze six to eight people each) up front, and a handful of seats at a counter inside the storefront's windows. Doing the math, that's seating for roughly 40 people. Additionally, there are tables, standing-room only, against the storefront outside.
Free parking is available on the street (Flat Shoals) and along various other streets in the neighborhood. Just be sure to obey all parking signs.
Like all the vendors here, Poke Burri is small. When I visited, there were two guys feverishly making orders at a tiny poke/sushi bar with one lady taking orders on a tablet. The lady was new, I visited during a Saturday lunch rush, and things were a bit disorganized. Where did the line begin and end? Who was waiting for an order and who wasn't? Exactly how *do* you order? I think a lot of first-timers were thinking these questions as they approached the stand.
What you're supposed to do is mark what you want on a laminated menu using a dry-erase marker and turn it in to the order taker who then punches your order into a tablet and charges you upfront. I believe the menus then get handed to the chefs who prepare the orders. Several folks, myself included, ended up directly telling the lady what we wanted and she marked the menus for us. It was a little inefficient, but we were all patient and were eventually taken care of.
Poke bowls are $12 each and contain a smorgasbord of yummy ingredients. They offer three kinds of poke bowls: tuna, salmon, and tangy crab & shrimp. Sushi burritos are $10-11 each and there are a half-dozen varieties. You can pretty much think of sushi burritos as makizushi (sushi rolls) on steroids. Sushi donuts are not on the regular menu. A sushi donut is like a regular Americanized sushi roll, but instead of being long and straight, it wraps around into the shape of a donut. It's trendy, gimmicky, and makes for great Instagram photos.
Along with the aforementioned items, Poke Burri offers daily specials and starters like ginger salad ($3), crab salad crunch ($6), and spicy tuna nachos ($6.50). The daily specials during my visit included fried pork dumplings with red curry sauce, a spicy tuna kimchi poke bowl with fried onions, and a "super" poke bowl made with tuna, salmon, spicy tuna, and crab salad ($15). The two types of sushi donuts available were spicy tuna and imitation crab for $5 each.
I ordered a salmon poke bowl ($12) and a spicy tuna donut ($5). The salmon poke bowl came with seasoned raw salmon, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, avocado, edamame (steamed soybeans), beets, furikake (Japanese seasoning mix), radish sprouts, seaweed, unagi (eel) sauce, spicy mayo, pickled ginger, and sushi rice. All of the ingredients were fresh and delicious and the bowl was filling and satisfying. There was the right proportion of each ingredient and the quality was good. All poke bowls are served in sturdy clear plastic bowls with sealed and secured lids that are ideal for transporting.
I was disappointed that the only sushi donut options were spicy tuna and imitation crab, both of which I'm not a huge fan of. I went ahead and ordered a spicy tuna donut anyway. It was OK. I had no idea what would come on these donuts as "spicy tuna" and "crab" were the only options I was told. Apparently, these are secret menu items: https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/poke-burri-atlanta-4?select=sqID7Ao2MuZajgi4Ke8dPw.
The spicy tuna donut ended up coming with spicy tuna and sushi rice topped with sauce, mayo, and what I believe were rice crisps similar to Rice Krispies, but not sweet. The crisps provided a much needed crunchy texture to what would have otherwise been a soft and mushy donut. Not bad, but also not something I would order again. I would order this (https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/poke-burri-atlanta-4?select=G21uwWoI9cXhG0KDl4zhng) though.
Service was good. The lady was sweet and one of the chefs came to check on us when he had a break.
I like this place and look forward to returning and trying more stuff.