Alright, let’s start off with the first spot then shall we? What can I say, I think I’ve been to about 12 poke places just around the OC area, and there were definite ups and downs. This was a pleasant surprise to me, though. It’s located near the John Wayne Airport and has a decent flow of customers.
So first things first, what is poke? Well, let me tell you, boys and girls. Poke is a Hawaiian food consisting, at its core, of cubes of raw fish (think of a much more affordable and cool way of eating sushi) often marinated in soy sauce (shoyu) and sesame oil. Generally speaking, in the newer poke joints of Southern California, they will just marinate the fish on the spot when you order, but I had to cover the old stuff, just as a formality. So, the more modern approach is a little invention called the “poke bowl.” Now, you’re probably asking what a poke bowl is. Imagine all the little side dishes you get in your little Japanese lunch box, and stick it on top of rice with the poke. Boom. Poke bowl.
Now, onto the actual joint itself. Poke Dot, as clever a name as it was, wasn’t my favorite poke joint (which I’ll get to another time :D). It was certainly not bad by any means, though. The vibe of the place was pretty lively, and the design elements were very modern, as most poke places come nowadays. There really isn’t much to say about these poke places’ designs. Most look very clean and, pardon my language, hip.
Onto food! Now, my poke bowl came with rice, jalapenos, tuna, salmon, yellowtail, cucumbers, sesame seeds, green and white onions, imitation crab, avocado, masago, and finally some ginger (I should probably not list out the stuff next time *noted*). All of that topped off with some spicy soy sauce. Standard poke stuff, of course. It was quite tasty, but honestly, poke never truly tastes bad (yet). The amount of fish was satisfactory, the rice, decent, and the toppings, very complimentary. I enjoyed this bowl of poke, despite it not being my favorite. The OTP of raw fish and soy sauce never goes awry, I’d say. And Poke Dot doesn’t drown their protein in sauce. Perhaps the fish takes gets wet, but doesn’t go in the pool, you feel (ugh, I’ll never make comparisons like that again)? What I look for the most in a poke bowl is the sum of all its parts. Does it balance? Is there enough fish for the rice? It’s a ratio game, and Poke Dot is pretty good at math. The poke bowl was very satisfying.
Okay, I don’t know if this is gonna be the layout of my posts forever, but here’s where I rate the place. I don’t think it’s a perfect place. In fact, I don’t think I’ve eaten at a perfect place ever. Hmm…let’s use a scale of 1 to 10, for consistency, and I won’t pull some bullshit like 9.75 or 8.23 or whatever. I’ll keep it to whole numbers and half numbers. So for Poke Dot, I’ll go ahead and rate you an…
7.5/10
You definitely sated me in terms of amount of fish-to-rice and toppings. Though the ratios weren’t fantastic, I appreciated all you had to offer. I would definitely come back to you in the future. Keep on doing what you’re doing, Poke Dot.
Poke Dot
Price: ~$10
Address: 17921 MacArthur Blvd, Irvine, CA 92614
(Okay realtalk, I’ll get better at writing, I promise. It’s my first blog/journal, so calm your tits, everyone. With time comes experience. Also my camera angle game will step up.)
Bui Eats 