This review makes me super sad because I had really really high hopes for this place. Poke has become the "it" food of the year in NYC and new poke places are popping up left and right these days. But none has gotten more love that Chikarashi - the chef has experience working at high end sushi places like Neta and Masa and the quality of the fish has been praised as being some of the best around (I mean, he uses fucking toro in some of the bowls - that is crazy!). The location of this place is a bit random as it's smack in the middle of the bustling streets of Chinatown and the shop is pretty small - only a small take out counter and some counter space along the walls.
The bowls here not your typical Hawaiian version - it's got a bit of a twist to them. Given that this was my first go (and I was expecting to come back again), I played it safe and got the Ponzu Salmon, which came with Scottish Salmon, Wasabi Ponzu, Shisho, Avocado, Tobiko and Shichimi. I was super excited and couldn't wait to eat it as soon as I got home. But when I opened it, I was a bit disappointed based on my first glance. It was super heavy on the rice and the fish didn't have that translucent color you see when it's raw and marinated in soy and sesame oil. While it wasn't necessarily cooked, I didn't feel like I was eating raw fish but a lightly seared fish dish instead. While you can tell that all the ingredients were of high quality (even the rice tasted like it was on a higher level), there was a slight dryness to the entire dish that I didn't love about it. Maybe it was because it had too much shichimi (Japanese spice)? I don't know - something was just off about it and I finished it feeling like I was missing out on a real poke meal. I guess when it comes to poke, I'm more of a traditional gal and I'm definitely not opposed to coming back and trying the toro bowl but for now, I'll stick with the Blue Ribbon one I usually get at work. Total bill: $16
Photo Credit: Yelp
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