Another day, another poke place opens up in NYC. Seemingly overnight, the city has exploded with a million poke places around every corner. Only a few years ago, no one had heard of it unless they went to Hawaii and now you can't go anywhere without seeing a "Coming Soon - Poke!" sign. I love poke so I won't complain but I can totally see this fad dying out in a few years. The type of poke places range from fancy high end poke (Blue Ribbon) to the more Chipotle style mix and match place (PokeSpot). RAW MKT is somewhere in between those two kinds of places. It's smack in the middle of NYU land and I wished this place existed when I went to school there. The vibe here is very chill - it feels like they are going for a Hawaii/Cali low key vibe - even their branding feels like surfer dude typography.
Unlike most places, RAW MKT does pre-marinate their fish which makes a huge difference from the plain fish that gets dumped into a huge bowl of rice and toppings and mixed together. The overnight marinate really seeps into the fish and is what gives it real flavor - so that is a huge plus here. Like most places, you pick a base from rice to zucchini noodles, a protein and then some toppings. As I mentioned the fish is already pre-marinated and already comes mixed in a toppings. I went for a small classic shoyu tuna bowl - the tuna was mixed in with scallion, sweet onion, radish sprouts, sesame seeds and a soy-sesame glaze. I give it total props for being really close to a very authentic Hawaiian poke experience. Unlike PokeSpot, their toppings here are fairly limited which is more authentic but after getting used to the long list of insane add-ons, it was kind of a letdown. I settled on cucumber and masago ($0.99 extra which I didn't realize).
The fish itself was lovely and marinated perfectly. Mixed with the brown rice and toppings, I felt like I was eating something really healthy and fresh. My two gripes were that the cucumbers were large and chunky - I would have preferred that they were sliced thin and the masago that I paid extra for seemed non-existent. I'd skip the premium toppings and just load up on the free ones instead. It was a nice reprieve from the mass cafeteria style poke and I can see myself stopping by whenever I am in the 'hood. Total bill: $14.13
Photo Credit: Yelp
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