Honu Poké

Honu Poké Restaurant

190 Smith St

204-813-2175

https://honupoke.ca/

November, 2022

We were profoundly sad to see our favourite Japanese/sushi restaurant close at 190 Smith.  There was some promise when we saw a "future home of poké" poster in the window as renovations started.

Honu Poké has been open for a few months now and their food has been enough of a draw for me to return as a regular weekly (with no exaggeration).  They craft everything on order, so prepare to wait a bit after you enter your order.  You can also pre-order.

The dining room continues to see improvements each time we go.  Now we're at the point of seeing small adornments added each visit, like decorative plants, a delicious water bar, and excellent teas on tap.  You get a feel of the tropics here.

They recently changed their menu.  You have the option of building a poké bowl from scratch, where you select your base (the starch or vegetable, or blend), the poké (the protein), the toppings (with a HUGE selection), and finally, the sauce (way too many to list).  You can also opt for a "traditional" poké, which has the standard fishes (tuna or salmon) and classic accompaniments.  In addition to fishes (they're raw, for the raw-averse), you can have poké ingredients such as: shrimps, crispy chicken, or vegan tofu.  I really want to try the vegan but you cannot dangle raw fish in front of me and expect me to turn it down.

Finally, they have a number of specialty bowls with pre-determined ingredients.  This is what I usually get, often augmented with extra protein.

My favourite is the Oki'oki, a classic Hawai'ian salmon poké with shredded crab meat, avocado, edamame beans, cucumbers, corn, jalapeno slices, and spicy mayo sauce.  I always get extra crab--there's a lot of crab to begin with, but with double crab, each bite is the perfect bite, loaded with its sweet flavour.  Recently, I started getting double salmon as well and the result is a seafood lover's dream come true.

Part of the charm of the poké bowl is the lovely blending of the flavours.  The bowls come full enough where there's little room to stir--take your time and take the effort to blend your ingredients.  Make sure you make the bowl homogenous to get the full impact of the flavours.

I personally do not like edamame beans, so I always have them omit them.

By themselves, the ingredients taste delicious, but as a melange of synergy, the package tastes truly divine.  As you can see from the pre-blended photo, there are two dollops of over-ripe avocado, packing the dish with umami.  The slices of jalapenos are not spicy (for the timid) but if you don't know jalapenos, one pepper can be bell-pepper mild, and the next can be Thai-pepper hot.  It's a chance you take.  The deliciously sweet sauce brings the whole thing together.  

The poké bowls here are very flexible if you want to build your own bowl.  For those who don't like fish, chicken tenders can go in as your protein.  The chicken pieces come very fresh, so the fried coating tastes very crispy, with sizable chunks of chicken; by itself, the chicken tastes a bit salty but blended with rice, it tastes wonderful.

If poké is not your thing, they offer traditional sushi rolls as well.  What you cannot see in the photo is the size of the rolls, which are huge.  The Japanese would have one bite per piece--the pieces here are way too big to eat in just one bite.

Each of the deluxe rolls comes inside-out with a generous coating of crunchy panko on top.  Some sushi houses store their panko crumbs in a sealed container, where eventually, they get chewy instead of crunchy.  Not here--these are crunchy like they first came out of oil.  

That's the defining characteristic of the Crunch Sake, crispy on every bite.  The salmon and the avocado blend together perfectly, while the cucumber and the lettuce provide the texture.

If you want to forego the accompaniments and just protein load with fish, the Salmon Bakudan tastes wonderful with lots of meat and a tinge of spiciness.  

The plump shrimp also comes perfectly fried, just like the chicken tenders.  Sliced and stuffed into the Dynamite roll, the result is a fabulous combination of taste, flavour and crunch.

They offer a large assortment of gourmet teas here but if you just want water, there's decadent water where you fill you own glass.  The flavours change daily and today, the features offer lemon infused with thyme or assorted berries.  Even the water here is a treat.

I reiterate:  since Honu Poké opened, I've been here every week.  That tells you how much I love the food here.  The staff has changed over a bit, but with every changeover, the new people are equally friendly and welcoming as the previous people.  If there's a perfect restaurant, this is it.  

Aloha!

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As usual, thanks for reading and good food to you!

Ray Yuen, Pit Master / Grill Master
Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society Judge – Badge #97736
Certified Steak Cook-off Association Judge – Badge #7788
Canadian Barbecue Society Member