3 Places to Get Your Poke Fix in Taipei
Poke is a Hawaiian dish that’s gaining popularity all over the world. It’s been heavily adapted over the years from its traditional origins — while diced raw fish is still the feature, contemporary poke is now much more customizable with a range of diverse ingredients and sauces. Finding authentic poke is no easy task, and unsurprisingly, we have yet to come across the real deal in Taipei. Still, we happily settle for the modern fast casual restaurants that serve it today — and there are some great places in the city to find it. Despite the fact that they’re not authentic, these poke bowls are fresh, healthy, and delicious. We can’t get enough!
YU POKÉ
This no-frills poke joint in the student haven of Gongguan deserves its 4.7 rating on Google — it is fast, cheap, healthy, and filling. The waiter speaks great English and can explain the menu to you, which is pretty straightforward in both English and Chinese. You choose your base, protein, veggies, toppings, and sauce. On average, bowls cost around $99-$150 depending on the ingredients you choose and are completely customizable — you can even add more rice for free if you’re still feeling hungry! The food was tasty and fresh, and though we’ve had better quality fish, we felt that we were getting a good deal. The one downside to Yu Poke is that it can get extremely crowded at peak times, and you can end up waiting for over 15 minutes just to be seated.
Overall, we love Yu Poke for it’s fast, cheap no-nonsense fare. They have a decent selection of ingredients and are a great value option.
| YU POKÉ |
| Chinese Name: 夏威夷生魚飯 |
| Hours: 11:30am – 9:30pm (closed Tuesdays) |
| Phone: 02 2368 4282 |
| English Address: No. 4, Lane 12, Lane 24, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City |
| Chinese Address: 台北市中正區羅斯福路四段24巷12弄4號 |
POPOKE
Next on the list is POPOKE, a modest little restaurant near the Breeze Center in Zhongxiao Fuxing. At POPOKE, you can choose to customize your poke bowl or order one of their signature bowls (see below), which, depending on how you look at it, either takes the fun or the hassle out of ordering. We had a lovely chat with the Taiwanese-American owner, who explained the menu and introduced their daily special — very tasty coconut rice. We felt that POPOKE was quite similar to Yu Poke in terms of ingredients and quality, though there was a slightly larger and more creative selection at POPOKE, which made the meal just slightly more enjoyable. POPOKE definitely doesn’t get as crowded as Yu Poke, so it’s a better choice when you’re starving and want to sit down ASAP. However, that difference is reflected in the price — a small bowl at POPOKE (if you don’t add on extra) will set you back $250, while a large will be $330. That’s a big jump! As a side note, we also noticed that all bowls were served in plastic containers — even when you were dining in. We hope this changes!
Overall we definitely enjoyed our food at POPOKE — that coconut rice was awesome — but weren’t quite as convinced on value for money as we had been at Yu Poke. Still, we liked that we had a greater selection to choose from and wouldn’t have to wait to be seated.
Check out their menu, which we pulled from their Facebook:
| POPOKE |
| Chinese Name: 夏威夷生魚飯 |
| Hours: 12pm – 8pm |
| Phone: 0968 809 676 |
| English Address: 25 Citizens Avenue, Section 4, Songshan District, Taipei City |
| Chinese Address: 25市民大道四段松山區台北市 |
Pokeholic
Pokeholic, located in Nanjing Breeze Center on floor B2, is the most expensive and least customizable poke place that we found, but it was also the one that we enjoyed the most. It has a clean, modern interior with friendly, helpful wait staff. Prices range from $260-$380 per bowl, which includes miso soup. We ordered the Ahi Poke ($260) with Ahi Tuna, egg, shredded carrot, pickled radish kimchi, kelp buds, and mushrooms, as well as the Captain Poke ($380) with three kinds of fish and a cocktail sauce. They were both absolutely delicious, and we ended up enjoying the Captain Poke so much that we went back for it a second time, despite its hefty price tag. It has never been crowded when we were there, but the food takes slightly longer to come out than the other two restaurants.
Overall, we really loved the food at Pokeholic, and while we would recommend you try it out, it’s hard to justify the jump in price. If you don’t care if you’re spending $100 or $300 on a bowl of poke, we recommend checking it out, but if price is a factor for you then you may want to check out the cheaper options first.
| Pokeholic |
| Hours: Sun-Wed 11am – 9:30pm Thurs-Sat 11am - 10pm |
| Phone: 02 2175 0999#6988 |
| English Address: No. 337, Section 3, Nanjing East Road, Songshan District, Taipei |
| Chinese Address: 337號南京東路三段松山區台北市 |
All in all, it’s hard to choose a favourite of the three restaurants. For price and value, Yu Poke is unbeatable. For a wider range of ingredients to select from when customizing your bowl and a great chat with the staff, Popoke is a good choice. For overall quality and taste, we prefer Pokeholic, even if we think it’s a little overpriced. None of the three are authentic poke, but they are all decent options in their own way if you’re craving some filling, healthy food. Let us know which one you enjoy the most!
