Poke Stop

It is with mixed feelings that I write this post.
Went here last night because we were in the area picking up cough medicine for my cold. My husband was hungry and I was craving Poke Stop.
It wasn’t a far walk from where we parked to Poke Stop. Entered the restaurant and my eyes went directly to the daily special board. They had a Torched Salmon bowl with Ikura and Kim Chee. My mouth always salivates for salmon and Ikura. Best combination ever!
My husband took a while looking at the menu and deciding what he wanted. While he was perusing the menu, I took some pictures as most people would to remember the delicious food and to share it with the world. When one of the employees asked to take our order, another employee scolded me and said that pictures were not allowed. Mind you she was also helping another patron at the register. I thought that was very rude of her to 1. speak that way to me (she didn’t say excuse me) and 2. scold me while she was still assisting her customer (again, not saying excuse me to the customer in front of her). The employee who was assisting us gave me an apologetic look and said that they would need to obtain approval for any pictures. I said I understood and left it at that.
We got home and started eating our food. Unfortunately, that incident left a sour taste in my mouth so the Torched Salmon I ordered wasn’t the best tasting salmon I’ve had. I guess I should have known. Been there, done that torched flavor at Genki. My husband enjoyed his meal. I believe he ordered the Taegu Chicken.
I still gave this place 3 stars because of the creamy spicy salmon that Chef Elmer Guzman has in his poke display case. Although, on two separate occasions when we ordered this for a potluck they gave us creamy spicy ahi instead. Most people would have been fine with this mix up but I’m a salmon lover and looked forward to eating creamy spicy salmon.

Bit into my spicy ahi & the fish was black! Not pink! Sauce was very good, but fish tasted spoiled! I wanted to tip the cashier because she gave great customer service but she told me not to tip her because she doesn’t get the tips! This was a couple months ago (don’t know if it’s different now) but shame on you poke stop! For not giving your workers their hard earned tip money!

A while back, I ordered their soft-​shell crab salad. The salads are normally already prepared and sit in the refrigerator for you to pick. I guess the salad i had chosen had been sitting there for quite sometime because when I opened up the container it was served in I was quite appalled. The lettuce was very old (brown and wilted). There was brown liquid (im assuming from the old lettuce) sitting on the bottom of the container. Who knows how old that soft shell crab was! Of course I complained and returned it!
Seriously poke stop, if you don’t want people to get sick, avoid a law suit, and make a name for yourself in the poke industry, please ensure that you have fresh items in your kitchen!!! It is very disturbing to know that your menu items are a health hazard!

Soooo ono! I love this place! I actually come here for everything but poke. Dont get me wrong, the poke is GOOD! But i love all the other stuff they have: the sweet potato fries, the bento box, etc etc. and they always have flavored water! Check your receipt because use can use it for free poke with your next meal!

Came here for a quick bite, but wasn’t sure what to eat. I decided on a poke bowl and was surprised to find Hamachi poke. It cost two dollars more to make a hamachi poke bowl but it was well worth it! Hit up this place if you want the freshest most delicious poke I’ve had in awhile!!!

The poke is ok but not the best. The grilled ahi was ok but not the best.
Something about this place screams poor quality food preparation and poor service.
I only went twice so I can’t judge to harshly. They have potential but need to make some changes.

Been here twice within a month, both times were empty and very slow, but not a big deal. First time here had breakfast and had the Taegu chicken and waffles. Waffles had no taste and they didn’t offer syrup.
Second time, we had lunch. The person that helped us seemed like she didn’t want to be there. When she severed us our meals, it felt like she literally threw it at us. I got the deconstructed sushi bowl, shrimp was very had to peel and I found a picked if wire in the tako poke. My bf got the Hawaiian burger. He said the bun was stale and Kalua pork was very salty.

This is a review on Chef Elmer and his catering. They catered my wedding a couple of weeks ago (10.10) and the food was SOO Ono, that we actually ran out!
Here is what we ordered:
Passed Apps:
Braised 5 Spice Pork Belly on sweet corn bread pudding and Chervil
Spoonfuls of assorted Pokes: Furikake salmon, Sweet onion ahi and kim chee tako
Keawe Smoke Chicken and Mushroom lumpia
Dinner Buffet:
Steamed Rice; Roasted Potatoes, Grilled veggies, roasted beet and mixed green salad
Slow braised drunken duck
Red wine braised short ribs
Baked snapper with garlic aioli and homemade char siu and cilantro
All the food was bomb, but my favorite was definitely the snapper! It was also really great working with Tristin the catering rep and Chef Elmer was at our event too. They were really accommodating and worked with our budget. I basically gave them how much I wanted to spend per person and they created this menu for us. I mean, another plus that it was reasonable and the food was bomb! Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to thank them in person, but will say it now, THANK YOU SO MUCH Chef Elmer and your crew for making my wedding food so delicious. People are still raving about the food and some sad that they didn’t get to try some things b/​c things ran out. I guess we ended up running out because people were going up for 2nds and 3rds!
They also had options for kids meals, ages 5 – 11, which our little guests apparently loved too. Overall, super ONO. I highly recommend if you need a caterer for any event, to call them up. Large or small, they are great. FYI, we had about 320 ppl at our wedding.

I wondered why this place was always empty. I found out why today. The taro bun to my Tatianas crab cake burger was stale & hard. Super sense and not edible. Too much crunch in the crab. Doesn’t even taste like crab. It has a pungent spice I can’t place that doesn’t go with it. Potato salad is bland.
My son ordered the shrimp plate that had head on (no biggy) but wasn’t devained. Too over cooked that it was gritty mushy.
I’m so bummed cause I was so excited to eat here. But my husband liked his poke.

My friend & I decided to grab some poke bowls on our way to the east side, specifically Lanikai Beach. Little did I know that I would have to endure a drive on the H3 & driving around looking for the perfect parking spot before I could dig into my seared ahi poke bowl ($ 9).
As soon as we got to the beach I threw my chopsticks aside & went straight for the fork so I could shovel my poke bowl down. The seared ahi & the pipikaula fried rice were amazing! You can choose fried rice, kimchee fried rice, pipikaula fried rice or one other choice.
My friend got the large poke bowl with 2 choices, he chose the creamy poke & the furikake shoyu ahi. He said it was super good.
I will definitely add poke stop to my rotation of food options. Oh you can also make phone orders if you’re in a rush!
Happy grinding! \m/

This was on my list after watching Guy Ferrari from the Food Network featuring this local spot. We had the deconstructed sushi bowl and Kalbi short ribs over rice. Everything was fine, the potato salad and creamy poke were very tasty. The seared tuna was extremely dry and the ribs were mediocre, nothing too special. The staff is very friendly, but on the slower end in terms of food delivery.

The poke here is very fresh. I always get the creamy ahi. I don’t know what they put in that but it taste better than the spicy ahi you can buy at the supermarkets. The price is a couple bucks more than the stores but I think that it’s worth it. I did try the hamachi poke which was good too. The edamame poke was alright. Can’t beat the creamy poke. I actually come here at least once every two weeks. My family loves it.
Parking is good and I can always find a stall to park in. I’m so glad there’s a place like this in mauka side. Need more stores like this around here. If you sign up for their newsletter they email you with coupons or discounts which I use. I can’t pass up a good deal.

Yureka!!! I just recently went back to Poke stop and had an awesome experience. I’ll admit that I gave a scathing review a while back but I wanted to give this establishment another chance. I was not disappointed. The help was extremely friendly and most important the Poke was onolicious. I love the Blackend Ahi Poke.
For quality control, I went back again to check on the consistency… result, broke the mouth poke. Good job Chef Gusman and I look forward to going back again.

I used to come here for the tempura fried spicy poke roll, which used to be amazing and my favorite. Recently, I noticed that there was less fish in the poke roll, but I figured it could have been a one time mistake so I shook it off. When I say less fish, I mean that the two ends of the roll had no poke in it whatsoever. A few weeks later, my boyfriend placed a phone order for 2 tempura fried spicy poke rolls, both with potato salad. At home, we noticed one of the plates was a Hawaiian plate… We went back and waited for them to prepare what we ordered, but when I checked the plate, it was green salad instead of potato salad! Also, there was no ginger! How do you mess up an order TWICE?! I didn’t want to be rude and confront them a second time though. Then today, I ordered a deconstructed sushi bowl and it was half made! There was only blackened ahi and shrimp over rice, while missing the rest of the fish. How does an employee look at the bowl and cover it without noticing that it’s incomplete?! They also said to present my receipt next time for a free bowl, but guess what… They did not give a receipt! Not like I will return anyway.
Moral of the story: NEVER EVER place a phone order and ALWAYS check your order before leaving because apparently I didn’t learn the first time. Also, you’ll probably be better off going to Times or Foodland for poke in Mililani.

Wow!!! This place has the best poke I have ever had. Every time I’m in the area I have to make time for this place. my fav is the spicy salmon onolicious! I sometimes go here twice in the same day if I go for lunch then go shopping. I’ll come for dinner if it’s still open lol of course I bought some for lunch tomorrow
They also have really good plate lunch too. I like all their Ahi plates!!! Oh and I had to send a shout out to their workers who have great customer service. I will be back!!!

First time I tried fried rice with poke and it was a winner.
All different kinds of friend rice you can choose from to go in your poke bowl.
I had the seared ahi with kalua pig fried rice. Because the seared ahi was probably the leftover shoyu ahi poke, it was salty, together with the fried rice, it was even more salty. I like salt but by the end of the meal it was kind of a lot. But I put that mistake on me, if I had gotten a different fried rice maybe, or even one of the fresh pokes, it would have been perfect.
They don’t get 5 stars because they have creamy spicy poke. Like spicy ahi but with a maybe sour cream? No idea what it was but not my go to spicy ahi.
Overall really good, local people running the shop, and I really like the idea of fried rice with poke.

I have stopped at the Mililani store during my past few trips to the North Shore; their Shoyu Poke is the go-​to selection with the taco (octopus) a close second but the sesame tuna is pretty bland. The service is quick and if you are traveling to Hale’iwa then this might be worth a stop otherwise you can find some decent shoyu poke at the local groceries.

Hawaiian eye candy broke the mouth! Forgot about this place! Gonna have to try everything on the menu,
One by one! Today
Lomi salmon. Ahi should poke and sesame ahi poke
Yummy !

As a follow up to my review Chef Elmer has contacted me personally and apologized for this one time issue and will personally see to it never happens again.
I did say that the Grilled Steak was good but truly it was awesome. I’m not going to let this onetime issue prevent me from eating there again.

Huge embarrassment
I got a certificate for Christmas already expired and went to Poke Stop to ask if they can look up via the certificate number as to when it was purchased as I have a feeling the expiration date may have been erroneously dated using the purchased date.
The cashier said she was going to call the owner and made me wait for nearly an hour before telling me again the my certificate is expired and she can’t help me. The whole time waiting, she never called anyone, and I had to go up to her and get a status. All I was asking is for her to check her records, I again explained my story and at that point it I felt I lost her attention, the restaurant was getting crowded and I started to feel bad vibes from the other workers and customers.
I walked out feeling completely embarrassed.