I know I've mentioned trying new places and getting ideas for places when overhearing conversations. A few months ago, I was having coffee and breakfast at a usual neighborhood stop when I overheard two "bro's" chatting about food. Of course that got my attention. One of them kept on saying that PB was the best 'hood for food in town. Of course, where did he live? Right, you got that. Anyway, he mentioned that there were three poke places in PB he frequents and he even gave them in order of preference. Hmmm….you know, with the traffic, crowds, tourists, and let's not even talk about parking, I rarely get to PB. When I do it's a stop at Trader Joe's on Garnet and maybe head up Ingraham to Gelson's or and perhaps Wayfarer. Though mornings in the "off-season" aren't too bad and I might make a stop….in fact, I'm waiting for things to settle down a bit before giving La Clochette another try (thanks for the rec' Kathy!).
But poke, eh? I had the idea of trying the three places mentioned. Of course, I wasn't going to push the issue. I've had my share of mediocre poke (at places that can't even spell "poke" – thought that's perhaps an indicator) at those "chi-poke" places. I just waited.
And then it happened a couple of months back, I needed to head out to Mission Boulevard…the Mission Beach side. So, I thought I'd just head up Mission and see if I could snag some parking on the street near one of the two places I had in mind. I really wasn't very confident, but guess what, there was street parking right on Mission across the street from….
PB Poke House:
As I crossed the street, I had a sense of nostalgia overtake me. You see PB Poke House is located here.
Folks who have been in San Diego for a while might recognize the location. Yep, the original location of Da Kine's was upstairs. Man, the memories. I was consulting in San Diego in the late-90's and missing a plate lunch. And at that time Da Kine's was the only show in town. ….
Anyway, back to reality. The shop is fairly small, it has a few tables inside and one outdoors.
The woman working was really friendly. Being more of a old fart basic poke guy, I went with the large Classic Shoyu Poke Bowl ($19.50). My bowl was ready in no time and I headed on home. This looked pretty good. As I opened up the bowl, I decided to set simple overall criteria – if this place was a block or two away, would I get the poke once in a while?
The fish looked not bad. As I looked at the seaweed salad and surimi salad, then had a taste of the poke, I got full on 8th and B "vibes". The fish was of decent quality, fairly tender, no off flavors. Like 8th and B the fish was highly sauced and on the sweeter end of the spectrum. Not sure why they call this "classic" since it's much sweeter than what I get back "home".
The portion size was fairly generous.
It might have been a bit much, but was really not bad at all. What was bad was the brown rice which was severely undercooked and hard. Not good eats.
So, the verdict? I guess if PB Poke House was around the corner I might eat here every so often, after all they have Spam Musubi. It's a bit too sweet and over-sauced for me, but the fish seemed of decent quality and the folks working were really friendly! 
PB Poke House
4150 Mission Blvd. #145
San Diego, CA 92109
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 7pm
A couple of weeks later, I decided to see if I could sneak in and find parking at the next place which was right up the street from PB Poke House. The name of the place……
Fish & Things Poke Bar:
In retrospect, I'm not sure I'd want to have seafood at a place that sells fish and "things"….what kind of things specifically? And after my visit, I did some checking and found that this is a franchise that started in Elk Grove? Just south of Sacramento, not quite the hotbed of fresh seafood in my mind.
Of the three places visited, this was the nicest looking, and had decent indoor and a couple of outdoor tables.
Like the other shops, this was the typical fast-casual set-up.
The menu is pretty large, featuring some cooked dishes, sushi (ahem, rolls that is), and build your own "chi-poke" bowl.
I went with the Classic (of course) Hawaiian, which seemed like shoyu ahi ($20.95).
My first thought when I opened things up was "what's up with the mac nuts?" The half nuts were just too big for this. The shoyu wasn't overly sweet, but was used quite sparingly. The quality of the fish, while not bad, wasn't to my liking. Too much "sugi" – rubbery connective tissue. The rice was cooked nicely….I forgot to ask about brown rice. I might have been traumatized after my visit to PB Poke House.
The portion size seemed on the smallish side, but still isn't bad compared to the "manini" 2 ounce portions I've seen at the chi-poke places.
To me second tier poke. And I'm sorry to say, second tier and raw fish is something I really don't want to eat.
Fish & Things Poke Bar
740 Hornblend St.
San Diego, CA 92109
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 1130am – 8pm
Sunday 1130am – 730pm
After this, I decided to give it a rest and kinda left things as is. Until recently, when the Missus requested an item from a nearby Patisserie (more on that revisit later). Which just happened to be on the block right next to….
Poke Chop:
Which is another mini chain with several locations and another coming soon in Mission Valley. According to the "surfer bro'" this was the best of the three. I'd been having some luck finding parking in PB and this day was no different as I got a nice spot on Gresham, which would my "escape from PB" via Grand quite easy.
I walked on over and was crossing the street at 11 when the place opens.
By the time I crossed the street and walked in, there were already folks in line ahead of me.
Looking at the menu, it was obvious this was one of those "chi-poke" places. Pick your fish, pick your stuffs, pick your sauce, etc…..
It was interesting listening to what the guys in front of me ordered, lots of salmon and spicy tuna, mayo based sauces, won ton chips……
As for me, well the marinated tuna wasn't ready, and the nice fellow working the front of house suggested I get the tuna, I took a medium bowl ($17.50), with both the Sweet Sesame and Ginger Shoyu on the side. Which is what I got, without all the other "chi-poke" stuffs, getting just ginger, and furikake, along with brown rice.
When I opened things up at home I had a pause.
Good lord, this looked totally like "saku", Carbon Monoxide treated fish. So much sugi, so dry looking, I was kinda not wanting to eat this. I tried a piece and it was mushy, yet chewy, with a metallic tinge. Yikes.
On the positive side, the brown rice was nutty and tender, but man, that sweet sesame was syrupy and super sweet, the shoyu tasted fine, but even that couldn't hide the quality, or lack thereof of the fish. The ginger-shoyu was fine but could not hide the very low quality of the fish. Egads, it reminded me of the first time I learned about "saku", fish treated with Carbon Monoxide for color and preservation all those years ago.
Well, if you want to go the "chi-poke" route with a large portion of saku fish…well, this is for you. As for me, even if it were right across the street, I would not eat there. But heck, if its your thing have at it.
Poke Chop
1404 Garnet Ave.
San Diego, CA 92109
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 9pm
As for me, well we're headed "home" in a few months, and in the interim I'm going to HFS if I just need to get some poke!
These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.
The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?
