Cuisine: Poké
I’ve honestly not had a lot of poké in my life. I can probably count the times on… Well, prior to going to Only Poké, one finger. And, no, it’s not that one. I’ve had a ton of sushi and sashimi in my life, however. And, frankly, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between this Hawaiian dish and the Japanese version of what amounts to cubes of raw fish. This, however, is the Americanized and Chipotle’d “bowl” version of whatever this dish originally was in its island beginnings. You know, start with a rice base, choose your protein, choose from a bunch of toppings and sauce it up. And there’s your poké bowl.
This spot has been any number of restaurants over the last several years. It’s well known for the giant rooster mural painted on the wall outside. It’s one of those Montclair markers that you’ll see some artist out there touching up once every couple of seasons. I’d say it was most famously a French joint called Epernay that was open from 2002 to 2012. Since then it was another French place, an Italian restaurant and, most recently, Mexican. Nothing stuck. It’s a rather large, but kind of janky, space. And all of these were sit-down, higher-end eateries. Well, Epernay was higher end, at least. The point is, the lease is probably not cheap and perhaps the only way to recoup — especially without a liquor license — is to have bigger ticket menu items.
So it’s interesting to see what amounts to a take-out raw fish bowl casual business take the space. And, sure, they don’t have to worry about the awkward feng shui trying to fit formal tables and servers in the cut-up space, but it’s still an oddball place with its useless balcony and wasted area for the tables that do exist for an audience that will rarely, if ever, get their fish bowl to stay. It also opened in a week where there were no less than three poké joints within several blocks of each other. Of course, in its second week open, there were only two, after the quick demise of Poke 360 on Bloomfield Ave. Take that as a win or portent.
I’m not sure why I’m concern trolling these poor people’s business plan. If they think they can turn a profit serving what they serve in this space, who am I to question? Instead, I will tell you how or if I enjoyed my experience. And, yes. Yes I did. The online ordering was easy. I did the tuna and salmon on some rice and loaded on a bunch of crunchy things, salty things and a little bit of sweet eel sauce. It’s all about balancing the textures. And even the warm and cold. The warmth of the white rice and the cool of some carrots and the raw fish. Hipster Jr. Jr. made the good suggestion to add avocado, which injects a creaminess that offsets the millions of toppings I threw in there — including the interesting (and free) “crab” mix-in. Which was a cool bonus.
I very much enjoyed my second poké experience — and my first in a handful of years. It’s actually quite a bit of food for around $17. Which sounds expensive, but really isn’t when you think about how much a couple sushi rolls would cost you in these incredibly inflationary times. Granted, I don’t think poké uses sashimi-grade fish, but what the hell do I know? It did help that the marketing is adorable, the space is bright, clean and welcoming and the team working there seems excited to feed you. I know it’s still a new business, so the energy is probably part nerves and part sustained high from kicking things off. Let’s see how things are going the next visit — because there will be one — and on and on until the next time their rooster needs a touch-up. And so on.
6 Park St. – Montclair
973/970-3637
onlypokebowl.com